As part of the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development – Ocean Decade Laboratory Series, MTS invites you to participate in our women leadership events. REGISTER HERE! 

Event 1  -  Women Leadership in Marine Technology and Science, July 7, 2021 (13:00 ET – 15:00 ET)

Please join us for a two-part session discussing challenges and opportunities for women in marine technology and science.

Part 1 - Panel

The panel will feature women from the ocean science and marine technology fields to share their pathways (career and personal). Panelists include:

Dr. Wendy Watson-Wright is the Founder and CEO of 7 Mile Bay

She served as the first female Executive Secretary and Assistant Director General of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC-UNESCO) in Paris from 2010 to 2015 and was the inaugural CEO of the Atlantic Canadian-led Ocean Frontier Institute (OFI) (2016 to 2019).  For most of her career, Dr. Watson-Wright held various senior positions within Fisheries and Oceans Canada, including eight years as its Assistant Deputy Minister of Science. She is currently a member of and Gender Focal Point for the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP). A Killam scholar, she holds a Ph.D. in Physiology from Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Dr. Shakila Merchant is the Director of the City University of New York (CUNY) High School Initiative in Remote Sensing (HIRES) Program & Associate Director NOAA Center for Earth System Sciences and Remote Sensing Technologies (CESSRST) Center

She holds degrees in Biology and Zoology and a PhD in Environmental Science & Engineering. She has more than 10 years of experience in Ecosystem Health and Risk Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment. Dr. Merchant developed NOAA JPSS Students Professional and Academic Readiness with Knowledge in Satellites (SPARKS) program to provide pre-workforce experiential training to graduate students in NOAA JPSS mission sciences by creating synergistic partnership with federal (NOAA) agency and private sectors.

Dr. Deidre Gibson is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Marine and Environmental Science Department at Hampton University

She earned her B.S. in Oceanography from the University of Washington, Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of Georgia/Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. She is a broadly trained biological oceanographer with research interests centered on the trophic ecology, reproductive biology, and population dynamics of zooplankton, but more specifically, gelatinous zooplankton, and currently oyster restoration. While at Hampton University, she has served as PI on several NSF and NOAA grants that continue to train the next generation of African American marine scientists.

Zdenka Willis, L.L.D. is the CEO of Veraison Consulting and President of the Marine Technology Society, focusing on ocean technology and policy.

She retired from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Senior Executive Service where she was the founding Director of the United States Integrated Ocean Observing Systems (IOOS®) Office. From 2006 to 2007, she was the Director of NOAA’s National Oceanographic Data Center. Ms. Willis retired with the rank of Captain from the United States Navy.

Part 2 – Conversation

Directly after the Panel Discussion, participants will be invited to break-out electronically into discussion rooms. We will discuss challenges and opportunities including:

Making going to sea/field work is equitable
Retaining more women in STEM studies and careers
Reducing prejudice/stereotyping of women’s abilities
Easily accessible resources for managing relationships with majority male colleagues
Each discussion group will be challenged to think about and discuss the issue and possible solutions. We will ask each group to prepare some ideas to share back with the larger group

Event 2  -  July 8 - 15, 2021 - 14:00 – 17:00 ET

MTS in collaboration with Ingenium, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Canadian Commission for UNESCO are pleased to present an Edit-a-thon to create or improve Wikipedia entries to bolster the profiles of women and their contributions to ocean science, engineering, and technology.

Although women and non-binary persons are under-represented in ocean sciences, their accomplishments are even less represented, in both print media and online. Help us bridge this digital gender gap in ocean sciences! Join us to edit, add, or translate Wikipedia entries for women and non-binary individuals in ocean science. We’ll provide you with a crash course on Wikipedia editing, and in turn, we’re asking you to edit for a good cause. We'll also be joined by special invited guests so don't miss out!

This event will formally be a three-hours on July 8 and will feature a keynote speaker to inspire the volunteer editors (i.e. event participants) followed by a basic training for editing Wikipedia. Organizers will provide the volunteer editors with an opportunity for Q&A and also brainstorming/assignment of a list of people or organizations for whom the group will create or edit pages.  

The event will be recorded and available for asynchronous participation to accommodate as many schedules and time zones as possible. Participants will be given seven days to perform the edits as part of this event.

REGISTER HERE!