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Needed: Women in STEM

Closing the skills and gender gap in engineering

A look at how the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program works to close the gap between men and women in STEM careers while also addressing the shortage of STEM teachers

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

In the United States, there is a massive shortage of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers, which is impacting student learning and, thus, the STEM workforce of the future.

Between 2003 and 2017, the number of women in science and engineering jobs rose from nearly 1.3 million to almost 2 million. Of STEM teachers in the workforce, women are far less represented than men. Even though women make up more than half of the total U.S. college-educated workforce, they still only make up 29% of the science and engineering workforce.

That’s why the actions of Erika Parker, a teacher at Corona High School in Corona, CA, are so important. Originally a sales engineer, Parker found the EnCorps STEM Teachers Program when she was looking to make a change in her life that accommodated her dream and her family at the same time. EnCorps put her on a path to becoming a teacher, giving her the opportunity to share her knowledge of STEM with children.

The EnCorps STEM Teachers Program has a two-fold mission, according to its founder Sherry Lansing. The program seeks to create a level playing field for every single student in America by providing them with a solid math and science teacher while also offering aging people in STEM careers the opportunity to pass on their experience to students as an EnCorps teacher.

When Parker was studying tech, there was only one female student for every 30 or 40 male students in the class. Since EnCorps has given her the tools she needed to make the transition, she has set out to make changes she wishes to see, by inspiring interest in STEM in young girls.

This is why we are celebrating her story today. Parker is not only working to close the gap between men and women in STEM careers, but she is fighting to close the STEM teachers shortage overall.

This story was updated on 02/11/21.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.