Barbara Mooney Hometown: Fresno, California High School: St. Stephens/Nouvel Catholic Central (Saginaw, MI) Position: Director ('05-'08 term) Monogram Earned: Softball

Former Notre Dame softball pitcher Barbara Mooney ('89) - who has spent the past 13 years as an accomplished engineer, manager and supervisor for Kraft Foods Global - has joined the Monogram Club board and will serve her three-year term from 2005-08.

Mooney currently serves as the plant manager for the Kraft Foods operation in Fresno, Calif., after spending the previous 12 years working for the company's Chicago-based operation in a number of roles.

After graduating from Notre Dame in 1989 with her degree in mechanical engineering, Mooney went to work for the Frito-Lay manufacturing plant in Charlotte, N.C., serving as a project engineer and product unit supervisor from 1989-92. Her first few years with Kraft ('92-'95) included serving as a maintenance/building operations manager for the plants in Glenview, Ill., during which time she helped complete the process that decertified the union.

Barb Mooney (lower left) was a top softball pitcher throughout her four years on the Notre Dame campus.

Mooney - who received her MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg Institute in 1996 - served as a Kraft senior buyer in procurement in '95-'96 and was a distribution implementation manager from '96-'99, during which time she helped open four new warehouses and was involved in the largest restructuring of a supply chain in food industry history.

She later was an associate director of strategy with Kraft from 1999-2002 and then was a business unit manager with Kraft's Chicago Bakery from '02-'04, helping to integrate the Kraft and Nabisco supply chain in Mexico in 2002 and also leading the integration of Kraft Puerto Rico/Mexico into the Kraft America supply chain.

Mooney's current role in Fresno includes overseeing the only plant in the world that makes the popular snack food corn nuts. She serves as a co-leader of the Kraft Foods Women in Operations organization and also is a member of the Betta Gamma Sigma honor society for academic individuals in the business world.

Mooney was involved with tutoring and mentoring programs during her time in Charlotte and Chicago (Cabrini Green), earning the Charlotte "Big Sister of the Year" award in 1991. She has remained active in a number of sports during her postgraduate days, including softball, beach volleyball and golf.

Barb Mooney was a top softball pitcher throughout her four years on the Notre Dame campus.

Like fellow incoming board member, Dr. Carol Lally Shields, Mooney was a leading member of a club sport at Notre Dame before serving as a team captain when the sport converted to varsity status. After serving as a starter for three years on the club team, Mooney won seven games and posted a 2.40 ERA with 39 strikeouts while tossing 126 innings for the first varsity team in 1989. She also played inter-hall tennis and volleyball at Notre Dame, was involved in the Big Brother and Big Sister program for two years and was a regular volunteere at a local homeless shelter.

Mooney was an accomplished prep athlete in several sports, first at St. Stephens (now called Nouvel Catholic Central) in Saginaw, Mich., before moving with her family to Decatur, Ala., for her final year of high school. She earned all-country softball honors at Decatur High School, after posting a 1.30 season ERA and batting .354. Mooney also was a four-time letterwinner in volleyball and twice lettered in basketball during her high school career.

Her father Albert Mooney graduated from Notre Dame in 1958 while her uncle Robert Mooney, Jr. ('52), and two cousins - John Mooney ('86) and Patrick Mooney ('77) - also are Notre Dame graduates (as is her cousin Al's son Matt Mooney, a 2005 graduate).