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SWE President’s Intentional Inclusion Update for August 2020

Swe President’s Intentional Inclusion Update For July 2020
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Welcome to my monthly All Together blog post on the Society’s Intentional Inclusion efforts. This month’s post is focused on the activities of our FY21 special directors Dr. Rose-Margaret Ekeng-Itua and Dr. Maisha Gray-Diggs. They have jumped right in working with SWE’s African American Affinity Group (AG). Together with Director, Barbara Brockett and SWE HQ staff, they are working with the AG to understand their needs in terms of things like marketing support and the creation of digital resources. In FY21, there will be a focus on helping the AG communicate not only their activities but how they are contributing to the mission of the Society.

A second priority area of focus for the Special Directors is reviewing the SWE leadership selection process. The early focus of their work is on broadening communication of the opportunities and process. This has been facilitated by two Nominating Committee webinars to demystify the nominating committee and the nominations process, by a concerted effort of SWE leaders reaching out to potential candidates to encourage them to self-nominate and by members of the nominating committee reaching out to SWE committees and other leadership groups to answer questions and again, encourage members to consider SWE leadership roles and ultimately self-nominate. Early feedback from members to this outreach has been positive. This is just the beginning of more mentoring and sponsorship for potential SWE leaders. Moreover, at their suggestion, we are capturing demographic data in the nomination form. This will help us track our progress in getting diverse members to submit nomination applications.

A third priority is beginning to review the Society’s awards criteria and selection processes. They will be taking a diversity and inclusion lens to the process to make sure it is equitable for all members and that the selection teams are made up of diverse members. In addition, the awards nomination form will gather demographic data, again to help us track our progress.

And lastly, they are serving as advisors to the Senate sub-team focused on Better Support and Inclusion of People of Color in SWE. So, the journey continues.


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Author

  • Heather Doty, FY21 SWE President

    Heather Doty is a project engineer at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado. She works in the manufacturing and test operations organization on new business ventures, people integration, career development, staffing, and hiring. A senior life member of SWE, Doty joined the Society as a student at the University of Colorado Boulder. She served as FY18-19 Society treasurer and FY16 director of regions. She brings a long history of SWE experience at multiple levels of the organization, having served in nearly every officer position at the section and region levels. She has been recognized with the Region i “Inspirational” Distinguished Service Award, and as an Outstanding SWE Counselor and SWE Distinguished New Engineer.

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