For the last 139 years, Newport News Shipbuilding has stood as a staple of Hampton Roads – not only as an employer, but also as a community partner. By teaming with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Serve the City, shipbuilders have many opportunities to volunteer their time and talents for the betterment of the local community.
Dannon (X50) and Mijisha Butts (O55) consider serving the community a core tenet of their identity as shipbuilders. They credit their relationships with each other, their mentors and their colleagues over the years for shaping that identity.
Dannon – a Kilmichael, Mississippi, native – began work straight out of college in 2001 as an industrial engineer at Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, which led to a career in process improvement. “I’m a car nut,” he said. “I thought I’d be there for three years or so before moving on to Honda or Nissan, but I fell in love with it. Twenty-four years later, I’m still building ships.”
Mijisha is from Moss Point, Mississippi, and was raised by a family of educators; however, she majored in accounting and hired in as a buyer for Ingalls in 2002. Mijisha seized many development opportunities while at Ingalls, eventually working her way up to management.
“Dannon was an engineer and called me about a part he needed,” she said. “We later officially met at church in 2004. As soon as we met, I knew immediately that things would work out really well.”
Her hunch confirmed, they married in 2006. Not long after their wedding, Dannon found some notes he took from his initial phone call to Mijisha. “I didn’t realize that was her back then, and I butchered spelling her name in those notes.”
While living in Mississippi, both were very active in their community. “Honestly,” Dannon said, “we are just a bunch of home bodies, but we love helping people.” They cited their home church and the Boys and Girls Club as places where they spent most of their volunteer time, as well as holding leadership positions across Ingalls’ employee resource groups (ERGs).
In the spring of 2018, the couple relocated to Newport News Shipbuilding and, in the summer of 2019, adopted their child.
Dannon is currently an engineering manager, and Mijisha now works as a supply chain specialist. She has authored major facility contracts for the shipyard, including the Modular Outfitting Facility (MOF) extension, and particularly enjoys the other shipbuilders she gets to collaborate with. “We have stringent requirements, but working with others and understanding what their needs are and the urgency behind it, and them understanding ours, coming together to produce a product – I always try to support the deck plate first through all of that.”
“It’s a hidden but powerful role,” Dannon added. “She impacts shipbuilders every day.”
Not only did they bring their talents from the Gulf Coast to the East Coast, but they still carry the same passion of serving their community. Most recently, the couple participated in an Earth Day cleanup with Serve the City.
Mijisha said, “During our work, shipbuilders sometimes drop trash not realizing the impact it has on the community. We see our part as coming in and helping to remove some of the burden. The neighbors watch and thank us while we do it.”
“We slowed down a bit at first because of the adoption,” Dannon explained. “But now that he’s 6 years old, we’ve been building our momentum in where we fit in. We brought him out with us for Serve the City because it’s important that we model two things for him. First, he sees a family working together. Second, he sees a family giving to others.”
