Spotlight:
Tara Astigarraga is an IBM Master Inventor & Senior Software Engineer and enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
image credit: ibm.com
Spotlight:
Johnnie Jae
Johnnie Jae is a member of the Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw tribal nations of Oklahoma. She is founder/editor or A Tribe Called Geek, an award-winning media platform for Indigenous Geek Culture and STEM. She boasts many more roles including journalist, podcaster, community builder, advocate, technologist, and speaker. Engage with her at her web site, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and You Tube.
image credit
Articles
Cantor, N., Mack, K. M., McDermott, P., & Taylor, O. L. (2014). If not now, when? The promise of STEM intersectionality in the twenty-first century. Peer Review, 16(2), 29–31.
Kant, J. M., Burckhard, S. R., & Meyers, R. T. (2018). Engaging high school girls in Native American culturally responsive STEAM enrichment activities. Journal of STEM Education: Innovations & Research, 18(5), 15–25.
Morton, T. R., & Parsons, E. C. (2018). #BlackGirlMagic: The identity conceptualization of Black women in undergraduate STEM education. Science Education, 102(6), 1363–1393.
Banda, R. M., & Flowers, A. M. (2018). Critical qualitative research as a means to advocate for Latinas in STEM. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 31(8), 769–783.
Sayman, D. (2015). “I was scared to be the stupid”: Latinas in residential academies of science and math. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 15(2), 22–35.
Contreras Aguirre, H. C., Gonzalez, E., & Banda, R. M. (2020). Latina college students’ experiences in STEM at Hispanic-Serving Institutions: framed within Latino critical race theory. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 33(8), 810–823.
Ong, M., Wright, C., Espinosa, L., & Orfield, G. (2011). Inside the double bind: A synthesis of empirical research on undergraduate and graduate women of color in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Harvard Educational Review, 81(2), 172-209.
Ong, M., Smith, J. M., & Ko, L. T. (2018). Counterspaces for women of color in STEM higher education: Marginal and central spaces for persistence and success. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 55(2), 206-245.
Alfred, M. V., Ray, S. M., & Johnson, M. A. (2019). Advancing women of color in STEM: an imperative for US global competitiveness. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 21(1), 114-132.
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Featured BIPOC Women in STEM
Timnit Gebru: AI Computer Scientist
Gebru works on algorithmic bias, and is an advocate for diversity in technology. Founder of Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR). Learn more about Gebru's abrupt departure from Google and what she has done since then.
Joy Buolamwini: Poet of Code
"Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, an award-winning researcher, and poet of code. She advises world leaders, policymakers, and executives on redressing algorithmic harms. Her work is featured in global exhibitions and the documentary Coded Bias available on Netflix." [source]
image licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Leena Gade: British Race Engineer
First woman race engineer to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Has served as lead race engineer in the FIA World Endurance Championship and IndyCar race series. Has achieved many accomplishments in race engineering. Learn more.
image licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Tu Youyou: Nobel Prize Winner
Chemist and educator. She is the first Chinese woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine -- "for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria."
Valerie Thomas: NASA Scientist, Inventor
Very few patents are held by Black inventors, and even fewer by Black women. Thomas holds one for her "illusion transmitter" that she invented in 1978. The technology is still used by NASA today. She managed a NASA team for "Landstat," the first satellite of its kind to take multi-spectral images of earth for research. Learn more.
Image is in the public domain (NASA).
Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson: 18th President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Theoretical physicist. First African-American woman to lead a top-ranked research university. First African-American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT. Learn more.
Aisha Bowe: Founder/CEO, STEMBoard
Her high school guidance counselor suggested cosmetology school. She chose aerospace engineering. She is now CEO of her own company and works to expose underrepresented youth to STEM. Named by Goldie Blox as one of 13 Black women in STEM to know. Learn more about Aisha Bowe.
Dr. France Córdova and Dr. Gabriela González
Two Latinas at the Forefront of Historic Science Discovery
Learn more about Dr. France Córdova, National Science Foundation Director
Learn more about Dr. Gabriela González, Professor of Physics at LSU
image credit cordova
image credit gonzalez
Mary G. Ross (1908 - 2008)
Member of the Cherokee Nation, and trailblazer for indigenous women in STEM. Her degrees were in mathematics; she was the first woman engineer at Lockheed, where she worked for over 30 years. Learn more.
BIPOC Women of NASA: Current Active Astronauts (as of Jan. 2022)
Top row: Jeanette J. Epps and Jessica Watkins
Bottom row: Sunita L. Williams and Stephanie D. Wilson
all images are in the public domain
Books
Women of color in STEM: Navigating the workforce. by
Makes public the life stories of women of color who have persevered in STEM workplace settings. While the disciplines and career contexts vary, the oppression, alienation, and social inequities were common realities for all. Despite the challenges, the women were resilient and persevered with tenacity, a strong sense of self as a person of color, and reliance on family, community, mentors, and spirituality.
Publication Date: 2017
Seeing the Hidden Minority: Increasing the Talent Pool Through Identity, Socialization, and Mentoring Constructs. by
The participation of Black students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, is an issue of national concern. Several chapters of this book focus primarily on Black women in STEM.
Publication Date: 2020
Culturally Responsive Strategies for Reforming STEM Higher Education: Turning the TIDES on Inequity by
This book looks at Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM, or TIDES, in order to meet future demands for STEM fields. Many chapters focus on BIPOC women.
Publication Date: 2019
Chemistry: A Novel by
Multi-award winning novel. Three years into her graduate studies at a demanding Boston university, the unnamed Asian narrator finds her one-time love for chemistry is more hypothesis than reality. Eventually, the pressure mounts so high that she must leave everything she thought she knew about her future, and herself, behind. She's confronted with a question she won't find the answer to in a textbook: What do I really want?
Call Number: Available through MeLCatPublication Date: 2017
African American Women Chemists in the Modern Era by
This book was produced by taking the oral history of women who are leaders in their field and who wanted to tell the world how they succeeded. It features eighteen amazing women and each of them has a claim to fame, despite hiding in plain sight. These women reveal the history of their lives from youth to adult.
Publication Date: 2018
Spotlight:
Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is professor of physics, astronomy, and women’s and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire. Her science research focuses on cosmology, neutron stars, and dark matter. She also does research in Black feminist science, technology, and society studies. She was named one of 10 people who shaped science in 2020 by Nature, and was recognized as one of “15 Black Women Who Are Paving the Way in STEM and Breaking Barriers” by Essence.
Her book, The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, is available through Wayne State University Library. Book preview.
Image credit: UNH Dept. of Physics & Astronomy