Above: UNC Asheville alumna Maegan Spencer visited UNC Asheville as part of the Career Center's Executive in Residence program.
Growing up as a Navy kid, Maegan Spencer moved often. It was her time living in Rota, Spain, visiting archaeological sites with her father, when she realized her passion for exploring.
A dedicated life-long learner, Spencer is now working as a product design engineer at Apple, where she’s leading a mechanical engineering team focused on health-related hardware.
Spencer graduated from the University of North Carolina Asheville in 2003 with a major in chemistry and minor in math. She says she wasn’t a very academic student in high school, but encouragement from professors at UNC Asheville changed her focus. “It’s surprising to me now how much the professors noticed me, because I really lacked confidence,” Spencer recalls.
She took her time picking a major, originally considering music. “Ultimately,” Spencer says, “what I wanted to do was be an explorer. I set my sights on either deep-sea or space exploration.”
She hit the ground running by taking advanced chemistry courses with Carson Distinguished Professor of Chemistry Bert Holmes and engaging in the Undergraduate Research Program. “It really kick-started my career,” she says of the program.
She was also bolstered by friends in the creative arts. “[That] set me up well to have a ton of respect for people in the creative and artistic spaces and to do the work that I do now,” she says.
When Spencer graduated, she found she was a competitive candidate for the top schools in the country.
“It took the professors and the chemistry department to kind of open my eyes and push me,” she says. “They always really encouraged me. UNC Asheville is a phenomenal school where the professors really believe in the students, and if you’re an engaged student, you can make the world of that.”
She decided to attend Stanford University, and was well-prepared for her chemistry Ph.D. studies thanks to UNC Asheville’s Undergraduate Research Program.
Spencer wanted to build and make things. While she was a self-taught mechanical engineer, employers didn’t see her chemistry degree as fitting for mechanical engineering jobs. She first landed at a Silicon Valley medical device startup, Avinger, where she grew into the product design space. She then joined Apple in 2014 to work on a team that helped launch the Apple Watch.
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