Exceptional leaders need effective communication strategies. What you say, how you say it, with whom you chose to communicate, and how your receive messages from others are keys to success in the workplace (and everyplace). Using basic math principles, Audrey will discuss inclusive communication formulas that add value, subtract leadership land mines, multiply your strengths, and divide your weaknesses. We will explore innovative ways to aspire, advance, and achieve. Be prepared to exponentially improve your leadership communication – no calculator needed!
Audrey Selden (Austin, Texas) retired as the Deputy Commissioner for Compliance at the Texas Department of Insurance in August 2013 after more than 20 years in public service. Her “rewire-ment” includes public speaking and nonprofit Board service.
Audrey frequently speaks about leadership and her dedication to public service. She is the Board President for Leadership Women Board, a social enterprise that helps women learn more, lead well, and leave positive legacies. She serves on the Executive Women in Texas Government (EWTG) President’s Advisory Committee, the EWTG Scholarship Committee, and is a member of the Women’s Chamber of Commerce of Texas. Past Board experience included Literacy Austin and the Girl Scouts of Central Texas.
She served as the Texas Assistant Secretary of State from 1991 to 1994. Audrey graduated from Harvard Law School in 1986 and clerked for U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice. Her prior work experience included being a litigation associate at a private law firm and a college academic advisor. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Michigan State University. The YWCA honored Audrey with the 2010 Woman of the Year Award for Racial Justice. She also received the 2001 Women on Their Toes award from Austin Ballet for outstanding volunteer service and the 1997 Ma Ferguson Award for Excellence in the Public Sector.
Other Upcoming Events
December (Date TBD) – Holiday Mixer with SWE/WITI/Women of AT&T
Are you a recent college grad? New to the DFW area? Looking to meet other engineering or STEM professionals who are also early in their career? Dallas SWE is looking to start a Younger Members listserv! Email Morgen Schroeder if you are interested in joining the mailing list. We hope to meet for brunch once a month!
On October 22-25, 2014, a record-breaking 8,200 attendees met in Los Angeles for WE14, the Annual Society of Women Engineers Conference! This year’s conference was also combined with ICWES16, the conference for the International Network of Women Engineers and Scientists, which was a celebration of that organization’s 50th anniversary. This partnership brought a new level of energy and attendees from 42 countries to an already HUGE conference! Attendees from all across the world came together to learn, network, and discuss a variety of topics ranging from professional development and leadership skills to outreach and academia.
Many Dallas SWE members were in attendance, and below you will find a full run-down of major events from my (Shelley Stracener, Dallas SWE Section Rep and Webmaster) perspective. Later in the week, I’ll be posting some Dallas SWE member perspectives on their experience at WE14. For those of you who have never been to an international SWE conference, check out the latest issue of SWE Magazine to get an idea of the volume and variety of sessions that were available. A few videos have been uploaded to the new WE TV Youtube Channel with clips from major events at the conference and interviews with SWE leadership. You can also view many filmed sessions by registering for the WE14 Virtual Experience. Check out the WE14 Registration Information page for more information.
iScream Social
WE14 kicked off Wednesday night with the iScream Social, a combination Halloween costume contest and delicious dessert bar. There were some really creative costumes this year and you can’t really go wrong with tasty ice cream!
Keynote Breakfast
Thursday morning, attendees of the Keynote Breakfast were in for a treat when SWE President Elizabeth Bierman took the stage to have a fireside-chat style interview with Gwynne Shotwell (which you can watch in its entirety here at the SWE YouTube channel), President and COO of SpaceX. The interview format was great, especially the ability for the audience to submit questions via Twitter for Elizabeth to ask! Shotwell candidly relayed lessons learned from her experiences as a mechanical engineering individual contributor through her transition to upper management where she now manages the daily operations of a $5 billion company with 3,000 people on its payroll. She was also very frank about how she’s chosen to balance her career with home life and responsibilities. Gwynne’s idea of work life balance “is not 50-50, it’s whatever is sustainable,” which for her meant hiring a nanny to help with household tasks and supervising her two children when they were young so that she could give more focus to her work. Later, as a divorced mother, she was able to schedule business trips on weeks when her children were with their father. She said she’s never had a direct career plan, but has instead been open to opportunities as they’ve presented themselves. To the question, “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” she responded that she would like to focus on improving the education system in the United States. It was a REALLY inspirational way to start out the conference: definitely take the time to watch the entire interview. It is well worth it!
Region C Meeting
Thursday afternoon, Region C Governor Dianne Beever hosted a series of Region C Meetings: first the professional section meeting, a joint session for both professionals and collegiates, then a session just for collegiate sections. In the professional session, we broke up into small groups on a number of different topics: the new Region C Mentoring Program, social media use, the Region C leadership pipeline, and the possibility of having a Region Conference in conjunction with another nearby region. There was some really great feedback on these topics! In the joint session, we got an update from our Region C Senators and Treasurer and some announcements on the Region C Conference Feb 6-8, 2015 in Austin, TX. For more details and documents from the Region C meetings, check out the Region C Professional blog post about it! You can also view more details on how to get involved in SWE HQ and Region C volunteer activities, including leadership evaluation, scholarship application evaluation, and Region C Award selection in this Region C Professional blog post.
Great group at the Region C Joint Meeting! Join us for the Region C Conference in February!
Career Fair
Over 300 companies were represented at the WE14 career fair which opened Thursday afternoon, continuing into hospitality suites that evening, and all day Friday. Certain times were set aside for experience professional recruiting, but most of the career fair was open to SWE members and non-members alike. Many companies had areas reserved in the exhibit hall where they could conduct on-site interviews with prospective candidates! Many SWE members, including myself, have gotten jobs at SWE conference career fairs. It’s an amazing experience!
Dallas SWE members outside the Career Fair!
Celebrate SWE!
At Celebrate SWE, the conference’s closing banquet, Dallas SWE President in FY13 and FY14, Jennifer Vilbig, received the Outstanding SWE Counselor Award for her work with Southern Methodist University SWE! You can view her bio and details about the award from SWE Magazine here. Dallas SWE also received the Outstanding Parent and Educator Program Award for the Adult Session portions of our Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls events!
Volunteering
This was the first year that I signed up to be a volunteer for a SWE Annual Conference. The 50% registration discount was attractive since my employer does not subsidize my travel or registration for the conference, and since I signed up to be a volunteer early on in the process I was able to judiciously select my 4 hours of volunteer shifts during sessions that I wanted to attend anyway! It was really great to participate in making WE14 a success, and being a room monitor allowed me to spend additional time with the great speakers in each session. Plus I got a beautiful blue scarf that designated me as a volunteer in-the-know! I will definitely be signing up to volunteer again next year and encourage you to as well!
On Tuesday, October 21, 2014, Halliburton’s women’s network, Women Sharing Excellence (WSE), and Dallas SWE partnered for an exciting and informational session and plant tour of Halliburton’s Completion Technology and Manufacturing Center in Carrollton, TX. Over 35 attendees enjoyed dinner and networking.
Great turnout for the Halliburton tour!
Jason Besly provided an overview of the center which supports over 1,500 employees. Summer Condarco, Carrollton’s Manufacturing Director, shared an overview of her career at Halliburton which included various leadership positions and an overseas assignment in Singapore. She attributed her career success to saying “yes” to opportunities and knowing when to ask for help. Attendees had some great questions for her on the topics of her experience with cultural differences in Singapore, management transition strategies, and how networking has helped her to be noticed for new opportunities in her career. She also had some insightful comments on how to use data-based conversations to neutralize difficult personalities in the workplace.
SWE and WSE members toured the 66 acre facility which included a Manufacturing Plant, three Test Wells, several Technology Testing Facilities and a Raw materials warehouse. Our tour guides emphasized that safety and customer service are core values of Halliburton employees. Carrollton Technology is one of 2,343 sites in the United States that is honored with holding the OSHA VPP Star Site status.
Awesome and practical Halliburton goodies!
A special thanks to our host and Dallas SWE Program Committe Chair, Lori Wiltz, for setting up this great event and to Halliburton for providing us with awesome souvenir lunch bags and coffee mugs.
We look forward to seeing you at our November 18 meeting. Mark your calendars! More details to come.
Cherrie Fisher, PMP AT&T Information Technology Dallas SWE Vice President
Dallas SWE and Halliburton’s Women Sharing Excellence (WSE) network invite you to join them for a networking dinner, tour, and presentation on Growth of Women’s Leadership!
When: Tuesday October 21st, 2014
Event starts at 6:00PM and should conclude by 8:00PM
Please arrive a bit early as non-Halliburton employees will have a security check-in
Volunteers are still needed for our November 1, 2014 Design Your World – STEM Conference for Girls! Please fill out the Volunteer Response Form to let us know how you can help.
Dallas SWE will again be participating in the Coppell High School Engineering Expo on November 2, 2014. Please email us at dallas.swe@gmail.com to let us know if you’re interested in helping us talk to students about what it’s like to be an engineer!
WE14, the Annual SWE Conference, is October 22-25 in Los Angeles, CA. We hope to see you there! The WE14 mobile app was just released on Android and iOS: check it out and plan your schedule!
Dallas SWE kicked off the FY15 year on Tuesday, September 16, with Sheri Jenkinson, founder of WATT (Women Advancing Technology Together) and Ipseity at our first professional meeting. The night started with thirty attendees mingling and networking over dinner and drinks at the Coffee House Café in Dallas.
As Sheri took the floor, she started off highlighting the diversity found within Dallas SWE by pointing out the various generations and backgrounds present at the meeting. To get the discussion started, she then asked the hard questions: What do we, as women engineers, want? Why are the participants in STEM fields while other women leave? Why do are young girls losing interest in math and science? The members of Dallas SWE had interesting insights.
Great group at our first Professional Development event of FY15!
Input was given from the educators and the mid-level professionals, from long-time engineers to new graduates. The main point of discussion became why the women present in the meeting choose to stay in STEM fields, with a majority sighting solid role models of both genders, a strong support network, and the ability to be thick-skinned in our surroundings. Furthermore, the members of Dallas SWE discussed why girls and young women lose interest in math and science. Answers ranged vastly; some said it’s because girls lack encouragement at a young age, from the toys their given to the clothes they wear. Others say it’s because young girls are not taught to learn from failure and it impacts their commitment to math and science as these subjects get more difficult over the years.
The discussion Sheri led had many thinking of their own career choices, past and future. She encouraged all participants to take responsibility for their career paths and discouraged everyone to downplay their success, as women often do. Her discussion also reinforced the need for successful women in STEM fields to reach out a mentor girls from a young age, so girls of all ages have role models as they navigate through their youth.
On Saturday, July 19, The Frontiers of Flight Museum hosted the MOON DAY celebration to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. The event featured over 25 exhibitors and plenty of fun, family-friendly activities. Dallas SWE and Fort Worth SWE partnered up to provide visitors with two hands-on, engineering-based activities.
Building and Testing Solar Powered Robots
Kids of all ages tried their hands at building a solar-powered robot, snapping together parts with a solar cell to demonstrate principles of Mechanical Engineering and Renewable Energy. The kids loved watching their robots roll along when under our makeshift sun (a study lamp!). One little boy said he thought engineering only involved buildings until he made the robots while a little girl was excited she could build a more stable robot faster than her brothers!
Kids got their hands wet by building boats from one piece of aluminum foil. The boat had to stay afloat while adding more and more weights. Each “boat-engineer” made a guess about how many weights their boat could hold… we had a record of 163! Several participants came back to design a better boat or go head to head with their siblings. We even had a contest between a father-son pair; the son walked away with bragging rights.
Which boat holds the most?
Over the course of the day’s celebration, over 150 kids visited the SWE exhibits with their families and participated in the activities with the volunteers from Dallas SWE (Zaineb Ahmad, Stephany Alanis, Sara Brandt, Teri Cate, Ashley Dunn, Barbara Read, Shelley Stracener, Tram Trinh, Jennifer Vilbig) and Fort Worth SWE (Carrie Ballester, Birdena Milligan, Candy Robinson). Several parents commented on the fun activities that made their children think outside the box and were interested in getting similar robots or giving the boats another try at home. Looks like the ladies of Dallas SWE and Fort Worth SWE met some future engineers!
