Jenifer Castillo, Chair of IEEE WIE Committee 2021

Good day everybody!

As always, there are so many things I would like to share with you in this message: our pledge is getting so much traction within IEEE and we have a powerful webpage to support our efforts! (Remember that your IEEE Section can also adopt the WIE pledge). Our WIE Anniversary activities and planning are well underway. There are some great conversations happening with the IEEE Future Directions. We are moving forward to supporting the first Women Milestone in the IEEE History Committee, our Senior Membership goals are about to be achieved and it is only August!… So many things to be grateful for with our volunteers and yet, to shorten the message, I will focus on two specific topics, the WIE Awards Winners and the upcoming Elections.

Let’s begin with the Awards Winners, please join me in congratulating all of them! We even had a tie in the Student Member of the year, which shows the amazing talent and commitment our members have! More information about it in the body of this newsletter. With it, came the newest member of our committee, and we are so happy to welcome Grace Kallingal George who, as the winner WIE Student Branch Affinity Group, will represent the students in the WIEC from July 2021 to June 2022. The quality of the applications were excellent, and we know that year over year, it will keep improving. To recognize that, we are preparing a wonderful surprise for December, stay tuned!

The elections are upcoming! The ballot will be open on August 16, 2021, and all Members, Graduate Student, Senior, Fellow, and Life Members will have the opportunity to vote until October 1st. Please remember that every vote is important, your participation is absolutely relevant for this historic moment in IEEE WIE. Please take the opportunity to read the candidates profile, understand their proposals, and contributions as volunteers in the institute and as professionals, and vote. If you have any doubt about the elections, or any concern, please know that we are here to support the process, you can contact election@ieee.org directly, or you can reach out women@ieee.org as well.

To conclude my message, I would like to introduce Anastassia Gharib, member of the IEEE WIEC, representing the awarded 2020 IEEE WIE professional Affinity Group. She is committed to sharing her experience as a leader of a successful AG to the IEEE WIE Committee members, leading the Region Coordinators Subcommittee. Her passion, structure, and commitment are a source of inspiration for many of us. She is for sure an emerging leader in IEEE and I am very glad to share this space with her.