News from WEPAN
Summary: In this issue we are announcing three new WEPAN Board members, learn of two WEPAN webinars scheduled in October and how you can nominate someone as a Catalyst of Change for our 30th anniversary.
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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE By Lee Ann Cochran
We empower people and organizations who are catalyst of change
To
ensure
the
success
of
women
in
engineering
professions
Through networks, research, practice and resources
WEPAN was the nation’s first network dedicated to advancing cultures of inclusion and diversity in engineering higher education and workplaces. The WEPAN leadership team has been focused on continuing to be that catalyst of change. With a recent focus on webinars, communication and collaboration we will begin shifting to a focus on the next 5 – 10 years to ensure near-term solutions with long-term success. With that will be clarity to the important role WEPAN plays for women in engineering to ensure collective impact.
I am excited to have 3 new leaders in engineering joining our
board
for 2019 – 2021! Please join me in welcoming Dr. P.K. Imbrie, Gretchen Rivas & Dr. Shelia Ross to our board. Their diverse experiences and talent are exceptional additions to our board.
With that we still need additional team members to support our committees and our work. Will you join me in being a catalyst for change? You will find our open call for volunteers
here
. We welcome all to be an active member of the WEPAN community.
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CoNECD 2020 Conference
April 19-22, 2020, Arlington, VA
As you may know,
the
CoNECD Conference: Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity
is now WEPAN’s annual conference. It will take place on April 19-22, 2020 at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington Virginia
.
CoNECD (pronounced, “connected”) is a collaborative effort of the American Society for Engineering Education’s (
ASEE
) Minorities in Engineering Division (
MIND
), and Women in Engineering Division (
WIED
),
NAMEPA
(National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates), and
WEPAN
(Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network).
The vision of the CoNECD conference is to provide a forum for exploring current research and practices to enhance diversity and inclusion of
all underrepresented groups in the engineering and computing professions
. We believe that a transformation of our engineering workforce will not be the result of a singular focus. CoNECD will encompass the many diverse groups that comprise our engineering and computing workforce including groups based on gender (including gender identity and gender expression), race and ethnicity, disability, veterans, LGBTQ+, 1st generation and socio-economic status.
We want to grow the WEPAN presence at future CoNECD conferences and we are committed to ensuring that they are representative of WEPAN membership’ interests and needs.
Please take this 1-minute survey to help us understand what is important to you for future conferences. All responses are anonymous. You can find the survey here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WT8XTN2
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WEPAN’s Upcoming 30
th
Anniversary
Nominate a Catalyst of Change in honor of WEPAN’s 30th Anniversary
CoNECD 2020 (April 19-22, 2020) in Arlington, VA will kick off WEPAN’s 30th anniversary year. To celebrate, WEPAN will recognize our unsung heroes and stories of success. WEPAN empowers people and organization who are catalysts of change.
Share with us how you, a colleague, or organization has helped ensure the success of women in engineering education and professions on our road to 50/50 by 2050. We look forward to sharing in your stories of success in celebration of WEPAN.
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Mark Your Calendar
WEPAN WEBINAR
October 8, 2019
1-2 PM EDT
"Targeted harassment of engineering education researchers:
How to connect with community and support your colleagues under attack”
Presenters:
Alice Pawley & Donna Riley,
Purdue University
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Description
: Recently, there has been an increase in the number of STEM education scholars who have been the subject of harassment due to their scholarship. This harassment has included social media attacks, phone calls, hate emails, threats of violence, and more. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) considers targeted harassment of faculty one of its featured campaigns, describing the recent increase in the number of harassment reports, and movement beyond the communities who have been enduring such attacks for a long time (including climate change researchers, and scholars working in ethnic studies, gender studies, and LGBTQ+ studies). Harassment differs from academic critique in its tone and content - it does not constitute well-reasoned if contentious debate on the technical, cognitive, logical, conceptual, or other points that scholars disagree on, but instead is mean, threatening, and even violent in tone, and designed to silence the researcher by making them afraid to state their claims aloud or in writing.
Targeted harassment threatens academic freedom, including in STEM diversity scholarship. Engineering education equity scholars have increasingly been targeted both by well-funded operations such as Campus Reform as well as by other engineering faculty. Organizations like AAUP have developed new resources to both support scholars who are targeted, and organize universities employing such scholars to stand in vigorous defense of academic freedom.
In this webinar, Alice Pawley, and Donna Riley will present some recent cases of harassment in the engineering education equity field, solicit more stories in order to connect with more scholars perhaps thinking they are alone and unsupported, provide specific examples of how universities have responded or should respond when their scholars come under attack, and share resources and advice on how to support scholars under attack at their universities.
Alice Pawley (she, her, hers) is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering Education and an affiliate faculty member in the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies Program and the Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering at Purdue University. Donna Riley is Kamyar Haghighi Head of the School of Engineering Education and Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University.
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WEPAN WEBINAR
October 15, 2019
2 PM EDT
Expanding Cultures: How where I come from informs where I am going and how I will get there–
Chanel Beebe, Presenter
Description
: In this Webinar Chanel Beebe will discuss how her various identities inform her perspective within the classroom, community, and academy. Expanding upon critical race theory, experiential learning models and culturally relevant pedagogy, Chanel Beebe will discuss how her research, engagement, and teaching has emerged from her values and social justice priorities.
Chanel Beebe is a PhD student in Purdue University's Engineering Education Program where she is currently conducting research about how to use the engineering design process to address social problems. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Chanel holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor in Industrial Engineering and is also a self-taught abstract artist and poet. She is a multimedia creator who seeks to use her research and art to facilitate change in the experiences of oppressed peoples. Beebe was a presenter at the Hi-5 Session at CoNECD 2019. She is a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellow and NAMEPA Thought Leader for the Cultural Hackathon. More about Chanel Beebe and her work can be found at
ChanelBeebe.com
.
Keywords
: inclusive design, social engineering, systems thinking, culturally relevant teaching and pedagogy, identity, engineering, research-to-practice, and STEM
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Upcoming Activities and Events:
OCTOBER
10/8 @ 1 pm EDT - WEPAN Webinar on Targeted Harassment of Engineering Educators, Alice Pawley and Donna Riley, Purdue University
10/14 - ASEE 2020 Abstracts due
10/22 - WEPAN Virtual Board Meeting
10/15 @ 2 pm EDT - WEPAN Webinar on Expanding Cultures by Chanel Beebe, Purdue University. Registration link will be available in September newsletter.
NOVEMBER
11/13 @ 12 pm EST - WEPAN Webinar on Negotiating for Success, Lee Ann Cochran, WEPAN President
11/19 - WEPAN Virtual Board Meeting
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