Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award

2024 - Rachel S. Hutter, PE, CSP

Honored with this year’s Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award is Rachel S. Hutter. The award is the college’s top alumni honor and recognizes professional accomplishment, volunteer participation, and distinguished service to the college and engineering profession.

Hutter is Head of Studio Operations for Walt Disney Studios and is a licensed professional engineer and certified safety professional. She joined Disney in 1997 and was part of the team that built and opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom. She led technical organizations within the parks division for 25 years leaving as the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Safety, Health, Engineering and Sourcing. During that time, Hutter was charged with providing visionary leadership to ensure the health and safety of 157 million guests and 145,000 cast members including leading Safety and Health aspects of Covid response for the Walt Disney Company.

Now as Head of Disney Studios Operations, Hutter’s responsibilities include supporting Marvel, Lucasfilm, Disney Live-Action, Disney Animation, Pixar, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures with planning, dubbing, subtitling, mastering, distributing and archiving movies and streaming episodic shows. She is also responsible for safety and sustainability of productions.

Hutter previously held an Attractions Engineering Services and Quality Assurance role at Disney and was also part of a team responsible for ensuring the safety, operability and maintainability of new Disney resorts around the world. Hutter designed and patented a Disney ride safety system that is used worldwide.

Hutter graduated from Michigan State University in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and had a concentration in theater. She held roles early in her career with the U.S. Veterans Administration, General Motors, General Mills and Rockwell Automation. Hutter resides in California. She is an active member of Society of Women Engineers delivering the National Conference keynote address in 2019. Hutter is also a member of the Association of Women in Science earning their Leadership Award in 2020.

None of this would be possible without her husband of 31 years, Lawrence and their children, Danielle and Lawson.

As part of the Erickson Award honor, Hutter will present the keynote address to Spartan Engineers during the 2024 Undergraduate Spring Commencement to be held 3:30 pm Sunday, April 28 at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center.

About the award

Dean Lawrence Wayne Von Tersch established the Claud R. Erickson Distinguished Alumni Award in 1982. Claud Erickson, for whom the award was named, was the first recipient. Since then, it has been given annually to a College of Engineering graduate with a minimum of 15 years’ professional experience who has attained the highest level of professional accomplishment; provided distinguished and meritorious service to the College of Engineering and the engineering profession; and engaged in voluntary service at the local, state, national, and/or international level.

Nomination Form (.doc)

Past recipients