As an engineer for Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation and a former Girl Scout, Emily Bartz understands the need to present opportunities in STEM careers to underrepresented youth and to girls in particular. She has reached more than 1,000 girls and almost that many adults through Girl Scout STEM programming.

Within her company, Bartz has mentored young women entering the field, and is not adverse to mentoring men. In her spare time, she trains and instructs others in Krav Maga, an Israeli military style of self-defense, particularly focusing on training and empowering other women.

Her career as an engineer focuses on aerodynamics and propulsion, working on Sikorsky’s model wind tunnel testing for the X2 program, the DARPA wind tunnel test effort for the HSRTT program, the Blackhawk program, and more. Bartz earned a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and a minor in Business Administration.

Nominated for her work in empowering women in STEM, Stephanie Higgins Bealing has addressed students at many institutions including Miss Porter’s School, Trinity College, and UConn, and has led Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship sessions at Miss Porter’s School. She guest lectures at community colleges including Tunxis and Manchester Community College.

Since founding Replacement Lens Express (RLE) in 2010, Bealing has grown her award-winning prescription eyeglass lens replacement company extensively on the web, with last year's sales exceeding $425,000 and delivering to customers in 55 countries. She designed RLE's unique supply chain initiatives to allow the business to sell its name-brand products at significantly reduced prices, helping consumers save hundreds of dollars a year. Prior to founding her company, Bealing travelled to Antarctica to conduct a geochronological survey and held positions as a fuel cell engineer, where she presented her scientific results at international events. She holds two U.S. patents and is a regular judge at the Connecticut Invention Convention.

Michelle Bellinger takes a tremendous amount of pride in the opportunities she provides to the female students at the Academy of Aerospace Engineering. This is extremely important in a school where only 25% of the student population is female. Her true love is involving young women in authentic research projects that push them beyond their comfort zone. She actively seeks out females students to work in her research lab and to compete in scientific competitions.

Bellinger opens up STEM career possibilities for female students of diverse backgrounds by inviting underrepresented female professionals to her monthly lunchtime “STEMinars”, offering students an opportunity to interact with role models in the community. Additionally, she brings female high school students to the University of Connecticut for programs for Women in Engineering run by the University and to programs for prospective students run by the Society of Women Engineers.

Jackie Garofano knows firsthand the power of mentorship, networking and is a true STEMinist. She feels incredibly fortunate to have had mentors who encouraged and supported her career and works to give back by creating opportunities for a diverse workforce. As a first-generation college student, she knows the challenges that one must overcome. She is an active member of the Society of Women Engineers and was a 2018 Future is NOW awardee by the CT Women’s Education and Legal Fund for her work to advance women and girls in the STEM field. Her passion is being the catalyst that will help set others on a STEM path, igniting their love of STEM and education.

With strong alumni connections to SCSU and UCONN, she seeks out opportunities to share her journey and encourage women because “see her, be her” is real and women in engineering need to be both seen and heard. She has participated in panel sessions, science fairs, and outreach events and even serves as a community leader for United Way & Women United. To Garofano these are platforms to advocate for women and girls in STEM. She strives to be someone young students, especially those in under-served communities, can look to and encourage with “you can do anything you set your mind to!”

Nicole Feeney has hired and mentored four women at The NEAT Center, and she actively encourages their growth within the agency. She has a gift for playing to each of their strengths; whether encouraging them to speak at conferences across the region, or giving another an entire department to run. She has a deep understanding of the unique challenges that women face in this field, and she navigates those challenges calmly and effectively, bringing other women along with her. An avid athlete, she is a basketball coach for a girls basketball team in her spare time.

Feeney oversees the provision of technology to individuals with disabilities of all ages through The NEAT Center’s innovative services. She leads a team of skilled professionals conducting assessments and trainings across the continuum of assistive technology. Presenting at local and national conferences offers her the opportunity to promote community awareness and share unique and powerful benefits in using technology to support education, employment, independent living and community needs.

In order to provide financial aid to the graduate students and specifically to increase the female fellow engagement, Elif Kongar raised funds via the Society of Women Engineers, Connecticut Section, for highly qualified University of Bridgeport female engineering students for the past several years. In addition, she served as the faculty advisor for the School of Engineering Society of Women Engineers section for the last four years.

Kongar's work with students in the classroom, and on projects and involving her students in industrial projects is crucial for the development of engineering and STEM activities at the University of Bridgeport and raising the profile of the University. Furthermore, that work through the years has resulted in eminent placement of her students in co-ops, internships and full time positions.

Kongar is a Professor at the University of Bridgeport. During her tenure in the Departments of Technology Management and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bridgeport, she established research and graduate concentrations and coursework in several areas, including simulation and modeling, service management and engineering, and economic / environmental sustainability. She also serves as the Director of the Technology Management Ph.D. program while leading the development of blended and distance learning curricula at the department.

Leticia Colón de Mejias is an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. She is President of Green Eco Warriors, a nonprofit providing STEAM based educational tools and presentations to underrepresented communities. Colon de Mejias sits on several national nonprofit boards.

Her companies are highly awarded and work with respected partners to lower energy waste and increase renewable energy resources while protecting, training, and employing under represented communities. She is the recipients of several national awards, including a 2013 U.S. Department of Energy Home Performance with Energy Star Award for Customer Service and Market Leadership, 2013 and 2017 Capital Workforce Partners Business.

Prior to her work in energy policy she was highly accomplished in the workforce development and healthcare management fields. She has received several national workforce program development awards and was a recipient of the HBJ 40 under 40 award, the 50 Top Latino award, SINA award, and the Maria Sanchez Award.

Everything that Clare Neseralla does opens the doors of STEM wide open to the young and diverse student body at CREC Discovery Academy. She makes STEM activities and inquiry based learning fun and inviting for students on many levels. She helps teachers incorporate lessons that are engaging and aligned with NGSS curriculum. She also teaches STEM classes that change focus year to year and grade to grade. Neseralla hosts a yearly STEM Night that is open to the community and invites UCONN students as well as students from other CREC schools to showcase their learning in a fascinating way. Last year she invited female engineers from the I-84 project to be interviewed by fifth graders, opening up the world of STEM jobs to them first hand.

Kathleen Rowland stepped up in early 2019 to volunteer as Sikorsky’s HeliVenture Team lead. Sikorsky HeliVenture’s mission is to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) outreach in Connecticut and nearby communities. Under Rowland’s leadership in 2019, HeliVenture was able to participate in 20 events, which is historically the highest number ever, and 25% more than initially projected. The team was fortunate enough to impact over 2,000 students with nearly 400 hours volunteered from 50 unique employee volunteers in 2019. Rowland also steered the team to develop new demonstrations and high-level presentations to help bring the principles of flight, engineering, and helicopter history to future engineers at all grade levels.

Maranda Wong has been actively involved as president and other key roles in the Asian American Leadership Forum (AALF). One of her key accomplishments since joining the group included the creation of a Pratt & Whitney group called Project STEM, which hosts educational STEM-related activities for students in Connecticut.

She recently coordinated an activity called STEM Field Day to encourage elementary/middle school students to gain interest in STEM with more than 60 volunteers from UTC, 125 participating students, and 12 different hands-on activities at the UCONN Storrs campus. She also set up five outreach events in the greater Hartford/Middletown area. Under Wong’s leadership, the AALF also instituted a college mentoring program in 2018 that resulted in 37 students from UCONN (Storrs, Hartford, and Stamford) being paired up with mentors at Pratt & Whitney.

As founding chair of the Women and Minorities in Ecology Committee for the Ecological Society of America (largest professional organization for ecologists), Carmen Cid led the development of the first blueprint for establishing the committee infrastructure and strategic planning initiatives to improve recruitment, retention and career development for women and minorities in ecology (the WAMIE I report). Over the last two decades, Cid worked to set and accomplish many goals to enhance ESA diversity and ecological literacy initiatives. Her biggest achievements are the establishment of the SEEDS award-winning mentoring programs for minority undergraduates and the development of many society initiatives to improve career development of early career ecologists, along with establishment of society-endorsed undergraduate ecology education standards.

While there are few diverse scientists in Genomics, Rachel O’Neil works with an increasingly varied population of culturally diverse students at UConn. She teaches large classes of a hundred students, smaller classes of 40 to 50 students, honors seminars for our highest achieving students and runs a laboratory where she and her doctoral students, undergraduate trainees and visiting high-school students conduct their research. Her mentorship of culturally diverse talented young students is in an area of critical need.

O’Neil established and runs the Genome Ambassadors program that performs outreach workshops for K-12 schools across Connecticut and is the faculty mentor for the (Women in Math Science and Engineering living community at UConn. She mentors young people, often after her regular classes end and in the summer.

As a UCONN medical school faculty member, Dr. Katherine Coyner is a mentor by default. In that role she mentors both medical students and orthopedic surgery residents. She has held workshops on campus specifically designed for girls and young women, including medical students, who are interested in learning more about orthopedic surgery. She also holds quarterly seminars for female students, which are forums for them to ask about certain aspects of surgery as a career for women, such as balancing career and family aspirations.

Coyner is an associate professor of orthopedic surgery at UConn Health and a board-certified orthopedic surgeon holding an additional Subspecialty Certification in Orthopedic Sports Medicine and is part of the UConn Sports Medicine Program. She is a member of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the American Orthopedic Association’s Emerging Leaders Program.

Coyner earned her M.D. from Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine. She completed her residency in orthopedic surgery at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., and performed a fellowship in sports medicine at Duke University Medical Center. During her time at Duke, she served as a team physician for the men’s and women’s basketball teams, the football team, and the women’s soccer team.