IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2017 - 5

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Current Affairs from Around the World

Welcoming the
New IEEE WIE Chair
Bozenna Pasik-Duncan takes the helm

The new chair of the IEEE Women in
Engineering (WIE) Committee, Bozenna
Pasik-Duncan, is excited to bring her
experiences to help raise the visibility of
women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) throughout IEEE. "This chair privilege gives me
extreme energy and enthusiasm because
it's a new experience for me," she says.
As an award-winning professor of
mathematics; a courtesy professor in the
areas of electrical engineering, computer
science, and aerospace engineering; and
an investigator at the Information and
Telecommunication Technology Center at the University of Kansas, PasikDuncan's interests and interactions are
broad. "I'm very proud of being both
international and multidisciplinary,"
she explains. "I've found that all over
the world, in various workshop areas
or technical societies, women still need
the same recognition and visibility,
so I'm proud to be the chair of Women
in Engineering and an advocate for
women everywhere."
Pasik-Duncan is also the mother of a
female engineer, which makes her very
passionate about supporting the future
generation. Dominique Duncan is currently an assistant professor of neurology
at the University of Southern California,
working in multidisciplinary research in

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MWIE.2017.2675062
Date of publication: 9 May 2017

Pasik-Duncan with her daughter
Dominique and husband Tyrone.

an institute with the largest data repository in brain imaging. Inspired by growing up with two math and engineering
professionals as parents, she holds bachelor's degrees in mathematics and Polish
literature from the University of Chicago
as well as a Ph.D. degree in electrical
engineering from Yale University.
"My daughter serves as a long-distance
advisor for me, regarding the new generations," says Pasik-Duncan. "I ask her
almost daily for advice because so many
of our members are around her age. She
is almost like a mentor for me now, and
I really enjoy it when she listens to what
I have to say. But then she'll make her
point and tell me what she thinks."
Incorporating the experiences and
perspective of the younger generation is
central to Pasik-Duncan's plans for her

june 2017

time as WIE chair, which will focus on
integration and recognition for all.
She has another advisor at home.
Tyrone Duncan, her husband, is her
research collaborator and colleague in
the same department. With his wife and
daughter being both engineers and scientists, Duncan is a strong supporter for
women in engineering and science.
Regarding her plans for WIE, "Our
vision is that women see IEEE as welcoming, inclusive, supportive, and making a difference in people's personal
and professional lives and in the world,"
reads Pasik-Duncan's vision statement.
"What I really want to do is advance
women, and, to do that, we need visibility," she adds.
To achieve this goal, she, along with
a team of four staff members, have
highlighted a three-pronged approach:
Building Blocks, Telling Stories, and
Outreach. Within the first pillar, WIE
will aim to build bridges across technical
societies, regions, and other professional
organizations as well as across industry, government, and academia globally. "I believe that by establishing closer
relationships and liaisons within the 45
technical societies we have we'll be better
able to identify women who are qualified
to be nominated for various positions
or awards," shares Pasik-Duncan. "I also
want to create a list of those we've identified as distinguished scholars to serve as
a resource for selecting keynote speakers
or workshop participants at society conferences." The team is also looking into
opportunities to bring together junior
researchers or students with more senior
researchers who can serve as mentors in
their careers.
As part of the Telling Stories pillar,
Pasik-Duncan is looking to highlight the
experiences of women who have made
important contributions to IEEE as scholars, educators, and leaders in different

iEEE women in engineering magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2017