Mariane Johnstone (2021) and Marissa Ellis (2020) co-direct the ANU Women* in STEM Leadership Conference
"The highlight for us had to be seeing the way the attendees engaged with the 14 sessions, the way the connected during the breaks, the way they were open, passionate, and curious".
Mariane Johnstone and Marissa Ellis co-directors provided us with this story.
The third annual Women* in STEM Leadership Conference hosted 65 undergraduate female, femme-aligned and non-binary students in STEM from the ANU across two and a half days, along with a Student Networking Dinner to finish on the final night.
The conference has been over 8 months in the making, beginning when Co-Directors Tegan Clarke, and Marissa Ellis passed on their roles to myself (Mariane) and Wanin Tessema. Marissa stayed on the team as a Dinner Coordinator and was a crucial mentor for us as we put the conference together, starting with a draft schedule, some new ideas, and the selection of our Organising Team of 12. We learnt how to apply for funding, to manage stakeholder relations, to delegate and to plan. Many emails were sent!
The conference was held from the 3rd to the 5th of April.
The speakers were an absolute highlight, including our Keynote Address from the Chief Executive of the Australian Academy of Science, Anna-Maria Arabia, in the Shine Dome. We also heard from Dr Bronwyn Evans AM - a prolific Australian Engineer, Julia Langford – the founder of NatureArt Lab and an influential figure in International Development, and Elena Williams – a software engineer who has directed, consulted, taught, and championed the Pygirls community. We hosted 23 Academics from across the ANU for our annual Academic Mentoring Afternoon Tea, platformed three postgraduate student speakers, and hosted many others at our Student Networking Dinner, and invited speakers from across the university to represent their societies, opportunities, and departments. Finally, we build industry connections, running workshops with Geoscape Australia, Connected Farms, The Department of Astronomy, and the ASD-ANU Co-Lab.
However, the highlight for us had to be seeing the way the attendees engaged with the 14 sessions, the way the connected during the breaks, the way they were open, passionate, and curious.
We’ve had some heart-warming feedback across the board, with attendees telling us they feel more confident, connected, inspired, and left with a new network of connections, and some friends!
Congratulations to Mariane and Marissa on all their hard work and for delivering a very successful conference.
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