Jan Williams is a 40-year member of SWE, cutting her teeth with the Kansas City Section and later founding the Central New Mexico section. She became a Fellow in 2009 and earned the Distinguished Service Award (DSA) in 2017. She’s a SWE fixture, having served on numerous national committees and is now very active in local advocacy and public policy in New Mexico. She has also been a dedicated member of the Late Career and Retiree Affinity Group (LCR AG), contributing regularly to their newsletter and working to improve conference engagement for LCR members. Her latest SWE passion is alerting members and the public to the amazing accomplishments of women in STEM. She is one of six SWE Fellows writing a book to coincide with the 75th anniversary about the first 25 women to receive SWE’s Achievement Award. She has researched three of the early awardees and enhanced their Wiki pages with information on their accomplishments. Her latest gambit to honor women in STEM and spread the word about their accomplishments is to become a ship lecturer. Here’s her story:
A New Chapter in Retirement: Ship Lecturer
The first question most people asked is, “How did you even think of doing this?” when they heard that I had been selected by Cunard as a ship lecturer. Well, you can blame Frances Stuart — friend, SWE Fellow, and another DSA recipient. Fran is a member of my SWE section and has become my partner in crime for advocacy at our state capitol.
Fran invited me to accompany her last May on my first Viking cruise — a tour of the British Isles, beginning in Greenwich, UK, and ending in Bergen, Norway. During the 11-day cruise, I was introduced to several traditions on Viking, including the presence of several onboard lecturers who each gave 45-minute talks in their area of expertise. In line with the locations we were visiting, our speakers focused on the Royals and the Bletchley Park in the time of Alan Turing and the effort to break the Enigma code. The speaker from Bletchley even brought one of the Enigma encoding machines on board and based one of his lectures on the device and how it worked. Passengers loved it!
Toward the end of the cruise, I got the wild idea that maybe I could do that. The passengers appeared to have an interest in technical topics, and I certainly have given plenty of presentations at SWE and beyond. Most recently, my presentations have covered topics in public policy, the importance of STEM education, and women in STEM who have been unheralded and underappreciated by the public. That last area was part of my work on the Legacy Subcommittee of the LCR AG under Debra Kimberling’s leadership. It led most recently to writing a book about the first 25 women who received the Achievement Award, so I decided to focus primarily on women in STEM.
So, I asked the ship lecturers how they got their positions and asked the cruise director for insight into becoming a speaker. They were surprisingly supportive and helpful, sharing their contacts with me at Viking. I pulled together a resume and list of talks I could give and applied.
Building a Portfolio
I started reading books, some historical fiction, some biographical, on topics of special interest to me. After reading The Engineer’s Wife by Tracey Enerson Wood, I decided to dig more deeply into Emily Roebling. That led to Silent Builder by Marilyn Weigold, Chief Engineer by Erica Wagner, about Washington Roebling, and finally David McCullough’s classic The Great Bridge, about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. One of the first talks I developed is about the Roebling family and their crucial roles in the building of the bridge, along with technical details of the construction.
Another idea for a presentation was borne out of reading The Woman with the Cure, a historical fiction novel about Dr. Dorothy Horstmann, by Lynn Cullen. That led to more research on obscure women in STEM, which led to a talk entitled “Women innovators in STEM you (probably) never heard of.” And so it went, developing themes like “Women in STEM who influenced WWII.”
I was aware that Viking prefers port-focused talks, and most of mine are built around women in STEM, so I wasn’t surprised that they did not give me a callback. Then I became aware of Cunard and their transatlantic cruises. Since they are at sea from Southampton to New York City, I reasoned they would be less focused on port-specific talks. I applied last summer and got a response that they would get with me in the fall. They contacted me and asked if I could attend a speakers showcase in Orlando, a sort of tryout to see if I met their standards.
Tryouts
I flew to Orlando on Jan. 20, with the showcase scheduled for the afternoon of the next day. The trip did not go well. The airline lost my luggage, and I forgot my computer power cord. The latter was an easy fix, but, alas, the luggage did not arrive by 10 a.m. the morning of the showcase. I rushed to the outlet mall when it opened at 10 a.m., and 45 minutes and $600 later, I drove back to the hotel with a suit from Brooks Brothers and a pair of shoes from Cole Haan. I had about 30 minutes to get ready. The suit pants were too long, and it was raining. As I was walking out the door to drive to the venue, I got a text that my luggage had arrived — too late to be useful. I had to shrug it off and get to the showcase. In the lobby, while waiting for the Cunard officials to pick us up, I borrowed a stapler from the front desk, went to the ladies’ room, and stapled the (now wet) hem of my pants. I told myself to take a deep breath.
After an orientation to Cunard, each of the five speakers was asked to present the first 15 minutes of their 45-minute talk. There were three current or former professors and one documentary filmmaker in our group. I felt like I held my own against these seasoned professors, but was perhaps outdone by the filmmaker.
Success!
The day after I returned to Albuquerque, I got my acceptance email. The next week, they queried me about my interest in a transatlantic leg, and I agreed to a June crossing. A few days later, I was asked about the first half of a repositioning cruise from Seattle to Miami in September. They would be dropping me in Costa Rica. I said, “Yes,” again.
And that’s the story of how fellow Frances Stuart took me on a cruise, where I saw a bright shiny new thing I could do in retirement and successfully pursued it. I’m really looking forward to this new experience! If any of you are interested in a similar adventure, I’m happy to share information on how to get started via LinkedIn.
For our readers curious about SWE’s Affinity Groups, we have over 20 of these groups that are designed to bring together SWE members who share identities, interests, and goals. Check out affinitygroups.swe.org to find the full lists and discover the ones that are right for you!
To get involved with the Late Career and Retiree Affinity Group and see all of our upcoming events, plus find links to join our Facebook group, sign up for our newsletter, and learn more about our volunteer subgroups, you can visit lcrag.swe.org.
