Work of Catherine Mavriplis for
the Advancement of Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics



FORWARD in SEM

Catherine Mavriplis was part of a team of four Washington-area faculty (from George Washington and Gallaudet Universities) who started the FORWARD in SEM project to advance women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (SEM) academia in 1996. The project was funded four times by NSF, first from the Program for Women and Girls and since 2001 by the ADVANCE program.

The first project was aimed at increasing the number of women and other underrepresented groups in SEM graduate programs through a FORWARD to Graduate School workshop, an interdisciplinary science and engineering course, a summer Master's student research competition, and a program to encourage Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in SEM.

FORWARD to Professorship

The second project was derived from the FORWARD to Graduate School workshop and is a FORWARD to Professorship workshop for pre-tenure women in SEM fields. The highly successful workshop has been run 7 times nationally in Washington, DC and is oversubscribed every year. Please visit the website at www.seas.gwu.edu/~forward. This workshop was also adapted and run for the MIT community on a consulting basis in October 2005, where it now runs annually as the Path of Professorship workshop. Inquiries for bringing this workshop to your campus or a group of institutions may be directed to Catherine.Mavriplis at uottawa.ca

For a report on the 5-cohort survey administered in Summer of 2007, please see:
Mavriplis, C., Beil, C., Dam, K., Heller, R. and Sorensen, C.,
An Analysis of the FORWARD to Professorship Workshop - What Works to Entice and Prepare Women for Professorship?,
in Godfroy-Genin, A.S. (Ed.), Women in Engineering and Technology Research: The PROMETEA Conference Proceedings, LIT Verlag, Berlin, pp. 443-460, 2010.

PAY It FORWARD

Our latest project aims to train ten new groups to develop and deliver their own specialized workshops to advance women in SEM, either by discipline, region or affinity group focus. The trainees who have developed their own workshops are listed here (for 2011-12) and here (for 2012-13).

OU ADVANCE Project

Catherine Mavriplis was also the Principal Investigator and project director for the University of Oklahoma's ADVANCE project. This project was funded by a NSF ADVANCE PAID award and aimed to promote institional transformation at the University of Oklahoma and in the Big 12 Conference. Please visit our website at www.ou.edu/advance.

In Canada

In Canada Catherine Mavriplis has worked with Pratt & Whitney Canada on a company-wide Women's Leadership Initiative since 2007. These activities are described in

Mavriplis, C., Cloutier, N. and Bédard, C.,
Grooming Women's Leadership in the Aerospace Industry,
The scientific and technological careers of women and men, 2nd PROMETEA International Conference, 2009.

Since then, Pratt & Whitney has offered support for the NSERC - Pratt & Whitney Chair for Women in Science and Engineering for the Ontario region, held by Catherine Mavriplis from Oct 2011 to 2016. See the NSERC website for more details.

Catherine Mavriplis also organized the 2010 Women Engineers - Moving Up in Ontario! leadership and networking conference.

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