Join the conversation on STEM education and help nurture the next generation of visionaries

Options
1246

Comments

  • khickman
    khickman ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    @Alison Clancy She is true hero! Did you ever see the documentary on her work? Her quiet approach to working with the animals and being able to watch them for hours was inspiring.

  • Alison Clancy
    Alison Clancy Employee Admin
    Options

    @khickman I've seen clips but not a full documentary! Do you know what it's called?

  • HBraxton
    HBraxton ✭✭
    edited 11/16/23
    Options

    How wonderful it is to see a community of people so positively impacted by the work of women in STEM. I'm inspired by the hard work and diligence of Ms. Christina Koch, a graduate from NC State who is a NASA astronaut. I specifically love this news article. https://news.ncsu.edu/2023/04/were-headed-for-the-moon/ She recently spoke at one of our Red Chair chats for Red and White night and it was great to hear her speak about her experiences as a women in STEM.

  • jacquedale
    jacquedale ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    It is so hard to choose just one...all women who step into the STEM world despite the difficulties imposed by "The Boys Club" are so incredibly inspirational. But if I had to choose one it would be Hedy Lamar. Her incredible work with frequency hopping/radio guidance system is remarkable and has inspired me for years.


    Jacque Smith

    Project Controls, MSR-FSR

  • Kathy Nordeen
    Options

    I've always been inspired by Oprah Winfrey. She has the ability to empower women in such powerful ways. She helps them find and magnify their uniqueness to be fully themselves and empower those around them. She leverages the unique talents of others to remove barriers for all women in STEM and other career paths.

  • mkoch
    mkoch ✭✭✭✭
    Options

    One of the greatest minds I've ever come across in my lifer was my friend and mentor Carol Hernandez. She is a visionary in the world of automation and controls engineering. I owe her a great deal for believing in me and jump starting a very fulfilling and challenging career. I learned so much from her, everything from simple boolean math to complex simulation models of bioreactors. Glad to see she is finally taking some time off and enjoying retirement.

  • Kayla Crosby
    Options

    I am inspired by one of the great female STEM leaders from the 21st century with an interesting story about two companies we know very well and are large competitors of one another. Marissa Mayer began her career as Google's first female software engineer, in the largely male dominated region of Silicon Valley, and she was the designer of Google's search interface. She has been given credit for the increased spike in amount of searches on the Google platform from the technologies inception in the late 1990's to 5 years later. She also helped develop and provide the community with Gmail, Google Chrome, Google Maps, and Google Earth, which we all probably use one of those product offerings at least once a day.

    After all of Mayer's work at Google, she left in 2012 to be the first female CEO of Yahoo! Inc. She helped restructure and reinvent the search engine of Yahoo!, leading the company to be more profitable and the largest competitor of Google at the time. Marissa Mayer stayed at Yahoo! until the company was sold to Version Communications in 2017. She then decided to create a consumer apps start up named Sunshine (formerly known as Lumi), which utilizes intelligent algorithms to helps consumers automate tasks and save time. Besides running Sunshine, she serves on a plethora of boards of organizations, including Walmart and the Forum of Young Global Leaders, and is an advocate for women in STEM. Mayer continues to promote that girls should be looking for opportunities to learn coding, to express their femininity, and to aim for excellence in technology and engineering.

    “Every day was a new problem and every day you got to think about how to solve something new, how to reason through something new, how to develop an algorithm to solve for something you hadn't worked on before.” - Marissa Mayer

  • Valerie.H
    Options

    Christina Morillo is a Dominican-American information security and technology professional. With a strong background in enterprise security, she has made significant contributions to the tech industry.

    Morillo is an information security and technology leader, and published author, focused on helping organizations improve their cloud and identity security posture. Morillo co-founded Women of Color in Tech Chat, a platform that supports women of color in technology and digital spaces. Christina Morillo has spoken about the challenges and triumphs of being a single mother while navigating and growing in the tech industry. Her journey is a testament to her resilience and determination to succeed in a field that is often challenging for women, especially women of color and mothers. This resonates because I used to take my now oldest daughter as an infant to class- I literally had her during the school semester at Prairie View A&M and came back with baby in tow. Morillo is known for her advocacy for diversity and inclusion in technology. She's a strong voice for providing more opportunities for women, particularly women of color, in the tech industry. Her work in creating platforms and communities for support and empowerment has been crucial in changing the narrative for underrepresented groups in tech. Christina Morillo's story is particularly inspiring due to her dual role as a technology professional and a single mother. Her success and her advocacy work make her a powerful example of leadership and resilience, showing that with dedication and support, barriers in the tech industry can be overcome.

  • Martha Hemingway
    Martha Hemingway ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    I am going to second @Ray Lindstrom on his post about Katherine G. Johnson. Unfortunately, I did not stumble across this hero until watching "Hidden Figures" and that was only because of my fangirl of "Cookie Lyon". After watching that and digging into who Creola Katherine Johnson gave me a stronger appreciation for her efforts.

  • Cassi
    Cassi ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    I think this is amazing. The world has been a hard place for women and it is important to encourage the STEM programs at a young age.

  • Erika Flores
    Options

    This is such an incredible community! I was extremely blessed to join the Women in Action ERG from Dell at the annual Girlstart luncheon in Austin, TX. I was so impressed with all the volunteers, board and wonderful participants. As a girl mom and someone who was always encouraged not to worry about school because I just "needed to find a good husband so I could stay home with the kids," I love what this organization stands for and the work they are doing to bring fun and exciting STEM programs to girls all over the world!

  • Pauline J
    Pauline J ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    My inspiration for STEM has been ignited by several of the women already highlighted here -- Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper was a great influence on me as my grandmother told me about her when I was young. But the most influential was my own grandmother -- a registered nurse who attended Columbia University and served in France. She was very proud of being unique in her time, and I always looked up to her independent spirit!!

  • juliesilverio
    juliesilverio ✭✭✭✭
    Options

    The women I have the honor to work with at my current biotechnology company are my inspiration. They are intelligent, agile, strong leaders with a powerful presence both in the office and in their communities.

    Julie Silverio, PMP

    Senior Manager, Program Leadership

    Xencor Inc.

    https://xencor.com/

  • Charlene Stacy
    Charlene Stacy ✭✭✭✭✭
    Options

    Andrea Ford, recently hit her 30th birthday and is the reigning Ms. Black Indiana USA 2024. Her platform is serving and bridging the economic gap in the community by supporting minority children in STEAM programs. Her purpose is to advocate, lead, and educate young scholars in areas of focus where they are underrepresented, allowing them to excel. She recently completed her MBA program with a marketing concentration and is now pursuing a Cyber Security and Supply Chain Management certificate. She is excited to be in this field as only 2% of people in this field are black women, a true leader for women. Check her out at: https://linktr.ee/Officialmsblackindiana2024

    STEAM: The "A" (Arts) can serve as a ramp to STEM for underrepresented students. See blog post, blog.definedlearning.com Stem and Steam.

  • Tera K
    Tera K ✭✭✭
    Options

    I have to say I am so inspired by Dr.Francine Patterson and her work with Koko and animal psychology. Having a close relationship with ASL find it so amazing that she could take an infant gorilla and raise it to understand and communicate through ASL with over 1000 words. Taking the time to fully understand and look at what can be explored in this field and to show the extraordinary aptitude Koko had for the language. One of the first attempts at teaching animals human languages and being successful. This then allowed Patterson to go on to be able to learn about gorillas and their emotions and then shifting her work from purely research to then applied research to help both captive and wild gorillas.

    Being in a home where ASL is used daily it amazes me how just any language is beautiful in its own way. But when you are impaired how this language becomes who you are and thus makes the language even more beautiful. My daughter at a year was already communicating with my husband and I on a basic level but helped us better understand her needs. Cant speak enough about this work and ASL!

Discover Girlstart

Unlock the badge & Support Girlstart

Support Girlstart and help nurture the next generation of visionaries