2020 IEEE WIE Committee Members

VOTING MEMBERS

Chair 2019

Lisa Lazareck-Asunta

Past Chair

Bozenna Pasik-Duncan

Jenifer Castillo Rodriguez

Keeley Crockett

Liang Xi Downey

Preeti Kovvali

Saraf Mahnaz

Mahsa Bataghva Shahbaz

Roxana Saint-Nom (TAB)

WIE LIAISONS

Sharon DeVivo (Education)

Katherine Duncan (IEEE-USA)

Lorena Garcia (Awards)

IEEE SOCIETY COORDINATORS

Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society

Yonina Eldar

Antennas and Propagation

Society

Dan Jiao

Biometrics Council

Tempestt Neal

Broadcast Technology

Society

Samina Husain

Circuits and Systems Society

Jennifer Blain Christen

Communications Society

Mari Carmen Aguayo Torres

Computational Intelligence

Society

Vesna Šešum-Cˇ avic´

Computer Society

Ramalatha Marimuthu

Control Systems Society

Linda Bushnell

Council on RFID

Jennifer Geist

Council on

Superconductivity

Kathleen Amm

Sasha Ishmael

Dielectrics and Electrical

Insulation Society

Azam Nekahi

Electromagnetic

Compatibility Society

Susanne Kaule

Electron Devices Society

Angele Reinders

Electronics Packaging

Society

Tanja Braun

Engineering in Medicine

and Biology Society

Padmini Rangamani

Geoscience and Remote

Sensing Society

Keely Roth

Shawn Kafauver

Industrial Electronics

Society

Lucia Lo Bello

Industry Applications

Society

Norma Anglani

Information Theory

Society

Yingbin Liang

Instrumentation and

Measurement Society

Ferdinanda Ponci

Intelligent Transportation

Systems Society

Cristina Olaverri

Microwave Theory and

Techniques Society

Wenquan (Cherry) Che

Nuclear and Plasma

Sciences Society

Cinzia Da Via

Oceanic Engineering

Society

Farheen Fauziya

Power & Energy Society

Simay Akar

Power Electronics Society

Katherine Kim

Professional Communication

Society

Nancy Barr

Reliability Society

Preeti Chauhan

Signal Processing Society

Sally Wood

Society on Social

Implications of Technology

Ramalatha Marimuthu

Solid-State Circuits Society

Ingrid Verbauwhede

Systems Council

Stephanie White

Systems, Man, and

Cybernetics Society

Vanessa Batista Schramm

Technology and

Engineering

Management Society

Liang Xi Downey

Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics,

and Frequency Control

Society

Estelle Camus

Vehicular Technology

Society

Carmela Cozzo

REGIONAL

COORDINATORS

Region 1

Denise Griffin

Region 2

Carole Carey

Region 3

Allison Mercer

Region 4

Liang Xi Downey

Region 6

Kathy Herring Hayashi

Region 7

Manar Jammal

Region 8

Ana Cigaran Romero

Region 9

Yuli Andrea Rodriguez

Region 10

Emi Yano Tanahashi

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine is the first magazine to focus on issues facing women who study or work in IEEE’s fields of interest.

IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine strives to recognize women’s outstanding achievements in electrical and electronics engineering as well as enhance networking and to promote membership in IEEE Women in Engineering.

The publication also advocates for women in leadership roles and career advancement for women in STEM professions, and it facilitates the development of programs and activities that promote the entry into and retention of women in engineering programs.

A Catalytic
Conversion

Twenty-three-year-old Alayna Westcom stood onstage in a white dress with a blue atom emblem, blue shoes, and lab glasses. On a table covered by a white tablecloth, she added hydrogen peroxide and potassium iodide to a little soap and then stepped back to watch. “Don’t try this at home,” she teased as white foam erupted onto the stage. It was a catalytic decomposition reaction that goes by the nickname “elephant’s toothpaste.” The hydrogen peroxide rapidly decomposes into water and oxygen gas, and when the gas gets trapped in the soap, voilà—bubbles, and a huge shot of foam.

This was the 2015 Miss Vermont pageant, and Westcom was crowned the winner. She would perform this experiment again when she represented Vermont in the 2016 Miss America pageant. In both pageants, she was the first contestant to perform a science experiment as her talent. As Miss Vermont, she spent a year visiting all 251 cities and towns in her state under the platform “Success through STEM.” Her goal was to teach science to thousands of students in an entertaining and hands-on way. There’s not a lot of fun in science today, she feels, and this matters because that’s how her love of science began—by getting her hands dirty. Westcom’s parents bought her and her siblings a toy microscope when she was very little, and they used it to do things like look at the wings of bugs.

These were “kid things,” sure, but also entomologist activities. Then, all of her science classes in elementary and middle school were fun and interactive. They were always moving around the classroom—they built their own rollercoasters and dissected chicken wings to study muscle attachments and movements and then cooked some to eat. “So many of my teachers had an impact on my career in ways they will never know,” Westcom says. “They were always making sure we were learning and having fun at the same time.”

When she got to high school, Westcom was drawn to forensics and crime investigation. Prime-time crime dramas like CSI certainly helped drive that interest, but she enjoyed her forensics class so much that she decided to study forensic science in college. She received her bachelor’s degree from Bay Path University in Massachusetts and then continued on to earn a postbaccalaureate certificate in medical laboratory science. Today, Westcom works as an autopsy technician for the University of Vermont Medical Center and as a medical technologist at Northwestern Medical Center. That’s two jobs. And she’s studying to take the Medical College Admission Test. She often works a day shift at one job and then goes to the evening shift at the other, but she likes both—they’re different, unpredictable, and ensure she’s always learning. In the lab, it’s not unusual to see her sitting at a microscope looking at a peripheral blood smear or a wound culture smear, analyzing for abnormalities. Each day brings different cases, new diagnoses, and new people. No matter what, she still loves looking through the microscope.

“Miss”ing the Point
So, what’s it like to be Miss Vermont and a scientist? Well, you have to work extra hard to be taken seriously. Westcom knows what people are thinking when they tell her she doesn’t look like a scientist or that she’s too pretty to be a scientist, but unfortunately it doesn’t stop with just words. “I’ve found that more often than not, I’ve got to go above to prove that even though I look put together, I’m still smart and focused,” she says.
For some reason, it’s hard to convince people that there’s no connection between the two, that “looks don’t dictate intelligence,” Westcom explains, so she has this advice to all young women: ignore them. “Do not let others dictate how far you will go,” she advises. “Of course there are negative stereotypes out there but they do not need to apply to you.”

In other words, just believe in yourself and keep on moving. One tactic that Westcom believes makes this easier is finding women in science, technology, engineering, and math fields to serve as role models. “There are women who have been through so much, have been in your shoes, and know what it is like, and they are more than happy to see you succeed,” she says.