Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) is pleased to announce its 23rd Annual Conference to be held in Columbus, Ohio from June 25 - 27, 2012. A robust body of research on gender and traditionally under-represented minority groups in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) underpins and ties together many initiatives to advance the prominence of women engineering faculty, students and the workforce. Getting to the Heart of it All will explore how research and related programs span the boundaries of these four audiences: Gender Research, WIE Programs, Faculty and Corporate Partners. How do successes for one audience translate to and return benefits for other groups? How might the synergies be expanded going forward?

Conference Themes:

• Theme 1: Women in Engineering Program Contributions
• Theme 2: Results and New Ideas from the ADVANCE Community
• Theme 3: Corporate Policy, Practice and Influence
• Theme 4: Building the Feedback Loop from Practice to Research

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In the United States today, there is an urgent and far-reaching need for a workforce skilled in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Filling the need is key to carrying the country into a healthy economic future, experts say, and it’s time to figure out some answers.

Enter STEM Solutions 2012, a groundbreaking leadership summit held in Dallas, Texas this summer, June 27-29. For the first time on a national stage, leading educators, top policymakers, major corporations and education technology companies will convene to determine the strategies, policies and collective changes that are needed to cultivate a competitive STEM workforce in the United States.

The three-day summit will be “a conference focused on creating solutions,” according to Brian Kelly, Editor and Chief Content Officer for U.S. News & World Report, one of the co-producers of the event. “It’s not just going to be a conversation about the STEM shortage,” he said “It’s our goal with this symposium to achieve specific outcomes that will advance the STEM initiative and work to solve the challenges we’re facing.”

Kelly cites five specific objectives of the conference:

• Facilitate the matching of supply and demand through a data-driven marketplace that accurately reflects employment needs and skill requirements.
• Communicate with educators and policymakers about the skill-specific innovation that is needed in the classroom and beyond.
• Form a national leadership consensus on how to implement successful programs on a national scale.
• Showcase what’s working by highlighting the industry, government and education partners that are currently most effective at aligning skills with jobs.
• Increase public and political awareness of the growing disparity between job skills and employer need, and the detrimental impact it has on the U.S. economy and society.

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The Way Human Beings Respond to Negative Stereotypes About Their Racial and Gender Group

Dr. Joshua Aronson, Associate Professor of Applied Psychology at NYU and internationally recognized expert on stereotype threat and the social psychology of achievement will discuss what psychologists have learned about how certain situations can make people less intelligent, and what we can do to counter the power of these situations to encourage the expression and the development of intelligent thought and academic achievement.

Joshua Aronson and his team have conducted numerous studies showing how stereotype threat depresses the standardized test performance of black, Latino and female college students. Understanding can help young people achieve their academic aspirations.

Aronson and his colleagues are widely considered experts in this field, and they are now working to boost the learning achievement, test performance and enjoyment of school among underachieving youth.

Registration

Our dynamic panel of speakers will address how medium and short-term investments in STEM education and STEM workforce development are impacting their organizations and need to continue. Learn more about our panel by clicking here.

The Town Hall will be broadcast via Webex. Free Registration is available by clicking below. Space is limited by our connection limit so early registration is encouraged. We look forward to your participation. Call Ted Wells at 202-296-5224 with any questions.

The STEMconnector™ Team

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What: White House Panel on Women and Girls in STEM.

Women and girls continue to be significantly underrepresented in the STEM fields - a trend that starts early and comes at a serious cost to both the career prospects of our young women and the success of our economy. By ensuring women and girls receive the exposure, encouragement and support they need to enter, and succeed in, STEM fields, this country can benefit from the full range and diversity of its talent.

The White House Council on Women and Girls is excited to announce a White House event that features a panel of trailblazing women in STEM fields who will share their experiences and encourage girls to follow in their footsteps - or blaze a trail of their own. This event will also include the very first public screening of "Girls in STEM," a video on girls in STEM, featuring footage from girls who participated in the 2012 White House Science Fair.

This event will be live-streamed over the internet, and students will be able to submit questions for the panelists via Twitter and Facebook.

The event will proceed as follows:

10:30-10:35 am: Remarks by EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson

10:35-10:45 am: Premiere of "Girls in STEM" video, featuring girls who participated in the 2012 White House Science Fair

10:45-11:30 am: Panel on girls in STEM moderated by Administrator Jackson and featuring the following panelists:

1. Dr. Cady Coleman, NASA Astronaut, Colonel, U.S. Air Force, retired
2. Jocelyn Goldfein, Director of Engineering, Facebook
3. Dr. Jean Hernandez, President, Edmonds Community College
4. Bianca Bailey, President, Howard University Chapter of Engineers Without Borders

When: Tuesday, April 24th, 10:30am-11:30 am EDT

Where: The event will be broadcast live online from the White House and on Facebook, and we will post a video recording of the entire event online (as well as a link to "Girls in STEM"). Here's how you can participate:

1. Submit questions for the panel right now through a webform on www.WhiteHouse.gov
2. On April 24th, watch live and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter:
   • Watch live stream on WhiteHouse.gov/live beginning at 10:30 am EDT
   • On Facebook, watch the event live through the White House Live App and ask questions on our wall
   • On Twitter, use the hashtag #GirlsInSTEM to ask questions and discuss the panel
3. If you can't join live, full video of the event and the "Girls in STEM" video will be posted on WhiteHouse.gov/cwg for online viewing at any time (this option may be especially useful for students in afterschool programs and other youth enrichment programs that take place outside school hours).

Who: You! We are seeking the participation of students, educators, and others across the U.S. via live-stream, Twitter, and Facebook.

View archived video.

Today, April 19, 2012, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and OVAE Assistant Secretary Brenda Dann-Messier unveiled Investing in America's Future: A Blueprint for Transforming Career and Technical Education, the Department's proposal for transforming CTE through the reauthorization of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, last reauthorized in 2006 (Perkins IV).

The blueprint was developed by the Department of Education in alignment with the President's 2020 goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world. Under OVAE's direction, the blueprint incorporates feedback from 14 offices across the Department and more than 500 educators, business and community leaders, parents and students from around the country.

Visit the OVAE website to access the report and a two-page summary of the report.

OVAE requests that questions be directed to CTEBlueprint-2012@ed.gov