Charlotte Neshon Merritt is an eminent Senior Project Engineer within the Naval Architecture & Engineering Division of Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Hailing from Enterprise, Alabama, she contributes more than two decades of progressively responsible experience in programme governance and advanced manufacturing to the Gulf Coast’s premier shipbuilder, where she orchestrates multimillion‑dollar undertakings from ideation through final delivery with meticulous precision and strategic perspicacity. In her current remit she synchronises six department managers and an expansive constellation of subcontractors, adroitly apportioning farm‑out tasks, codifying technical milestones, and enforcing exacting fiscal controls to ensure every contractual obligation remains punctually executed and fiscally inviolate. Her weekly performance symposia—interrogating budgetary trajectories, workforce prognostications, and deviation analyses—transmute raw metrics into actionable intelligence that safeguards margin integrity and catalyses continuous optimisation. Most recently, she shepherded a $3.1 million distortion‑control initiative to immaculate completion, burnishing HII’s renown for delivering combat‑ready vessels and eliciting laudatory commendations from executive leadership.

 

Merritt’s manifold contributions to the STEM ecosystem have garnered national acclaim. In 2012 she was exalted as a Modern‑Day Technology Leader at the Black Engineer of the Year Awards STEM Global Competitiveness Conference, and in 2015 she secured the Technology Rising Star laurel at the Women of Color STEM Conference. The Women in Shipbuilding Enterprise (WISE) employee resource group commemorated her two decades of exemplary service in 2022, while the Boys & Girls Clubs of Jackson County extolled her altruistic commitment to the Moss Point Outreach programme. Her dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion is further evidenced by her tenure as president of both the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Shipbuilder chapter and WISE, as well as her present stewardship on the Employee Resource Group Board of Directors for SWE and the African American Shipbuilding Association.

 

A proud alumna of Florida A&M University, Merritt earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and remains an indefatigable champion of her alma mater. She is a lifetime member of the FAMU National Alumni Association, the founding president of the Gulf Coast–Mobile Alumni Chapter, and a fifteen‑year luminary within the FAMU Industry Cluster, through which she has fortified a robust talent conduit between FAMU and Ingalls Shipbuilding. Her ardour for Rattler athletics is manifest in her enduring status as a season‑ticket holder for both football and basketball.

 

Now domiciled in Mobile, Alabama, Merritt devotes her discretionary time to community uplift, STEM mentorship, and inspirational speaking engagements that kindle intellectual curiosity in the next generation of innovators. Whether navigating the intricacies of contemporary shipbuilding or galvanising young minds, Charlotte Neshon Merritt epitomises visionary leadership, technical virtuosity, and an unwavering fealty to service.