MESSAGE FROM 2015 IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING COMMITTEE CHAIR
In 2014, WIE celebrated its 20th anniversary. It commemorated the year by establishing a strong business plan, organized the 1st International Leadership Conference, showed a strong Facebook presence, published an inspiring WIE eBook, supported several conference partnerships, encouraged WIE Affinity Groups’ and volunteers’ activities, added 37 new affinity groups to bring the worldwide total to 510, and reached 15,000+ total members. These accomplishments were made possible by an engaged, vibrant community of volunteers led by chair Nita Patel. I thank Ms. Nita Patel for her hard work that brought such achievements to WIE, as well as the generosity and cooperation she has shown throughout this transition. I would also like to express my heartiest thanks to all WIE members for their dedicated volunteer works. For 2015, I would like to accelerate our business plan steadily to provide enhanced member benefit, celebrate and highlight WIE, and hope to focus on the following 4 main objectives: (a) successful organization of WIE International Leadership Conference 2015; (b) launching of WIE Global Exchange programs to promote cooperation and exchange among local WIE affinity groups; (c) establishment of new communications platform (e.g. website, live chats, and webinars) to interact with our 15,000+ members dynamically; and (d) providing additional awards, travel grants, special project funding and career/leadership resources. I look forward to the opportunities to meet with WIE members around the world as we jointly strive to fulfill WIE’s goal to inspire and enable WIE members to surpass/realize their full potential for the benefit of humanity. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your 2015 WIE chair. If you have suggestions on how we can grow our membership, execute our programs and effectively serve our members, please share your ideas and thoughts with me. Sincerely, Takako@cuc.ac.jp
