[293] Women in Science Advocate Popejoy Brings Capitol Hill Perspective to MTSU Feb. 29

For release: Feb. 27, 2012

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu
Second contact: Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, 615-904-8253
or Judith.Iriarte-Gross@mtsu.edu


Women in science advocate Popejoy brings
Capitol Hill perspective to MTSU Feb. 29


MURFREESBORO — One of the nation’s top young women in science and an advocate for women in the STEM fields will be making a public speaking appearance at MTSU this coming week.

Alice B. Popejoy, Public Policy Fellow at the Association for Women in Science in Alexandria, Va., and writer and publisher of “AWIS in Action! Advocacy and Public Policy Newsletter,” will bring a 2012 MTSU National Women’s History Month Women in Science Invited Lecture.

Popejoy, the inaugural Phoebe S. Leboy Public Policy Fellow, will discuss “AWIS in Action! Perspectives from Capitol Hill on Women in Science, Technology and Engineering.”

The lecture will be held Wednesday, Feb. 29, at 7 p.m. in Cason-Kennedy Nursing Building room N116.

The event is free and open to the public. Off-campus visitors should note that nearby construction and night classes being in session will limit parking opportunities for the lecture. University Parking and Transportation officials are encouraging visitors to park in the South Rutherford Boulevard lot and ride the Raider Xpress shuttle into the campus core to reach CKNB. A printable campus map is available at www.mtsu.edu/parking/Map_2011-2012.pdf.

Popejoy, a California native who graduated with honors in May 2009 from Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., with bachelor’s degrees in biology and French, will discuss her experiences as a young woman in science and as an advocate for women in the science policy community in Washington, D.C.

“Although they are still in the minority, more and more women are entering STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields in the United States, but many institutions and research settings still cater to the white male majority,” Popejoy writes in her abstract for her talk.

“AWIS champions efforts to broaden participation of women and underrepresented groups in STEM and promotes institutional transformations to support a more diverse and flexible scientific workplace,” she adds.

Sponsors of Popejoy’s visit include the National Women’s History Month Committee, Women’s and Gender Studies 4205, MTSU Women in Science and Engineering, the Nashville Section of the American Chemical Society, Housing and Residential Life and the MTSU Women in STEM Center.
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Media welcomed.



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