She Is Chief Engineer Of All-Electric Ford F-150, Leading A Revolution

The chief engineer behind the revolutionary all-electric Ford F-150 arrived in America as a third grader knowing only letters A through H, which she learned during her plane ride from China. She spoke no English.

“I remember flying for the first time and also riding in a car for the first time, all on that trip,” Linda Zhang, 44, of Canton, Mich., said.

“Sitting in the back seat of that car that took me from Chicago O’Hare to West Lafayette (Indiana) — where my father taught as a (graduate) student at Purdue University … it was the coolest ride of my life. That car wasn’t ours. It was borrowed to pick us up,” she said. “It was not a luxury car. But I thought, ‘Wow, this is like a carriage.’ That was probably the first time I fell in love with the automobile and the American dream.” FOR MORE