Dear Women & Hi Tech Members, Sponsors, Partners, and Friends:

As many of you know, March is Women's History Month, and its purpose is to inspire, commemorate, and encourage the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. Many significant advancements and impactful change, in all facets, in our Country's history including, human rights, government, equity and inclusion, philanthropy, business, and innovation in the STEM fields, are due to the courageous, intelligent, and ingenious women leaders who have gone before us. As Women & Hi Tech furthers our mission, to change the landscape of women represented in STEM to be equally inclusive to all, celebrating and honoring diverse women in STEM and lifting-up and inspiring diverse girls is at the forefront of what we do. We invite you to take a moment to celebrate the women in our history and to continue to celebrate, support, and encourage women and girls in their honor, not just in March but year-round.

I had the opportunity this month to attend a women's groups sharing meeting as a representative of Women & Hi Tech. The meeting was orchestrated by Indianapolis Women's Empowerment Network (I-WEN,) who brought together about a dozen groups including, Pass The Torch for Women, Network of Women in Business (NOWIB), Junior League of Indianapolis, Chiefs in Intellectual Property (ChIPs) and several others. The agenda of this meeting was threefold;1- Learn what the organizations are and their missions; 2 - Learn what resources each has amassed to educate, empower, and improve the lot of women in the professional world; 3 - Share the ideas that may flow. The ultimate purpose of the meeting was to learn how women's organizations can work together to achieve common goals.

I am delighted that many of the groups at the meeting were already collaborating with multiple women's organizations. During the meeting, many ideas surfaced to create and further partnerships and collaborations with the common goal of equity for all women in business. I would also like to inform you that in I-WEN's research to create the sharing meeting, they found over 100 women's organizations in Indianapolis. I find this to be truly exciting!

In light of the unprecedented time we are in as a local, national, and global community with the COVID- 19 pandemic and stay at home orders; many are looking for ways to stay connected. I want to reassure you there are numerous opportunities to get involved, even now, and stay connected with being part of organizations like Women & Hi Tech and so many others. Many groups are hosting virtual networking and professional development meetings leveraging technology platforms like Zoom, Teams, and Webex; committees are being held virtually, and mentoring and one-on-one sessions continue via Facetime and video chat. If you are looking for ways to stay involved, be part of a community and stay connected, I encourage you to check out this link with over 40 women's groups, right here, in Indy. 

In this 15th edition of "Grown from STEM," Women & Hi Tech would like to feature our own, rock star entrepreneurs who have each established their own STEM-related woman-owned organization. First, Women & Hi Tech is delighted to introduce you to our K-12 Outreach Director, Amanda McCammon, founder, and owner of Ingenuity, LLC. Next, we are excited for you to meet long-time Women & Hi Tech Member, Kristen Cooper, founder, and owner of The Startup Ladies. Both of these women are trailblazers in their own right, identifying a gap, and then creating and building businesses to close that gap. We invite you to read more about Amanda and Kristen and how their STEM backgrounds, business acumen, and passion for helping other women and girls drives their support and involvement in Women & Hi Tech.

Kind Regards,

Rebecca Bormann
Women & Hi Tech President-Elect
presidentelect@womenandhitech.org