Just Announced! Women in STEM Summit Speakers

At the Women in STEM Summit, taking place October 22 at Bentley University, you will have the opportunity to make one-to-one connections with potential employees, feed the pipelines for your mentoring and internship programs, maximize ROI of STEM investments, increase STEM retention rates, as well as promote your internal initiatives in support of women in the workplace.

Women in STEM Summit

October 22, 2015

Boston, MA

We are excited to introduce the major players, influencers and inspirers in the Northeast that have joined our speaking faculty to engage in discussion, debate the issues and help you make a difference.

Hear from and collaborate with the 2015 Women in STEM Summit speakers:

• Amy Van Kirk, Director, University Relations, Talent Acquisition, PAREXEL International
• Anne-Marie Dorning, Founding Director, Olin College of Engineering
• Betsy Myers, Director, Human Resources, Center for Women and Business, Bentley University
• Cecily Kovatch, Sr. Director Ash Reuse Applications & Innovation, Covanta
• Claire Duggan, Director for Programs and Operations, The Center for STEM Education, Northeastern University
• Courtney Tanenbaum, Senior Researcher, American Institutes for Research
• Tiana Veldwisch, Technical Marketing Manager, Daktari Diagnostics
• Denise A. Sabolcik, Vice President, Application Development, FedEx Services

• Janice Mazzallo, Executive Vice President and CHRO, PeoplesBank
• John Brooks, President and CEO, Joslin Diabetes Center
• Julie Silard Kantor, Chief Partnership Officer, STEMconnector MillionWomenMentors
• Lisa Freed, P.E., LEED AP, STEM Program Manager, iRobot
• Sally Phelps, Olin Career Center Director, Olin College of Engineering
• Susan Vroman, Organizational Effectiveness Advisor, SmartPak
• Yvonne M. Spicer, Ed.D, DTE, Vice President of Advocacy & Educational Partnerships, National Center for Technological Literacy®, Museum of Science, Boston

Click here to view the complete agenda: http://bit.ly/1VdZ0nv

Register today to secure your seat! Each registration sponsors the attendance of students.  Invest in the future women of the industry, while increasing your organizations long-term competitive advantage.

You get $100 off the current rate when you use code WISBL. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1VdZ0nv

Cheers,

The Women in STEM Summit Team

@WISSummit

#WISExchange15

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My Story/My Advice: Julia Curran

This My Story/My Advice post features Julia Curran, a woman in STEM who works at Takeda Oncology. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, which highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.

Julia’s Story:

I found early on that I was passionate about the life sciences. I asked my parents for a lab coat and a microscope for my 9th birthday. In my 5th grade yearbook I wrote that as my future career, I wanted to find the cure to cancer and it turns out that I now work at a company that aspires to cure cancer. I have always been passionate about the life sciences and having seen people in my life affected by cancer as so many do, I was motivated to help oncology patients which is what drove me to work in an oncology research lab in college and now work at Takeda Oncology.

Julia’s Advice:

I recently read a National Geographic article on why it’s crucial to get more women into science and one thing that struck me about the article was how the author stated how his daughter of 13 years is interested in math and science and he says “it hasn’t occurred to her yet that its unusual but I know in the next couple of years it will.” He goes on to say “I know as time goes on, she’ll feel increasingly lonely as a girl who is interested in math and science-and be at risk of narrowing her choices before finding out how far she could have gone.”

This resonated with me because I found early on that I was passionate about the life sciences and as a young girl, I never felt lonely or unusual being involved in the science. I have been fortunate to have strong role models throughout my education as well as parents who have tremendously supported my career path. My advice is to find a mentor and to surround yourself with people that will support you and encourage you to pursue your interests! I found my first STEM role model in my middle school science teacher who not only encouraged me but also challenged me and supported me to pursue more advanced scientific work.

Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1hZFME2

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My Story/My Advice: Frida Polli

This My Story/My Advice post features Frida Polli, PhD, who owns a neuroscience-based technology company. The My Story/My Advice project, brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit, highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.

Frida’s Story:

My path to entrepreneurship was long and circuitous. I have both a PhD and an MBA, both of which have been extremely valuable as I have worked to build my own neuroscience-based tech company. I find science really fascinating, which drove my initial decision to go into the world of academia. I spent six years at Harvard and MIT, doing my neuroscience PhD and post-doc work, but longed to find a practical application to the research I was doing.

I left the world of academia to pursue my MBA, and it was during that experience that I saw the career assessment and recruiting process firsthand for the first time. I was struck by the fact that very little objective information was being used to make incredibly important career decisions, and that’s where the idea for pymetrics came about: why not use what we know about neuroscience to make finding your ideal career easier? We use a series of fun neuroscience games to recommend compatible careers, and hiring companies come to the site to recruit candidates that are a good match for them. It’s like LinkedIn meets OkCupid!

Both my MBA and PhD have been essential to pymetrics, in large part because of the nature of the company. An MBA helped me build a strong foundation in business, and has served me well through the mentorship and network that I received. However, we are a business built on life sciences technology, and this would be hard to do without the decade that my co-founder and I both put into learning the technology through a PhD and then a postdoc. Through pymetrics, I’m able to bring neuroscience into the world of business, and use it to help folks find fulfillment and success in their careers - what could be better?

Frida’s Advice:

Be open to life’s opportunities - you never know how things might come together in the end. Each experience brings its own lessons. And come check out pymetrics!

Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1JqWjwG

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers get inspired attending the Women in STEM Summit

Getting young people interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers is said to be a high priority for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, specifically encouraging and stimulating qualified women into doing engineering and science.

Last year the 15 team members of New England District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (six male supervisors and nine female employees from Engineering/ Planning) found themselves among attendees at the Women in STEM conference.

Scott Acone, Chief of Engineering/Planning shared, “For Engineering and Planning, I wanted to know how we can create an environment that is more welcoming and open for both attracting and retaining qualified women doing engineering and science activities.”

The feedback on this question came not only from the presenters, but also from the District team themselves. Mark Anderson, New England District’s STEM coordinator said, “People felt comfortable enough to have a conversation. We sat and had about a 20-minute group recap. There were some really honest opinions that were going around the table at the end.” For some men in the audience it was an eye-opening experience to learn about the challenges for women in the STEM fields.

One of the team members stated that the highlight of the conference last year was ‘Broadening the Breadth of STEM Workforce Through Racial and Ethnic Diversity,' presented by Dr. Uma Gupta, Founder and Executive Director, STEM-Smart.org. Dr. Gupta talked about biology of the nervous system behind stereotypes and how we can recognize our unconscious prejudices, both racial and gender to use that to change our behavior.

The Women in STEM 2014 drove awareness and created more opportunities for mentorship and career development for those who attended the event.

Here are some of the titles that will be covered during the Women in STEM Summit 2015:

• Strategies for Effectively Hiring and Retaining STEM Talent
• Smart STEM Investing: What to Measure and Why Diversity Matters to the Bottom Line
• The Tone at the Top Matters: Creating a Culture to Advance Employee and Organizational Goals
• Case Study: Integrating Recent College Graduates into Your Workforce and more.


Read the Women in STEM Summit agenda here.
RVSP your seat now here.

How One Hashtag #ilooklikeanengineer Changed the World

Isis Wenger, a 22-year-old platform engineer in San Francisco, was involved in a recruiting campaign for her company OneLogin. As a part of the campaign, she posted a photo of herself using the hashtag #ilooklikeanengineer and the response shocked her. Soon, her post was everywhere.  

“If you knew me you would probably know that being famous is one of my biggest nightmares; seriously right up there with falling into a porta potty,” she told The Washington Post in a recent interview.  

Her photo and hashtag included a challenge:

“Do you feel passionately about helping spread awareness about tech gender diversity? Do you not fit the ‘cookie-cutter mold’ of what people believe engineers ‘should look like? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I invite you to help spread the word and help us redefine ‘what an engineer should look like’ #iLookLikeAnEngineer.”

Soon, her message went viral across the Web.

Image via MarketWatch

“I think the message went viral because it’s not just my message,” Wenger told The Post. That’s why she made sure the hashtag was so all-encompassing. “It addresses a problem that many people of different genders and ethnic backgrounds face.”

Especially when she was first starting out in the industry when people were very condescending. But growing up, she had already taught herself to build websites by the time she was eight, by right-clicking ‘view source’ on Neopets and reverse-engineering bits of code to figure out what each individual tag did.

By early Tuesday afternoon, the hashtag #Ilooklikeanengineer had sparked 36,000 tweets, and other innovations, like one page — showing women in caps and gowns, Lilly Pulitzer and pink hair — a storytelling app about diversity in tech, and a T-shirt someone designed featuring the hashtag with half the proceeds going to a charity Wenger selects.

“Honestly, I consider it all to be very heartwarming and inspiring,” Wenger said.

She was surprised that so many people posted photos but said it was fun scrolling through seeing the incredible diversity of images and felt that, once the idea picked up momentum, everyone wanted to be part of that community.

She said, “It’s simultaneously overwhelming and incredibly empowering to feel like I am genuinely helping increase awareness.”

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My Story/My Advice: Lenore Kubie, Ph.D.

This My Story/My Advice post features Lenore Kubie, Ph.D. and Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of Wyoming. The My Story/My Advice project brought to you by The Women in STEM Summit highlights women in STEM that are persisting in STEM fields and making a difference. It also gives their personal advice to the next generation of young women looking for encouragement to persist in STEM.

Lenore’s Story:

My name is Lenore Kubie. I graduated with my PhD from the University of Rochester in August 2014. I study photoinduced charge transfer, and hope to continue my work studying ways to use solar energy to meet our growing energy demands. Specifically, over the last seven years I have studied the incorporation of nanomaterials into photovoltaic devices as a means of decreasing cost and increasing efficiency.

In the future, I hope to also continue doing outreach to help the people of the world understand and utilize solar energy. While working on my doctorate, I spent two summers in Ghana, Africa teaching school children and villages about solar energy, and new ways we can use light to power our world. Since defending, I have been trying to find a job in my field, and in the meantime I have been surviving on my savings and credit cards. I was not "above" getting an interim job at a supermarket or as a lab technician, but I was told I was "overqualified" for most of the jobs I applied for while I wasn't quite the right fit for many other jobs I applied for in my field. I have finally found a postdoc, which is a fantastic fit for me!

Unfortunately, I need to move out to Laramie, WY from Rochester, NY and I have no money to do it. This position does not offer any relocation money, and so I have created a GoFundMe to help with my moving van, a hotel stay for a night (or two) during the 24-hour car ride out there, and a down payment on an apartment. The campaign can be found here. 

Lenore’s Advice:

My advice to the next generation is to give as much as you can to the world! Get out there and get your hands dirty! I have been so humbled by people reaching out and contributing to my GoFundMe, and it has become awe-inspiring; it makes me want to give back even more.

Check out more inspiring stories and useful advice from women in STEM here: http://bit.ly/1MT3Tjp

Register for the upcoming Women in STEM Summit taking place October 22, 2015 in Boston, MA. The event brings together companies struggling to fill their STEM job pipelines with female college students pursuing STEM degrees. The summit is designed to facilitate closing the gap between corporate needs for a STEM-enabled workforce and student questions about job prospects that align their passion with the needs of corporate America. For more information or to register, click here: http://bit.ly/1IKOIm1

The Women in STEM Summit Brochure is Ready for You!

IIR’s Women in Stem Summit brings together students from leading colleges pursuing STEM coursework, professionals in STEM fields and representatives from top companies looking to increase their STEM firepower. Join us for a day of learning, networking, and collaboration around talent acquisition and career development for women in STEM.

The Women in STEM Summit

October 22, 2015

Bentley University

Waltham, MA

Download the brochure to view the full agenda and speaking line-up: http://bit.ly/1SWO8rb

Human Resource Executives:

Recruit women in stem and drive diversity in your firm

Women in STEM Careers:

Be an inspiration! Mentor and support young women into stem careers.

Academic Institutions:

Connect your female stem students to mentors, internships and jobs.

Register today: http://bit.ly/1eOk9Ep

P.S. Do you have a motivational story to tell? Share your professional journey (what interested you in STEM work, what kept you engaged) and personal advice to the next generation of women in STEM through our My Story/My Advice project: http://bit.ly/1E4MyfY

Best,

The Women in STEM Summit Team 2015

Tweet at us: @WISExchange

Subscribe to our blog: http://steamacceleratorblog.iirusa.com/

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