I attended the 1996 Channels for Change conference for women in science and technology organized by Women in Technology International. Here is my personal review of the event. But first I'd like to call immediate attention to the conference keynote address by Rene Redwood, Director of the Presidential Glass Ceiling Commission, which you may read at the WITI website.
And yes, there will be more Channels for Change next year!
The most exciting presentation of conference for me was the induction of 10 women into the WITI Hall of Fame. Neuromorphic engineer and Caltech alum Misha Mahowald, right, and Dr. Cheryl Shavers, General Manager of Advanced Technology at Intel, were two of the inductees.
Workshops included: Industry's Role in Promoting Gender Equity in Academia, Handling Professional Assaults, Business and Marketing Savvy on the Internet, Technology Grantsmanship, and "Womanagement". To the right is Amy Pearl, General Manager of Java Engineering at Sun.
They had company-logo loot and plenty of it: Intel leather luggage tags, Norton AntiVirus mouse pads, Tandem yellow highlighter pens and Novell cardboard coasters. But the slick new Cadillac Catera on display was too big for my Maxtor glossy shopping bag so I bought a WITI tee shirt and a video of Gloria Steinem at Channels for Change '95 instead!
Special note: two Caltech women professors have been honored by WITI as part of Women in Science and Technology month - Pamela Bjorkman and Joann Stock.
Page and conference attendance supported by private grant from Supportive Spouse John Schwarz, Harold Brown Professor of Theoretical Physics, Caltech. But hopefully we can persuade the Institute to fund some women officially for next year?