Keynote

 = = =[|Lisa Damour Presentation.ppt]= =[|Catherine Didion Presentation.ppt]= cdidion@nae.edu - Catherine Didion Email Address [|www.engineeryourlife.org] [|www.engineergirl.org] [|www.engr.psu.edu/awe/]

__Thursday, November 13, 2008__ = = We are pleased to have Dr. Catherine Didion, the Senior Program Director at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), as our keynote speaker for our upcoming STEM for Girls Think Tank. Dr. Didion is an internationally recognized leader and expert on issues of equity and gender in science and engineering. She has been an invited speaker on mentoring, networking, and women in science and engineering at over 200 conferences and has authored over fifty publications on women in science and engineering. 

The mission of the NAE is to promote the technological welfare of the nation by marshaling the knowledge and insights of eminent members of the engineering profession.  In addition to her management of the Diversity of the Engineering Workforce program at the NAE, Didion became the Director of the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine in March of 2007. She served as Executive Director for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) for fourteen years from 1990 to 2004. During her tenure at AWIS, she received the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Didion’s other honors and awards include: AAAS Fellow; AWIS Fellow; Drucker Foundation Fellow; Texaco Management Institute Fellow; Secretary of the US Air Force Inaugural Environmental Civic Leaders Tour; and Certificate of Commendation and Distinguished Service, Embassy of the United States of America .

We know that Dr. Didion’s participation in Harpeth Hall’s STEM for Girls Think Tank will provide tremendous insight and vision for the educators in attendance.

__Friday, November 14, 2008__ Dr. Lisa Damour, the co-director of Laurel School’s Center for Research on Girls (CRG), will be speaking to our group on Friday about the research being done by this group.  As background, CRG is dedicated to providing a bridge to connect the excellent and important research conducted in universities and research centers around the world with the girls’ learning experience in the classroom. Original research is also being conducted at Laurel. CRG has an advisory panel of nationally recognized experts in education and child development. Last year’s topics included improving spatial skills in primary students, fostering a growth mindset in middle school math students, and shielding upper school students from stereotype threat (please see http://www.laurelschool.org/about/CRGatLaurel.cfm). One of this year’s CRG topics for research and curricular work at Laurel is “how to engage girls in the STEM fields,” specifically in the areas of computer science and engineering. Research in this area has been studied by CRG and we are now currently in the process of implementing this research into the curricula.  We welcome Dr. Damour to the STEM for Girls Think Tank and look forward to hearing about the implications of her research.