Celebrating Women in Engineering Technology

As part of our celebration of women in STEM this month, I am very excited to acknowledge three female faculty in the Engineering Technology programs at three of our State Colleges. These women provide positive role models for students. They walk the talk, providing mentorship and encouragement for females in their own programs as well as in all other STEM careers. Female enrollment has increased in Engineering Technology and related technical programs by 8% between 2009 and 2011; research demonstrates the importance of having women instructors in STEM coursework for female students. We are very lucky to have these three women on our Engineering Technology team in Florida!

Adrienne Goulde-Choquette is the program manager and lead faculty for the Engineering Technology program at the State College of Florida, Manatee (SCF). Adrienne is starting her forth year at SCF and offers the ET specializations in Alternative Energy, Digital Design and Modeling and Electronics. Adrienne is a mechanical engineer, a photographer, and is an MSSC Certified Production Technician. She participated in FLATE’s Iberian Partnership for Technician Excellence both in summer 2011 and spring 2012. The Fall 2012 Engineering Technology Forum will be held at her program site on the Venice campus of SCF the last Thursday and Friday of September.

Sara Galatotio will start her second year as faculty for engineering technology at Florida State College at  Jacksonville. Sara is an assistant professor and teaches various advanced manufacturing specialization courses that include OSHA safety, microprocessor fundamentals, survey of electronics, digital fundamentals, and introduction to manufacturing, hydraulics and pneumatics. Sara holds a bachelors and masters degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Florida. In 2006, Sara won second place in the Institute of Materials, Minerals, and Mining Young Person World Lecture competition sponsored by Rolls Royce. The goal of the competition was to take a difficult scientific topic and relate it to the general public. Furthermore, she is MSSC certified, and a member of the National STEM Consortium's mechatronics team which is working to establish a one year academic mechatronics program that will be available across the country.

Margie Lee will be starting her first year teaching at Florida Gateway College (FGC) in Lake City in August. Margie comes to Florida from western North Carolina. Before that she was in Oregon where she taught engineering technician-related programs. Margie has a B.S. and M.S. in industrial systems and engineering as well as an MBA degree. She has also taught in Oregon. FGC offers both the quality and advanced manufacturing specialization tracts in the A.S. Engineering Technology (ET) degree. Margie will lead FGC's A.S. degree in engineering technology degree program which currently offers both quality and advanced manufacturing specialization tracts. John Piersol, director of agriculture and engineering technologies is extremely excited about the expertise Margie is bringing to FGC. In addition to teaching ET courses, Margie will oversee FGC's mobile manufacturing trailer which is used for both coursework and outreach, and is fully equipped with advanced manufacturing equipment. Margie is looking forward to joining Florida's ET faculty, participating in our ET forums, and rebuilding the ET program at FGC.