Category: Workforce Development

In order to put the focus on our amazing people in the Energize New Mexico project, we've started a new monthly series on the blog—NM EPSCoR Spotlight! Each month we will feature one participant and one student in the project and learn a little more about where they come from, and what they do for Energize New Mexico. To kick-start our new endeavor, NM EPSCoR's first Spotlight features our Diversity Coordinator, Chelsea Chee.

Fall 2015, what a season it's been! NM EPSCoR made its mark at several national events thanks to STEM Advancement Program students and two collaboration efforts. You may have seen our students, our partners, or me at:

Earlier this month, I attended an EPSCoR-funded Innovation Working Group (IWG), spearheaded by our very own Dr. Mike Heagy. IWGs provide a venue for researchers, educators, and nationally recognized experts to address grand challenges that require an interdisciplinary approach to transform science. You can learn more about them in the education section of our website.

At NM EPSCoR we were thrilled to hear the news that Dr. Laura Crossey was honored by the New Mexico Network for Women in Science & Engineering with the annual IMPACT! Award. Laura is the co-lead for our Geothermal component, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. She knows how to inspire non-traditional and underrepresented students to pursue STEM education and careers. From all of us here at NM EPSCoR, congrats to you, Laura! No one deserves recognition for their hard work more than you.

Four women either previously or currently involved in New Mexico EPSCoR projects were among 13 other women honored earlier this month as New Mexico Women of STEM. Diana Northrup taught the EPSCoR-funded Communicating Science class at UNM in Spring 2014; Lorie Liebrock was an exceptional participant in our previous grants; Phyllis Baca has worked with EPSCoR for several years and is involved in the current Energize New Mexico grant; and Jeri Timlin is a current team member of the Bioalgal Component.

Educators from seven different New Mexico Informal Science Education Network (NM ISE Net) institutions supported the 2015 Energize New Mexico Teacher Professional Development Institute in Farmington at the beginning of June. Twenty-two elementary and middle school teachers representing three school districts gathered at the Farmington Museum for a five-day workshop to learn about energy and connections to literacy and assessment. The course was based on WestEd’s Making Sense of Science Energy course with some additional material about New Mexico’s energy resources.

In early May, NM EPSCoR sponsored a Software Carpentry Workshop at UNM. Software Carpentry is a volunteer organization whose goal is to make scientists more productive, and their work more reliable, by teaching them basic computing skills. This example-driven two-day workshop taught core computing skills to help participants be more productive and effective, alternating short tutorials with hands-on practical exercises. Participants were encouraged to help one another and to apply what learned to their own research problems during the workshop.

This blog is a long time coming, but as most of you know, the 2015 All Hands Meeting took place on April 17, 2015. We had a packed house at the New Mexico Tech Fidel Center, and the day was spent collaborating and networking. The morning sessions helped the group examine implicit biases, and the afternoon sessions combined two components together to discuss progress in the project thus far as well as ideas for the future. The luncheon keynote was presented by NSF EPSCoR Program Officer Audrey Levine.

Just after the start of the new year, NM EPSCoR welcomed 20 post-docs to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge for an intensive three-day program designed to enhance the professional skills of post-doctoral scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. NM EPSCoR brought experts from around the country to lead workshop sessions on meeting facilitation, communicating science, writing proposals, career planning, entrepreneurship, mentoring, and more. NM EPSCoR researcher Johanna Blake participated in this year's workshop; she kindly wrote about her experience.

Creative-Startups, the nation's first accelerator for creative and cultural entrepreneurs, recently debuted their 2014 Cohort during Creative Startups Week, October 20-25. Each creative team faced colleagues, the media, and the public on Demo Night, held at ¡Explora! Science Center on Thursday, October 23rd; Teams showed videos and slideshows on their projects and what they hope to achieve with funding from investors.