Lady Paragons Women in STEM

Caroline Mach graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry from the University of Toronto in 1993.The following year she was hired for a contract forest management planning position at the County of Dufferin. The contract became a permanent full-time position managing the Dufferin County Forest, a position that Caroline held until her retirement in the summer of 2024. During that time, she was...

Janelle North is a graduate from the University of Michigan - Dearborn with degrees in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management.  She has two decades of experience in the automotive industry. Her diverse roles have included design engineering, manufacturing engineering, future technology and product strategy and planning, human-centered design operations, and vehicle personalization for a...

Aisha Ayoub is a Mechanical Engineer from University of Florida (BSME 2007). She has extensive engineering experience at multiple Fortune 100 companies leading development on automobiles, airplanes, spacecrafts, rockets, operating systems, and most recently augmented/virtual reality devices (AR/VR). Aisha was part of the core team at SpaceX that delivered industry leading historical firsts such as...

Lindsey Scopel is a client relationship and revenue growth expert in the custom software space with over 15 years of experience collaborating with Fortune 50 enterprise clients to deliver complex, full-stack programs.  Her journey began in STEM as a biologist and zookeeper, before transitioning into the tech space to write logic for a major OEM's vehicle configurator and iPad wish-list app.  Her l...

Naseem Alizadeh is a licensed architect in Massachusetts, Michigan, and California. She currently lives in Oxford, England, with her husband and two young daughters, but practices both in the US and in the UK. She opened her own practice, Bureau for Architecture & Urbanism, in 2009. BAU focuses on client-led work and development projects. Naseem holds a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from...

Aileen Huang-Saad is the Director of Life Sciences, Health, and Engineering Programs at Northeastern's Roux Institute (Portland, Maine) and an Associate Professor of Bioengineering. Leveraging her experience with design, entrepreneurship, education research, and industry, she seeks to close the gap between higher education and professional practice. Specifically, she is designing interdisciplinary...

Heather Shenkman MD, FACC is an interventional cardiologist in practice in Tarzana, California.  She is author of "The Vegan Heart Doctor's Guide to Reversing Heart Disease, Losing Weight, and Reclaiming Your Life".  While Dr. Shenkman is skilled at performing invasive procedures to open blocked arteries of the heart, she is a strong advocate for a healthy lifestyle, including plant-based eating a...

Wendy Shimata is currently the Vice President of Autonomous Systems at Varda Space Industries, a small space start-up in Los Angeles focused on in-space manufacturing and commercial reentry. She's responsible for the technical growth and development of the GNC, software and mission operation teams in an effort towards moving towards autonomous systems architectures and execution. Prior to Varda, s...

Interview with April Perkins, Manager of Business Orchestration for SAP Center of Excellence at thyssenkrupp Materials North America, who describes her STEM journey as a series of 'happy accidents.' April has 24 years in the metals industry, working with teams globally and has a strong passion for building up the next generation of STEM enthusiasts. She has successfully led multiple high-performin...

Interview with Nikita Tiwari, Sr Customer Experience Engineer at Intel's Client Computing Group. She brings the most compelling usages to the personal computer working alongside the OEM partners to manage and deliver their experience roadmap and co-engineer differentiated use cases. She has 9+ years of experience in silicon-processor debug, validation, artificial intelligence (AI) applications and...

Interview with Pooja Sund, Engineering PM Director at Microsoft, where she leverages her passion for technology, data analytics and leadership. She is a Gold medalist and three-time CFO Award winner, showcasing her commitment to delivering exceptional results. She has 17+ years of global experience in setting visionary goals and successfully executing them by leading high-performing teams. Pooja a...

Interview with Meghann Hallock, Lead Physician Assistant at TeamHealth LongHorn Group. Currently, she is the Lead APC at St. David's South Austin & Bastrop Emergency Departments, where she was recently nominated for APC of the year. She has a Masters in Physician Assistant Studies and a Bachelor's of Science in Health Professions with a Minor in Aging and Adult Life, both from Grand Valley State U...

Interview with Marie Adams who is the Director of Genomics Core at Van Andel Institute and an expert in the latest next-generation sequencing techniques. Marie earned a M.S. in genetics from Iowa State University and also serves as president (2023-2024) of the Association of Biomolecular Research Facilities (ABRF).

Interview with Kalyani Mallela who is Manager of Systems Engineering at Starkey Hearing Technologies. She has also held multiple positions with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) including president of the Minnesota Section. Kaylani has a Bachelors of Engineering in electronics and communications engineering and Masters of Science in electrical engineering and management of technology.

Interview with Jennifer Morikawa, Sr Manufacturing Engineer at General Motors and past SWE Region H Governor. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Interview with Valerie Woolard, who is a Software Developer at NationBuilder. She's also been a Search Quality Associate at Google and interned at McSweeney's as an assistant editor, fact checker, copy-editor and journalist.

Lady Paragons, Women in STEM podcast, episode 21 -- Interview with Stacey DelVecchio, Chemical Engineer at Caterpillar, Past SWE President. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women in STEM podcast, episode 21 -- Interview with Didem Sarikaya, Developmental and Evolutionary Biologist, soon to be Harvard PhD. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women in STEM podcast, episode 20 -- Interview with Pooja Chandrashekar, Founder and CEO of ProjectCSGIRLS. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women in STEM podcast, episode 19 -- Interview with Courtney Thurston, 17 year old unmanned systems engineer. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women in STEM podcast, episode 18 -- Interview with Melanie Stegman, Biochemistry PhD & Founder of Molecular Jig Games. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Interview with Colleen Layman, who is President-Elect of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Vice President and Resources Business Group Water Principal at HDR. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women In STEM podcast, episode 16 - Interview with Natalie Silvanovich, who is a security engineer on the Android Security Team at Google. Natalie enjoys hacking tamagotchis in her spare time. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women In STEM podcast, episode 15 - Interview with Elizabeth Bierman, President of the Society of Women Engineers and Senior Project Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.

Lady Paragons, Women In STEM podcast, episode 14 - Interview with Kaitlyn Bunker, who has a phd in electrical engineering from Michigan Tech and recently joined Rocky Mountain Institute. Kaitlyn is interested in microgrids and distributed renewable resources. Hosted by Sarah Worsham. Music is Light Emotions by MIGmusic.