IEEE WIE Distinguished Volunteer and Mentor series highlights a dedicated WIE volunteer who is well known for his/her notable contribution to IEEE WIE.

In this issue, we feature Princy Johnson, the IEEE WIE Chair, UK&I Section and a dedicated WIE volunteer.

IEEE WIE: How has your experience with IEEE WIE shaped your career and personal growth?

Johnson: “My experience as the chair of IEEE WIE UK and Ireland has:

  • Enhanced my leadership skills and ability.
  • Helped me to empower my committee members across the UK and Ireland, in acquiring competence and confidence in their profession and leadership.
  • Facilitated networking with leaders across the organization.
  • Enabled me to make a difference in my institution by consciously promoting professionals, especially women, in my teaching, research, and professional activities.”

IEEE WIE: What innovative projects or initiatives are you currently working on that you believe will make a significant impact?

Johnson: “I bring innovation and collaboration to everything I do. Here are some examples:

  • First, when I was elected Chair of WIE UK and Ireland AG, I worked closely with the Vice-Chair to establish the vision and mission goals, aligning the working group (WG) themes with these objectives. This alignment helped us effectively promote the AG and recruit new members whose personal convictions aligned with our vision. As a result, our AG committee membership has grown sixfold.
  • Secondly, I created dedicated teams for each activity—whether WG leadership, communications and social media, secretarial tasks, or financial resources. This structure enabled members to develop skills through shadowing experienced colleagues and taking on parts of activities. In doing so, I established a pipeline for skills and leadership development across every role in the AG.
  • Thirdly, by fostering an atmosphere of autonomy and accountability, I empowered committee members to innovate and take ownership of new initiatives. For example, every member is encouraged to propose initiatives aligned with their WG or AG theme. Once validated by WG leads and supported by the leadership team, these initiatives are rolled out on behalf of WIE. Examples include our long-running ‘Members’ Recognition and Promotional Events’ led by the Communications WG, as well as the current ‘Mentorship Program’ and ‘Senior Membership Workshops’ initiated and managed by members.
  • The ultimate benefit of this collaborative approach was demonstrated when WIE UK and Ireland won the bid to host WIE ILS2025—delivering six tracks across the UK and Ireland over two weeks. Empowered by their experience, six local organizing committees (London, Nottingham, Liverpool, Leeds, Letterkenny, and Limerick) stepped forward to host these tracks. This allowed diversity and inclusion in topics, activities, and engagement with local communities, catering to regional needs and leveraging the strengths of individual committees and institutions. So far, three tracks (London, Nottingham, and Leeds) have been completed with massive participation from industry, IEEE societies, and universities.
  • I acknowledge that all these achievements were possible only because of the support and collaborative work of my colleagues.”

 

IEEE WIE: Can you share a moment when you overcame a significant challenge in your professional journey and what you learned from it?

Johnson: “As experienced by million other women in the field of engineering profession, I have had my fair share of discrimination and bias during my professional journey.
A range of things helped me to overcome the disappointments and discouragements on the way.

  • Having a belief system helped build hope and confidence in my ability.
  •  I have had the opportunity to build collaborations with fantastic high-profile women academics across the globe. Their belief in my professional capacity and their constant support have played a major role in my progress both as a person and in my profession.
  •  By building support networks from various walks of life has helped me to see the bigger picture.
  • And volunteering with charities and professional societies gave me the opportunity to build the type of skills and leadership abilities.”

IEEE WIE: How do you stay updated with the latest trends and advancements in your field?

Johnson: “As an established researcher in my field, I constantly update my knowledge through conducting research activities at the forefront of technological applications. This involves supervision of undergraduate, postgraduate and research projects aligned with my field of expertise, collaborative research with my international colleagues, reading literature, sharing through conference and journal publications, reviewing articles, and networking with other professionals.”

IEEE WIE: What role do you think mentorship plays in the success of young professionals, and how do you approach mentoring others?

Johnson: “In my experience, mentorship plays a vital role in building young professionals. However, mentorship needs to be approached as something of similar to having a network of mentors. Mentoring could be at different levels and from different experience levels. Each young professional will need at least two or three mentors to help them build skills and capacity in different areas of their professional field. Also, mentorship needs to be combined with other support systems to help them progress in their profession. Hence, my approach to mentorship will be to identify the level and type of help and support needed to provide appropriate guidance.”