A new year, FINALLY!

Much of December was spent planning 2021 events, as well as contributing to the SEAS and GW discussions on understanding and strengthening our inclusive community. Dr. Jordan West, the Inaugural Director of University Diversity & Inclusion Programs, conducted an all-SEAS faculty workshop on understanding inclusion and offered a start to the SEAS journey. WiE has joined in the discussion, and has posted a WiE Inclusivity Resources Collection, which includes Dr. West’s bibliography, as well as three WiE white papers focusing on inclusion within an engineering community. In addition, watch for news of an upcoming WiE student-led panel on inclusion in the SEAS undergraduate program.

On January 11, WiE is hosting a virtual networking event to enable WiE Mentors to meet and share lessons learned, as we continue facilitating mentee-mentor pairs through the WiE Mentoring Program. If you are a SEAS student in need of a mentor, please apply. 

On January 29, CVP and GW are hosting the next in the speaker series Women in Engineering: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in STEM, which features SEAS/EMSE faculty – Professor Ekundayo Shittu. Don't miss the webinar!

For February, WiE is looking forward to hosting a virtual talk with SEAS Computer Science Professor Poorvi Vora, one of the country’s leading experts on election audits. Dr. Vora will discuss the very timely topic of election security and audits, including a presentation on how her audit software works.

Since February is Engineers' Month, and we will not be face-to-face to hold the annual WiE Edible Car Contest, watch for the WiE Engineers Degrees-of-Separation Zoom Challenge. We can't say more than that right now, as we don’t want anyone to practice – trust us, it will be fun!

 Finally, WiE and CSPRI have been laying the groundwork for the upcoming Closing the Gap Women Veterans in Cybersecurity Careers Conference being planned for May 25, 2021. An extensive collection of reports, articles and organizational resources is being compiled - we invite you to learn more and add to the conversation, as we expand on this topic through white papers and discussions leading up to the Conference.

We hear that vaccinations are just around the corner - in the meantime, remember to stay physically distant and socially connected, and wash your hands. 

Shelly Heller
WiE Center Director