Linda Branstetter has a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Purdue in Civil Engineering.  While at Purdue, she was a member of the Purdue University Mortar Board, Tau Beta Pi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Chi Epsilon.  She is currently a systems analyst specializing in national security issues and a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Her current focus is on cross-cutting technical and policy aspects impacting the decision space around the future U.S. nuclear deterrent and its supporting enterprise.  As one example of her recent work, she delivered a talk entitled Nuclear Weapons, Ethics, and National Imperatives at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February 2007.

Dr. Branstetter began her Sandia career in 1980 performing computational engineering mechanics analyses in support of various Sandia programs. In 2000 she was promoted to Distinguished status and to Management in 2001.  For five months starting in the fall of 2005, she went on assignment in Washington, DC supporting the Director of Policy Planning for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Linda graduated from Crawfordsville high school. She went on to play collegiate golf at Purdue University. (She was1 of ONLY two Women’s Western Golf Foundation Scholars.) While at Purdue she was The University Women’s Golf Team Captain as well as being voted "the most valuable player" in 1979.

She is a past member of the United States Golf Association Women’s Amateur Public Links Committee. She was also Semi-finalist, USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship (1983), Chair, and founder of  the New Mexico Section, USGA Women’s Amateur Public Links Committee (1982-3), three-time Albuquerque City Women’s Golf Champion (1985-6, 1991), A member of the Purdue University Athletics Advisory Council (2004 – 2008) and is presently a Director of the Women’s Western Golf Association
     
Linda has a recently renovated home on horse property in Corrales, New Mexico where she enjoys numerous outdoor activities.