Join Dallas SWE for our kick off event for the Fiscal Year! The Kickoff Brunch will be Saturday, September 17, 2022 from 11 AM – 1 PM at True Food Kitchen in Preston Center Plaza. Registration closes September 12.
We will be enjoying brunch and networking at True Food Kitchen at Preston Plaza Center. Come ready to introduce yourself, hear all the great things we have in store, and meet more of Dallas SWE!
On June 15 th , Dallas SWE hosted its final Professional Development Event for FY22 at La Madeline in Plano. FY23 President, Rana Karimi, presented on the topic of Women and Negotiation.
Rana began the presentation by setting the stage on the current gender wage gap. The current gender wage gap is largely drive by the occupational segregation, which is the separation of job by gender. Women are more commonly in lower paying fields than men, which contributes greatly to the current gap in median wages for men and women. The more women we can promote in typically male-dominated, higher paying fields, the faster we can close in on this gap. Similarly, the more girls we can influence to learn about and pursue STEM will also help in closing that gap. Since we are all professional engineers already, the next best thing we can do is advocate for ourselves more, negotiate our pay, and spread awareness about doing so.
We also discussed common fears when it comes to negotiating, such as negotiating your starting pay, knowing when biases or cultural or gender expectations might be holding you back, and not getting bogged down by rejection. These anecdotes allowed members to open up and share similar experience of their own when negotiating. We learned that we are not alone in experiencing many of these challenges and how greater awareness can help us to advocate more effectively for ourselves.
Finally, the presentation focused on strategies for how we can develop a competitive negotiation plan. We discussed a 5-step process that was adapted from traditional Sourcing methodology on how to tactically approach your next negotiation from a data-driven and well-researched background. These steps are rooted in defining what is of value to you and knowing how to define, measure, and maximize that value during your negotiation. We also discussed how to advocate for yourself when you are already in an organization and looking for a promotion or challenge opportunity. The five steps to the process are:
The biggest takeaway of the session is that we can all take action to help address the gender wage gap. Action might include negotiating when required, but it also includes spreading awareness to our women co-workers, daughters, sisters, girlfriends, and other women. The more we can normalize the act of women as negotiators, the more common it will be and more we can take down gender norms.
Dallas SWE would like to recognize our Professional Development Committee Leaders, comprised of Katia Gomez and Gretchen Landego, and Dallas SWE Secretary Sammy Zellner, for the support in coordinating and delivering this event. We look forward to more impactful Professional Development events in FY23!
As we begin preparing for FY23, Dallas SWE needs your support in building our committees so we can continue delivering great programming. All Dallas SWE Committees are looking for volunteers for FY23! We are excited about gearing up for more great events, many of which will be in person. To do so, we need your help! Our Committees are a great way to build your leadership experience and network while volunteering your time to areas you are passionate about. Dallas SWE depends on volunteers for all local activities so any commitment you can make is greatly appreciated!
You can read about each of our committees here.
Please complete the FY23 Committee Interest Survey here. All are welcome to support these great committees!
Registration for WE22 in Houston, TX from October 20-22 is now open! You can find out more and
register here. Check out our summary of WE20 too!
Let us know if you’re going by filling out the Dallas SWE Conference Coordination survey. If you’re interested, we can help you find other carpoolers, roommates, share rides to the conference center from the airport if you’re flying, and put you on the Dallas SWE Slack WE21 Channel, so we can keep in touch while there! If you have questions about WE22 or travel coordination, please email us at dallas.swe@gmail.com.
To our talented Dallas SWE Members,
I am greatly looking forward to the opportunity to serve you as President for FY23! Thank you for trusting me to guide Dallas SWE for this year. I have been involved with SWE since 2008, and with Dallas SWE since 2017. I have held many of the officer roles within Dallas SWE since that time, and it has been wonderful to see SWE grow through its array of programming and innovations over the years!
The outgoing officers of FY22 and incoming officers for FY23 just met on July 23rd for our annual transition meeting, and we are very excited about the great things in our pipeline for this year. Our VP of Membership, Claire Jordan, our Treasurer, Katie Mills, and our Secretary, Sammy Zellner, are going to continue doing amazing work in their roles. We have elected two new officers, our VP of Outreach, Cyonna Holmes, and our VP of Professional Development, Ana Gonzalez, to serve for FY23 and we are excited about the experience they bring!
One of our goals for our Dallas SWE Professionals is to oversee an impactful year of professional development and member networking, so that you can get the value that helps you advance in your path even faster. Ana and Claire are already crafting exciting programming on these topics.
We will also build off our impactful outreach programs so we can influence more young women to be interested in engineering. Cyonna has a great head start on outreach for this year, with new partnerships and opportunities in the pipeline.
We also intend to grow our sponsorships. Katie has been doing a great job in securing new partnerships for FY23 already, and we look forward to growing the list of companies that sponsor Dallas SWE so that we can continue to put on more great events. If you work for, or know of, a company that might want to sponsor Dallas SWE, please let us know so we can begin having those important conversations.
On that note, if you participated and enjoyed any of our programming from last year, from Outreach, to Professional Development, to Member Socials, to Social Media interaction, to Fundraising, and more, please consider volunteering for a committee. Fill out this survey if you’re interested, and we will be in touch with you soon to get you added to our monthly committee calls.
Also, please remember to renew your SWE membership if you have not already done so. Renewing your membership allows you continued access to the dozens of events we put on a year, networking opportunities, and career support. You can renew your membership by logging into your profile on the SWE Website. Please let me know if you have any questions about the renewal process or any feedback about renewing your membership.
Finally, I would like to thank and recognize our previous SWE President, Amanda Alsbrook, for all that she has done to keep Dallas SWE moving forward in our past two years, especially with navigating through the strain the pandemic has caused. Amanda, thank you for all of your hard work and effort to improve Dallas SWE and get us to where we are today!
We look forward to a great FY23!
Rana Karimi
Dallas SWE FY23 President
Dallas SWE is pleased to recognize Ashley Johnson as a Member of the Month for August 2022! With our Member of the Month program, Dallas SWE seeks to recognize some of our non-officer members whose technical contributions, leadership accomplishments, or SWE volunteer service are particularly noteworthy. If you would like to nominate a Dallas SWE member for his/her contributions, please email us at dallas.swe@gmail.com.
Check out Ashley’s story below!
I grew up in a family that encouraged me in anything I wanted to pursue, whether education, sports, or anything else – as long as I gave it my best. My dad is an engineer, and I followed in his footsteps with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Texas A&M.
I fell in love with engineering my sophomore year of college. My passion continued to grow with my first engineering job – an internship at L3Harris. I was able to use what I was learning at my internship to contextualize my classes and better understand the real-world applications of my education. I started my work at L3Harris as a Mechanical Designer, transitioning the next summer to Mechanical Systems. I remained a member of the Mechanical Systems team for the next six years, where I was able to grow both my technical and my leadership skills. During this time, I also pursued my Master’s in Mechanical Engineering through UTA (using L3Harris’ Education Assistance program). I ultimately got the opportunity to be the Mechanical Systems lead for the program I was working, which led to my next role as a Project Engineer.
This role challenged me in many ways beyond my technical acumen, and I got the opportunity to expand beyond my mechanical background. I also started pursing a Master’s in Systems Engineering through a corporate cohort. I really enjoyed learning more about the programmatic and contractual side of business, but learned I missed being in the technical “weeds”. I had the opportunity to work with some of the Missions System engineers, which ultimately led to my current role as a Systems Engineer. While I could have never predicted this would be my career path, I am so grateful for the various opportunities I have received and the lessons along the way. More than anything, I am grateful for the many people who have invested in me and have given me a chance. I hope that I am able to impact people for the better, like so many have done for me.
When I was growing up, and even in college, I recognized that there were not a lot of women in the sciences and engineering – but I honestly thought that was their choice. My frame of reference was parents who supported me and encouraged me to consider engineering. I discovered once I joined the workplace, not everyone is as supportive. And not every female is encouraged to embrace the STEM aptitude she demonstrates. My husband is an incredible and supportive partner who doesn’t let his ego dictate his reactions to my successes – but it turns out that’s not necessarily the norm.
I got involved in bringing back the Women’s Leadership Employee Resource Group at my workplace in 2017 and served as an officer until December 2021. In this role, I was able to help others grow their networks, feature leaders in various speaker series, be involved in a business book club, and have a voice with our site leadership. I personally learned and grew as a leader, an employee, and engineer, and also a feminist. I found my voice communicating about the complexities of fixing the diversity problems we face in America, and in helping women (and men!) grow.
I joined SWE because I wanted a reach that was broader than my workplace. All the diversity efforts in the world won’t work if we wait until people are in the workplace to care. We have to recognize that there is a pipeline problem, starting when women are very young. My passion is to give back to others in the same way my parents and mentors have given to me – to see their potential, embrace it, and encourage them to learn and grow in ways they never dreamed. SWE has so many opportunities for me to embrace this passion, and I am really enjoying investing in the organization.
