(153h) Creating an Inclusive Chemical Engineering Community for Womxn through Allyship and Advocacy

Women in Chemical Engineering (WChE, "Wick-ee") was founded in January of 2016 with the primary purpose of educating, empowering, and advocating for women in chemical engineering, and their supporters, by providing a safe and open space for dialogue, mentorship, collaboration, camaraderie, and skill building through professional development, community networking, and outreach to primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. The founding chapter began at the University of Washington (UW) and consists of undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff, and professional women, and all-gender allies, in chemical engineering. A second chapter was recently founded in 2018 by Beverly Miller at the University of Virginia (UVA), and a third chapter, started by Belinda Garana, came online in 2019 at the University of Southern California (USC).

In this talk, we will first review the data motivating the foundation for WChE. We will then discuss how UW, UVA, and USC have built WChE chapters to foster an inclusive chemical engineering community for womxn. We will highlight many of the events WChE chapters have created, organized, and hosted, ranging from “How to be An Ally” panels to “Introduce a Girl” outreach series in partnership with the Girl Scouts of America, to Annual Industry Events. Each event serves one of the three WChE pillars: professional development, community development, and outreach. WChE activities and events are organized to meet the organization’s guiding principles: (1) to promote women in chemical engineering while not furthering self-stereotyping or stereotype threat; (2) to increase and elevate the presence of women voices at the table as critical contributors to drive forward thinking, high-impact change; (3) to further inclusion by creating a space for all identifications of genders to engage and interact through allyship and advocacy. Additionally, in partnership with the Women in Chemical Engineering (WIC) AIChE community, we aim to establish WChE Chapters at more universities, and will provide a brief overview of our “WChE start-up package.”