Lessons Learned: Stories from Women Leaders in STEM

"Lessons Learned brings us the stories of thirty-one brilliant women in STEM who overcame the odds to push science forward while paving the way for the women yet to come. Uplifting, informative, and important."
—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

Women in this country have made great strides in terms of education. In fact, their educational attainment has outpaced men’s. However, the story is different when it comes to STEM – the field that encompasses science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

While women make up 48% of the workforce, when it comes to the so-called STEM fields, women hold only about 29% of positions in these specialties, with the majority in the biological and life sciences.

There is no evidence that girls and women are not interested in STEM fields. However, research does suggest that cultural attitudes, including implicit and explicit biases, discourage women from entering computer science, engineering, mathematics, and physics in particular.
One of the ways to increase that participation is to have role models who will inspire young women to consider STEM careers.

Lessons Learned: Stories From Women Leaders in STEM, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership and edited by Deborah M. Shlian, MD, MBA, addresses the lack of women in STEM careers through the first-person accounts of notable women who have excelled in a range of STEM-related leadership roles.

“Role models matter,” says Sheryl Sandberg, founder of LeanIn.org and former COO of Meta (Facebook). “In Lessons Learned, Deborah Shlian introduces us to more than 30 extraordinary women who've pushed past gender bias to expand perceptions of what it means to lead in STEM. This book will inspire so many other women and girls to reach for their goals.”

The women in this book are leaders in many different STEM disciplines and in many different sectors, including academia, industry, and government institutions like the FDA and NIH. They are intentionally a diverse group not only by areas of STEM, but also by age (some are at or near the end of their careers, some are mid-career, and some are just beginning), by geography (from East, to Midwest, to West), and by ethnicity (Native American, Latina, Hispanic, African American, Asian, and Caucasian). Each contributor has shared her personal career journey – including the barriers and challenges faced along the way.

The hope is that young readers (especially girls) will find these stories so inspiring that they will consider a STEM career, and those already enrolled in STEM PhD programs will aim to become leaders within their field.

The book’s contributors represent a who’s who of women in STEM:

• Evangelyn C. Alocilja, PhD
  Professor, Department of Biosystems & Agricultural Engineering, Michigan State University
  Founder, Global Alliance for Rapid Diagnostics
  Member, National Academy of Inventors

• Cecilia Aragon, PhD
  Professor of Human-Centered Data Science
  University of Washington
  CeciliaAragonAuthor.com

• Gilda A. Barabino, PhD
  President and Professor of Biomedical & Chemical Engineering
  Olin College of Engineering

• Lisa D. Chong, PhD
  Editor, Science Journals

• Daphney R. Chery, PhD
  STEM Advocate, Speaker, Innovation Lead at Northrop Grumman

• Rita R. Colwell, PhD, DSc
  Distinguished University Professor
  University of Maryland College Park and
  Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

• The Honorable France A. Cordova, PhD
  President, Science Philanthropy Alliance
  14th Director, National Science Foundation
  External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute

• Catie Cuan
  PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering
  Stanford University
  Roboticist, artist, choreographer

• Margaret Dayhoff-Brannigan, PhD
  Regulatory Project Manager and Primary Reviewer
  Office of Vaccines Research & Review
  Food & Drug Administration

• Claire M. Fraser, PhD
  Dean E. Albert Reese Endowed Professor, Department of Medicine
  Director, Institute for Genome Sciences
  University of Maryland School of Medicine

• Olivia L. George, PhD
  Associate Professor, Biology
  University of Hawaii-West O’ahu
  Mathematics, Natural & Health Sciences Division

• Korie Grayson, PhD
  Chemist, Biomedical Engineer, STEM Diversity Advocate
  AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
  www.koriegrayson.com

• Malika Grayson, PhD
  Speaker and Founder, STEMinist Empowered LLC
  Program Manager, Northrop Grumman
  www.malikagrayson.com

• Judith Greenberg, PhD
  Former Deputy Director, National Institute of General Medical Sciences
  National Institutes of Health

• Ronna Hertzano, MD, PhD
  Senior Investigator and Chief of Neurotology Branch
  National Institutes for Deafness and other Communications Disorders
  National Institutes of Health
  Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery
  Affiliate member, Institute for Genome Sciences
  University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore

• Aishwarya Iyer
  MD/PhD Student (PhD candidate in Biochemistry)
  Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP)
  University of Maryland School of Medicine

• Maria Klawe, PhD
  President, Harvey Mudd College
  Incoming President, Math for America

• Kristin E. Lauter, PhD
  Director of Research Science,
  North American Labs for Meta AI Research

• Cathleen (Cat) Lutz, PhD, MBA
  Vice President, Rare Disease Transitional Center at The Jackson Laboratory

• Marcia McNutt, PhD
  President, National Academy of Sciences

• Estelle Russek-Cohen, PhD
  Former Director, Division of Biostatistics
  Center for Biologics Evaluation & Research
  Food & Drug Administration

• Deborah M. Shlian, MD, MBA
  Former CEO, Shlian & Associates, Inc. (executive/physician search and medical management consulting)
  Author of fiction (shlianbooks.com) and nonfiction

• Ida Sim, MD, PhD
  Professor of Medicine & Computational Precision Health
  University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

• Barbara Simons, PhD
  Retired, IBM Research
  Former President, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  Board Chair, Verified Voting

• Tatiana Toro, PhD
  Professor, Department of Mathematics, University of Washington
  Director, Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MRSI)
  Simons Lauter Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath)

• Lydia Villa-Komaroff, PhD
  Founder & President, Intersections Consulting: Science, Business, Diversity

• Valda Vinson, PhD
  Executive Editor, Science Journals

• Maggie Werner-Washburne, PhD
  Regents Professor Emerita, University of New Mexico
  Founder, STEM Boomerang
  www.stemboomerang.org
  career portal: www.boomerang-nm.com

• Telle Whitney, PhD
  Consultant and Speaker
  Co-Founder, Grace Hopper Celebration
  Former CEO, Anita Borg Institute
  www.TelleWhitney.com 

• Amie Wilkinson, PhD
  Professor of Mathematics, University of Chicago

• Rachel Willand-Charnley, PhD
  Assistant Professor, South Dakota State University
  Department Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Jiwon Yang, PhD, MBA
  Principal Scientist, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX)