Tech Alpharetta’s
Women’s Forum
Tech Alpharetta’s Women’s Forum ran a pilot of its new STEAM mentoring program at Fulton County School’s Innovation Academy High School in spring 2022. Based upon the success of that pilot, in partnership with the Innovation Acadamy, our Women’s Forum officially launched our STEAM mentoring program for the 2022-2023 school year, on August 24, 2022.
Our Women’s Forum’s STEAM mentoring program’s goal is to help inspire more girls to pursue STEAM careers.
Our mentoring program pairs senior-level, female tech executives with a cohort of Innovation Academy’s female high school students, to provide the students with a resource and role model as they begin to consider college majors and to develop potential, future career interests.
According to the 2023 Global Gender Gap Report, women make up 29.2% of the STEM workforce in 146 countries, while men make up the remaining 70.8%. Despite a 1.58% increase in STEM female workers between 2015 and 2023, a troubling gender imbalance remains. In the US, women make up 24% of the STEM workforce, while in the EU, they make up 17%.
Factors Contributing to the Gender Gap:
Stereotypes: STEAM fields are often seen as masculine, and girls are discouraged from pursuing them at a young age.
Unconscious Bias: Even unintentional biases can hold women back. This can happen in hiring, promotion decisions, and even how much credit women receive for their work.
Lack of Role Models: There are far fewer women in leadership positions in STEAM fields. This makes it harder for girls to find relatable role models and mentors who can show them what’s possible.
Tech Alpharetta Announces Launch of Women’s Forum STEAM Mentoring Program
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Tech Alpharetta Women’s Forum Announces that its STEAM Mentoring Program will Double in Size for 2023-2024
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Get Involved
Thank you to our 25 volunteer mentors and Women’s Forum Board members for giving nearly 400 hours of their time to make our 2023-2024 STEAM Mentoring Program such a success! And, a big thank to you Pam Whitlock and Binita Patel at Innovation Academy High School for making this program possible. Finally, thank you to our Program Director, Lisa West, for going above and beyond to help manage our program. We look forward to launching our 2024-2025 STEAM Mentoring Program this August, pairing 30+ female tech executive mentors with 30 female high school students!
Interested in becoming a Women’s Forum mentor? Please contact Lisa West.
Women’s Forum Advisory Board
Sunita Arora
Women’s Forum Advisory Board Co-chair and Chief Operating Officer at Medicus IT
Sherry Askin
CEO and Founder, Omni Software Systems
Karen Cashion
CEO Tech Alpharetta
David Fisher
Women’s Forum Advisory Board Co-chair and Executive Director, Morgan Stanley
Cheryl Kleiman
Regional Vice President of Sales, Flexential
Karyn Mullins
Rachael Nagrowski
Executive Director - Sales Operations and Enablement, Verizon Business Group
Jenni Palocsik
VP Enablement Operations, Verint
Emmy Weber
Chief Marketing Officer, Surgical Information Systems
Laura Wysong
CEO and Founder, Tranzhalo Inc.
Binita Patel
STEM Teacher and Program Sponsor, Innovation Academy High School
Lisa West
Program Director, Tech Alpharetta
Pamela Whitlock
Program Director | Computer Science Instructor, Innovation Academy
To Become a Tech Alpharetta Women’s Forum Sponsor, please reach out to Emmy Weber.
Thank you to our Tech Alpharetta Women’s Forum STEAM Mentoring Program Foundational Sponsors:
Thank you to our Tech Alpharetta Women’s Forum STEAM Mentoring Program Community Sponsors:
