Women veterans bring many strengths to the civilian workforce, such as leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, as well as resilience and persistence. Education Development Center (EDC) has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to examine how to leverage the unique strengths of women veterans to address barriers to their (re) engagement in the STEM workforce by hosting a virtual convening on this topic. We are inviting you to this virtual convening to help us identify and prioritize strategies to develop and leverage existing services and stimulate new ideas to provide more targeted outreach to engage, train, and retain women veterans in the STEM workforce.

Convening Program Agenda with Session Links

The objectives of the convening are to:

• Provide an overview of the project, its goals, and the importance of engaging women veterans on the STEM Workforce.
• Build a common understanding of the landscape of assets and challenges faced by women veterans in the four focus areas.
• Make recommendations to address barriers to engaging women veterans in the STEM Workforce.
• Identify and prioritize opportunities to scale recommendations related to policies, practices and funding needs for multiple key stakeholder audiences. 

Keynote Speakers:

• Graciela Tiscareno-Sato, CEO, Gracefully Global Group
• Stephanie Primeaux, Cost Analyst, NASA
• Dr. Kristin Saboe, Global Leader for Employee Listening, Research, and Talent Strategy Functions, Boeing
• VR Small, CEO, Veteran Women's Enterprise Center

The schedule and topics for the convening are:

• March 2, 2021 1:00–4:30 EST: The Future of Women Vets in STEM Plenary where participants will be provided an overview of the project and hear from four nationally recognized women veterans on their experiences transitioning from service to the workforce in Ted Talk-style keynote addresses.

• March 3, 2021, 1:00–3:00 EST: Transition Services and STEM Workforce Development (concurrent) Work Group Discussions and Recommendations where participants will have the opportunity to provide and prioritize recommendations to address barriers and leverage strengths in one of these focus areas.

• March 4, 2021, 1:00–3:00 EST: STEM Education and Health and Well-being (concurrent) Work Group Discussions and Recommendations where participants will have the opportunity to provide and prioritize recommendations to address barriers and leverage strengths in one of these focus areas.

• March 5, 2021, 1:00–4:00 EST: Work Group Summaries, Discussant Panels, and Next Steps where a panel of employers, federal agencies, and our convening chairs will discuss recommendations from the previous days and participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and provide input on the recommendations. 

STEM Industry Panel

• Dr. Trillitye Paullin, CEO, Free to Feed
• Joel Simon, Managing Director - Workforce Strategies, Burning Glass Technologies
• Melissa Boatwright, Global Lead, LinkedIn

Federal Agency Panel

• Meg O'Grady, National Veterans’ Employment Manager, Department of Labor VETS
• Tamre Newton, Director, Military-Civilian Transition Office, Department of Defense
• Dr. Amy Street, Deputy Director of the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD

Convening Chair Panel

• Dr. Anthony Dean, Assistant Dean for Research, Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University
• Dr. Tomika Greer, Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Coordinator in the College of Technology at the University of Houston
• Rosalinda Vasquez Maury, Director of Applied Research and Analytics at the Institute of Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) at Syracuse University
• Micah Taylor, Air National Guard Education and Training Manager and Idaho Area Manager, Hire Heroes USA

Participants will also be invited to join optional networking sessions prior to the start of each day hosted by:

• March 2, 12:30 - 12:55 EST: Lillian Gregory, Digital Services PMO, Ericsson
• March 3, 12:30 - 12:55 EST: Ashley Owens, Manager, Employment Opportunities and Micah Taylor, Idaho Area Manager, Hire Heroes USA
• March 4, 12:30 - 12:55 EST: Dr. Simone Soso, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub, Program Manager, Quality Education for Minorities
• March 5, 12:30 - 12:55 EST: Ben Chu, Director - Global Management, Stacy Stenger, AVEN Field Force Chapter Co-chair, Nahira Miscalichi, Global AVEN Project Manager and Treasurer, Amgen

We hope you will join us at this virtual convening and help us to strengthen and scale the impact of existing initiatives to support women veterans’ success in the STEM Workforce.