From the LASL Newsletter, April 4, 1979
New Mexico Network:
Women in Science organizing
If you're a woman, and your chosen career is in science, you may be interested in the activities of two LASL women.
Sandra Zink, MP-3, and Georgia Fritz, WX-2, have been helping to organize a group of like-minded females for a Network for Women In Science.
Since 1975, a core group of faculty and staff at the University of New Mexico has been reaching out to women in science as a group. The network, headed by Jane Gillespie, assistant coordinator for microbiology at UNM, and Nancy Martin, associate professor of computing and information science, recently received National Science Foundation funds to help counsel young women interested in science careers:
Zink and Fritz have enlisted the efforts of many LASL women who helped give talks and served on panels at a recent Science/Engineering Career Conference in Albuquerque. Freshman and sophomore female students from throughout New Mexico attended the conference at UNM and received guidance on curriculum needs and job hunting from women in the science fields.
Martin, conference director, said she hoped the students would find "images to sustain them as they search for a career. We hope you'll find women you'll admire and emulate," she told the students.
The guest speaker for the conference was Elizabeth O'Hern, a microbiologist now serving as program administrator of Special Grants for the National Institute of General Medical Science.
LASL women who participated in the conference were:
Barbara Arney, G-9; Pat Beck, PER-1; Deborah Bennett, Q-13; Meg Cox, M-3; Patricia Drypolcher, C-2; Katherine Campbell, S-1; Jolie Cizewski, P-7; Mary Fowler, WX-2; Georgia Fritz, WX-2; Selma Goldstein, M-3; Lynne Johnson, C-2; Susan Johnson, Q-1; Carol LaDelfe, G-5; Kien Yin Lee, WX-2; Kathryn Midkiff, C-2; Juanita Peña, CMB-1; Mariena Richards, AP-2; Carolyn Robinson, C-2; Margaret Scott, Q-4; Suzanne Stotlar, E-10; Deborah Tracy, H-9; Mary Anne Yates-Williams, L-4; Sandra Zink, MP-3.
Brooke Davis, WX-4, manned the career booth; and Fran Sierra, ISD-3, helped with registration at the conference.
Zink said an important goal of the network is to "present ourselves as role models to younger generations." To this end, LASL women who attended and helped organize the Albuquerque conference are considering forming a Los Alamos chapter of the network, "We feel we should help other women realize that there are options in thinking about yourself: a professional career, for example, in addition to the traditional homemaking role. These kinds of choices require discipline and sacrifice, and most important, support and encouragement from others. We as professionals can help by being examples and by providing encouragement," said Zink.
Some informal meetings of conference attendees have been held at LASL on organizing a chapter. One idea that has been discussed is a panel modeled after the Albuquerque conference, where women in science fields relate personal experiences in obtaining their jobs and what education was needed.