Heather Mixon | University of West Florida

Heather Mixon is a project engineer on the Racquet Sports Research and Development team at Wilson Sporting Goods, where she is pursuing her lifelong dream of designing tennis rackets. Mixon played on the UWF tennis team for all four of her undergraduate years. She received an MBA with a concentration in process improvement from Nova Southeastern University, where she also coached the women’s tennis team. She started her career at Wilson on the marketing team and transitioned to engineering in January 2024.

Tell us a bit about your role as a project engineer at Wilson.

In my role on the R&D team, I work to help innovate and improve our current line of tennis rackets and padel rackets so they are the best possible products for our consumers. I work alongside our product team to understand what consumers are looking for to improve the current line of products, my fellow engineers to ideate on how to implement those desires into the playability of the racquets, and actual tennis and padel players to get their feedback on prototype samples. We are trying to make the best possible products for our consumers and we are constantly testing and coming up with different techniques and materials that can make this happen.

How did UWF help set you up for success?

The professors at UWF really inspired me to push myself to learn as much as possible during my four years in the program. All of the hands-on projects, specifically the capstone and engineering design projects, really helped me understand the material and apply what I was learning. I feel like I retained so much of the information I learned because I was using it in practical situations. The professors were so willing to help us learn the material and excited when we would go and ask questions. They always encouraged us to go to their office hours to ask questions, and they were very accommodating about providing additional explanations of the material if necessary.

What advice would you give to students who hope to pursue their dream job?

Even if you don’t start out in your dream role, do your absolute best in the role you are in. You never know where you will end up in a few years’ time. Think with the end in mind and make the most out of the tasks you are assigned to do right now. I knew I loved tennis and was hoping to tie in my education with my job, and I thought Wilson Sporting Goods was the perfect company for me to work with. I applied for several positions on the engineering team at Wilson, and I was not accepted for any of them. Thankfully, the senior marketing manager hired me to be on her team, and I was able to learn a completely different side of the business. I pushed myself to learn as much as possible and I did my best to provide top-quality work on every project. When another engineering role opened up, I felt much more confident about my experiences, projects and work ethic. I didn’t start off necessarily where I wanted to be, but with patience, dedication and the right mindset, I am now working in my dream position.