June 23rd is International Women in Engineering Day ― a day to highlight the achievements of women in engineering, as well as to address the disparities that women experience in STEM fields.
To celebrate, Neeraja Ganesh, TEDx speaker and WE Local Bengaluru keynote speaker, sat down with SWE President Dayna Johnson to share her thoughts on mindset and leadership for women in engineering on this episode of Diverse: a SWE podcast.
Hear Neeraja’s six tips to overcome imposter syndrome, how her 25-year career in STEM led to a passion for global gender equity, and what policies companies can adopt to better support women in the engineering workforce.
Listen to the episode on SoundCloud, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.
You can follow Neeraja’s work on LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Speaker: Neeraja Ganesh
Neeraja Ganesh, a TEDx speaker and a keynote speaker at prestigious conferences, has been invited by various forums across the globe like Lean in, IEEE, PMI, TIE, NASSCOM, CII, RISE World Summit, ARIA, and SWE to deliver talks on a variety of topics.
She also conducts training programs on leadership and behavior. “Networking for Results” and “How to Tell your Story” are two of Neeraja’s signature programs.
Neeraja is currently writing her first book titled “You Have Arrived: No Glass Ceilings, No Broken Rungs, No Glass Cliffs.” She has won multiple awards, the most recent being the JobsForHer HerRising award in the “Women in Impact” category, and she has also been featured as one of the forty women who have traversed their life journeys from ordinary to extraordinary in the book “Magical 40 @ 40.”
Neeraja heads the Education Initiatives at Aspire For Her, an organization with a vision to impact over 1 million women and add $5 billion to India’s GDP by 2025 through increased participation of women in the workforce. Neeraja is a mentor on a variety of platforms including Aspire For Her and JobsForHer. She switched her career to work in the space of gender diversity after a successful 25-year career in the information technology industry.
Host: Dayna Johnson, SWE FY23 President
Dayna Johnson, P.E., is the Emerging Technology Programs and Operations Leader at GE Gas Power. She joined GE in 2012 as a commercial manager, leading large teams through the bidding process to develop proposals for high-voltage electrical substations. Her performance in that role earned her a position in GE’s Accelerated Leadership Program. Prior to joining GE, she worked as a civil engineer, designing water and wastewater projects for rapidly growing communities in the Chicago suburbs.
She holds a B.S. in civil engineering and a Master of Engineering Management from Valparaiso University, and she is a licensed professional engineer, and LEED accredited professional.
Johnson has been an active member of SWE since joining as a collegiate member in 2000. She has served as Chicago Regional Section president and section representative and as Region H lieutenant governor and treasurer. She was previously the awards and recognition committee chair and WE11 local host committee co-chair. She was also engaged as a governance task force member and a senator before joining the Board of Directors. She received the SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2011 and the Emerging Leader Award in 2018.
