IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022 - 29

WIE From Around the World
Farewell to IEEE WIE Chair
Jenifer Castillo!
Missions accomplished
t
The arrival of 2023 means the end to
Jenifer Castillo's role as IEEE Women
in Engineering (WIE) Committee chair
and she is looking back fondly-but
realistically-at two years of accomplishment.
" We achieved a lot of great
administrative things as a committee
that I know the members will not necessarily
perceive, " she says, laughing.
" Those will certainly help WIE keep
growing, " adding, " but I'm only going
to talk about the things members and
volunteers will see firsthand. "
We are having this conversation midyear
so the numbers are not final, but
Castillo begins with the incredible WIE
membership growth since 2020. " Last
year we grew by about 36%, and halfway
through this year we were already up
21%, " she shares. " This must mean the
membership is seeing the benefits. If we
weren't delivering on those, we wouldn't
have this kind of growth. That is something
I really love. "
Expanded Membership Opportunities
Clearly communicating the benefits and
opportunities of WIE membership was
something Castillo outlined in her platform
before she stepped into the role as
chair, as was the importance of reaching
out to more of WIE's global network.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2022.3202716
Date of current version: 7 November 2022
" What is most important to me to leave
as my legacy is that we managed to get
approval to discount WIE membership
in low-income economies and developing
nations so that we could offer
a more realistic cost to our
members, " she says. She
goes on to explain that
IEEE has discounts for
these territories but WIE
historically had not, and
that meant people were paying
more for the membership
than they could afford.
After a motion and approvals, WIE is
now able to offer a fee aligned with their
current countries' economies.
This aligns nicely with another effort
Members and Fellows, with the backing
of the Membership Development
team. They also revamped the Student-Teacher
and Research Engineer/
Scientist program webpage to include
more resources, videos, and tools that
enable volunteers to further inspire
girls around the world to pursue their
science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) goals, thanks to
efforts led by Keeley Crockett and Sharon
DeVivo. For those already in STEM
undergraduate studies, WIE introduced
a new scholarship offering financial aid,
similar to the IEEE Frances B. Hugle
Scholarship, but this time for students
outside the United States.
Another way WIE looked
to boost experiences for the
membership was through
its diversity and inclusion
pledge, formally introduced
in 2020 by Lisa
Lazareck-Asunta (IEEE WIE
Jenifer Castillo
Committee past chair):
IEEE WIE pledges to
that was a priority of Castillo's back in
2020: better supporting the Society
and regional coordinators, who are the
most direct link to members worldwide.
Over the last two years under the
leadership of Anastassia Gharib, the
committee developed documents and
training for the coordinators, covering
everything from the structure of local
committees, to guidelines for membership
recruitment, to best practices
shared by their peers around the world.
" We committed to nurturing the talent
in each Region, " says Castillo, " and that
practice continues. "
The committee also continued supporting
the elevation of IEEE Senior
DECEMBER 2022
work towards gender-diversified
panels at all IEEE meetings, conferences,
and events, including
our own.
Since then, WIE has kept this commitment
while also growing the number
of organizational units dedicated to the
pledge during 2021 and 2022. Castillo
thanks Mini Ulnat for the support of this
important endeavor.
WIE's flagship conference, the IEEE
Women in Engineering International
Leadership Conference (ILC), continued
but looked different this year. After
moving to virtual programming due to
COVID-19, the June 2022 ILC was the
first to be a hybrid experience, bravely
led by Heather Quinn. " Doing a hybrid
conference was very, very hard, " reflects
Castillo. " It was like doing two conferences
at once. But we managed to reach
IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
29
IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2022

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