Why Should I Care Who?s An Engineer? The Need for Women in Engineering (presentation on Friday))

You are invited to attend the 45 min presentation at no
charge. It is at TU, ACAC, 9 AM this Friday.

Why Should I Care Who?s An Engineer? The Need for Women in Engineering
Tulsa Engineering Summit, Friday, March 2nd, 9:00 ? 9:45 AM,
University of Tulsa, Allen Chapman Activity Center

In recent years, the technical community has looked at ways to
increase the number of individuals in engineering. In evaluating the
data of what makes up the population of current engineers, it helps
us look at where future engineers may be - the under-represented
areas today ? women, minorities, etc. In the spirit of educating
technical communities about the importance of this issue, Cathy
Pieronek will present statistics about the under-representation of
women and minorities in engineering, provide information about why we
need more in engineering, and discuss the changes needed to bring
more women and minorities into the field.

About the Speaker:
Cathy Pieronek is Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of
the Women's Engineering Program at the University of Notre Dame
College of Engineering. She earned her B.S. in aerospace engineering
and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame and her M.S. in
aerospace engineering from UCLA. She has worked as a systems engineer
on NASA projects for TRW Space & Defense Sector in Redondo Beach, CA,
and as Director of External Relations for the Notre Dame Law School.
In her current role, Cathy is responsible for the academic progress
of all of the college's undergraduates, with a special emphasis on
women. She has worked within the college and across the university to
address issues that affect the retention of women. Her efforts have
led to a variety of programmatic changes that improved the retention
of women from first year to sophomore year, bringing women's
retention on par with men's and raising the retention rates of all
students.

Cathy's research interests focus on engineering education, and
particularly on issues that affect the persistence of women in
engineering, and on Title IX and the relationship of the
gender-equity law to both academic and athletic opportunities for
women. She has published and presented peer-reviewed papers on
various aspects of her research at conferences sponsored by the
American Society for Engineering Education, Society of Women
Engineers, Women in Engineering ProActive Network, Frontiers in
Education and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and
has appeared on television shows discussing equality for women in
academics and athletics.