On Friday, January 21st, Dallas SWE was honored to speak at the Girls in STEM Club at Jasper High School in Plano. Speakers Rana Karimi, Cyonna Holmes, and Pratiksha Jaju spoke to a diverse group of over 40 high school young women in the Girls in STEM Club! It was an engaging session with great questions posted by the students. Some of the key themes from the session were: trusting and believing in yourself, being open to possibilities, and staying true to your values. We covered a variety of topics from life sciences, to manufacturing, to consulting and all that is possible with an engineering degree. Our panelists truly enjoyed the opportunity to speak to such motivated young ladies about all of the exciting opportunities that a career in STEM can unlock. Many of the members in attendance expressed how much they enjoyed hearing from our speakers and how much they learned about the limitless opportunities within engineering. Thank you to all of the talented young women who attended!
Congratulations to Dallas SWE’s February/March Member of the Month, Cyonna Holmes!
Cyonna grew up in Dallas and attended The Hockaday School. She graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Bioengineering. After college, Cyonna attended UT Southwestern Medical Center where she graduated with a PhD in Biomedical Engineering. Her dissertation research focused on perfusion solution optimization and nanoparticle-mediated delivery of microRNA to the heart during heart transplant surgery. While in graduate school, she co-founded and led The Association of African- American Scientists, an organization focused on the recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in STEM fields. In this role, she worked with a team to hold High School STEM conferences, host speaker events, and organize seminars.
Cyonna is currently the Global Senior Manager of Marketing and Strategy for Pharmaceutical Solutions at Celanese, where she leads ophthalmology strategy. She works to develop and execute strategy for business growth and product market entry for ocular implants into the pharmaceutical sector. Prior to this role, Cyonna was a Life Sciences Consultant in Los Angeles at a Consulting Firm, L.E.K., where she advised pharma, biotech, medical device, and healthcare companies on business strategy which included M&A screening and due diligence, life cycle management strategy, market entry, revenue opportunity analysis, and more.
As a previous Stanford Society of Women Engineers member, Girls Inc. Mentor, and Big Brothers, Big Sisters Mentor, Cyonna has always been deeply passionate about outreach and diversifying STEM fields. Cyonna quotes, “Since moving back to Dallas, The Dallas Society of Women Engineers has been an exciting way to continue sharing my love of science and engineering through outreach. The VP of Outreach, Rana, does an amazing job of creating a supportive, welcoming environment where members feel empowered to pursue and lead activities that interest them. If anyone is looking to get more involved with Dallas Society of Women Engineers, I highly recommend joining the outreach team. Volunteering is a great entry point into Dallas SWE!” Cyonna is currently on the outreach committee where she serves as an activity lead for The Girl Scouts Design Your World Event. She is also engaged with school and community partnerships and book club.
The beginning of the year typically starts with goal setting, career planning and feedback. Providing feedback can bring on a multitude of thoughts and feelings, join Dallas SWE virtually on Wednesday, February 23rd at 7:30 PM as we discuss how to give and receive feedback in the workplace! We will watch a short TedTalk by LeeAnn Renninger, PhD on how to give great feedback, followed by a time of discussion and networking.
The Dallas SWE book club will be meeting virtually to discuss the current book selection, “The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness” by Ichiro Kishimi. Please RSVP to the link below if you would like to join! Also, if you have not been added to the Dallas SWE Book Club slack channel, please email Rana at rana.m.karimi@gmail.com.
We need YOUR HELP at the next Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls! Please help us as we bring back our award-winning program, Design Your World!
This event will be held in collaboration with Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas, at the STEM Center of Excellence on Saturday, March 19th.
Volunteers are needed to prepare for the conference and for specific activities on the day of the event. Please sign up to volunteer here!
You may sign up for multiple roles, as long as the job duties and times do not overlap.
WE Local is back for 2022! WE Local conferences are organized by SWE to bring together participants in all stages of their collegiate and professional journey. The conferences create space for engineers, technologists, and partners to connect through professional development sessions, inspirational speakers, networking opportunities, and more. There are 3 domestic conferences and 2 international ones schedule between February and May. Please see here for more details.
WE Local registration and housing for Albuquerque are now open! Early bird registration for the conference is just $175. You can register here. The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites by Hilton. The program is still being finalized but promises to be a great lineup of speakers and topics.
If you plan to attend any WE Local and would like help connecting with other Dallas SWE members also attending, please email dallas.swe@gmail.com.
