NMNWSE is proud to recognize the following IMPACT! Award winners and nominees for their technical contributions, as well as their mentoring and educational outreach efforts. All these women, winners and nominees alike, are outstanding role models and have contributed greatly both through their prowess their chosen technical field as well as by encouraging the girls and women in New Mexico to pursue and develop their technical interests and careers.
2019: Tinka Gammel, Los Alamos
Tinka Gammel was honored in 2019 with a "Lifetime Achievement Award"
because she is an extraordinary NMNWSE member.
She has dedicated countless hours of her time and energy to our mission;
serving as the webmaster and communications chair for over two decades;
helping with annual meetings and contributing to conferences;
judging at NM State Science Fair year after year;
organizing networking and technical interchange events;
and even serving as our warehouse for STEM conference materials
and backpacks!
She is absolute and unwavering in her commitment to advancing women
in STEM fields and pursues this goal in all aspects of her life.
We are so fortunate to have Tinka in the Network!
2018: Casey DeRaad, Albuquerque
The New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering is honored to announce Casey DeRaad as the 12th Annual NMNWSE 2018 IMPACT! Award Winner. Ms. DeRaad is an electrical engineer and serves as lead for education and community outreach activities with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in Albuquerque.
Having successfully expanded services through the Phillips Scholars program, for STEM-focused intern students with AFRL, and Starbase La Luz Academy, providing educational support and outreach for students across NM, Casey applies her engineering training and tireless enthusiasm to expand programs, policies and practices, and increase networks to broaden the participation of all students, targeting under-represented groups, in STEM.
2017: Bonnie Frey, Socorro
New Mexico is blessed to have Bonnie Frey as an active Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math citizen. She has contributed almost two decades to NM’s STEM capacity via research, teaching, training, leadership, and mentorship. Her STEM work is exceptional and impactful, particularly as a leader and mentor.
Bonnie is deserving of this award for many reasons - her commitment to the future of STEM in New Mexico, her mentoring of women in STEM, being a great role model through her persistence and confidence to achieve her own STEM degree and her career pathway in a male dominated field, and for increasing the participation and retention of women students in STEM – helping them build their own personal sense of belonging in the STEM culture.
Merecedes Agogino receives special Lifetime Achievement IMPACT! Award in 2017
It is with great pride and pleasure that the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering is presenting a Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Mercedes Agogino. She truly merits this award for her extraordinary career and efforts in furthering the Network’s goals of encouraging women to enter into science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and allied professions (STEM-AP). Her lifelong passion and desire to increase the role of women in these fields through support of students in middle school through college is awe-inspiring and deserves to be celebrated.
Mercedes has been a trailblazer for women, for STEM-AP, and for all underrepresented groups in New Mexico! As a long-time member of the Network, she has participated in many of our efforts over the years. She served as our State Science Fair Awards coordinator for many years. Mercedes enabled us to reward and encourage well over 200 students during this time at both the middle school and high school levels. We are very excited to hold this event in her honor and share her remarkable life and career.
2016: Carol Linder, Las Vegas
Carol Linder, Ph.D.; the New Mexico Highlands University Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Cell Biology is honored with the 2016 Impact! Award.
Dr. Carol Linder is an amazing woman whose extraordinary efforts encourage women to enter and develop their careers in science, engineering and allied professions. She is extremely passionate about helping women become successful in these careers. Dr. Linder also reaches out to young girls in the community to inspire their interest in becoming scientists. Sparking this early interest is critical.
2015: Laura Crossey, Albuquerque
Laura is being recognized for her extraordinary 30-year mentoring effort encompassing directly mentoring over 100 undergraduate and graduate student mentees in her own discipline, as well as playing a leading role in local and statewide K-12 through graduate level STEM support programs, served on the NM Governor's committee to establish Science Standards, and helping the University of New Mexico to develop policies and programs that support inclusive participation and success in STEM across the campus improving the college experience for thousands of students, not to mention volunteering her time as a Science Fair Judge, Coach, PTA President, and Soccer referee.
With a special focus on Hispanic and Native American students, Laura brings them into research by finding a project for them near where they grew up. Brandi Cron Kamermans, one of the Native American students Laura mentored, states: "In the last eight years I have become a scientist, and it would not have been possible without Dr. Crossey's support", adding "I saw her do this for many students - each one taking a unique path in their education."
2015 nominees: Laura Crossey (winner), and Carol Linder. Past nominees were also considered.
2014: Jan Frigo, Santa Fe
Jan is being recognized for her extraordinary mentoring and networking contributions over the past 16 years as an ambassador, advocate, mentor, and leader in the STEM professions. She galvanizes kids' interest in robotics, works arduously to close the gender gap in STEM fields through organizing and leading workshops in the northern NM Expanding Your Horizons (NNM EYH), professionally mentors students and junior professionals in computer science and engineering, and also finds time to network with and do STEM outreach to women and minority small business start-ups in New Mexico.
2014 nominees: Due to the outstanding slate of recent candidates, in 2014 we decided select from past nominees.
2013: Phyllis Baca, Santa Fe
Phyllis Baca's passion is to present STEM opportunities to low-income students, especially women and Hispanics. Around 2007, Phyllis began volunteering at Sante Fe Community College with a goal to double the number of women and Hispanics enrolled in the engineering department. Phyllis focused on revitalizing the Engineering and Engineering Technologies degree programs through clear career pathways tied to State and National career clusters and more than succeeded in her goal, quickly rising to department chair. "As a teacher, Phyllis has been an inspiration. She is a role model that I could understand. Her passion as an instructor has always shined through, from the first time I met her in my Introduction to Engineering course to her help and advice today." wrote Erika Arvizo, one of the first of the women to receive her Associates of Science in General Engineering at Santa Fe Community College. Through her teaching at Santa Fe Community College's engineering department and volunteering with numerous local, state, and regional agencies such as Project Lead the Way and Expanding Your Horizons, Phyllis has touched the lives of hundreds of NM educators and thousands of NM students, and has dramatically increased the number of women and Hispanics obtaining STEM degrees in New Mexico.
2013 nominees: Phyllis Baca (winner), Jan Frigo, Antoinette Gant, Martha Mitchell, Michele Nishiguchi, and Katherine Prestridge.
2012: Diane Albert, Albuquerque
Dr. Diane Albert Albert holds a Ph.D in Material Sciences and Engineering as well as a J.D. with a specialization in intellectual law. Diane has been actively involved in promoting scholarships for Hispanic women pursing education and career goals in science through her participation with the non-profit organization MANA del Norte. The president of MANA del Norte, Dolores Roybal describes Diane's efforts as playing "an important role in the success of our organization....She is not only a role model; she is a champion for the cause." Diane's mentoring has also extended to introducing young women to STEM fields by leading fun and interactive technical workshops through the Expanding Your Horizons (EYH) program. Her mentees, inspired by Diane's example, have gone on to become mentors themselves. Her nominator, who Diane mentored, states that "Dr. Albert is an exceptionally strong leader and mentor" and serves as a "life-changing role model to many young women including myself".
2012 nominees: Diane Albert (winner), Carol Burns, and Barbara Lopez.
2011: Jane Selverstone, Albuquerque
Dr. Selverstone is recognized for being an outstanding mentor, teacher, and role model to her colleagues, her students, and the children at area elementary schools. Quoting Dr. Selverstone's nominator, Prof. Les McFadden, professor and former UNM Earth & Planetary Sciences Chair: "Dr. Jane Selverstone is an internationally known and respected Earth scientist, recently named a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. Dr. Selverstone has had a highly positive impact on many female students considering the sciences as a career, accomplishing this both through her mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students and inspired teaching. In recognition of her outstanding teaching skills, she received two of the highest teaching awards conferred for excellence in teaching at UNM: the Gunter Starkey Teaching Award from the College of Arts & Sciences and the University of New Mexico Teacher of the Year Award. Ultimately, Jane Selverstone has been an unselfish mentor to all women in Earth science. As one of our female faculty members put it: 'She has been my primary role model as a woman scientist and educator and I enthusiastically recommend her for this award.'"
2011 nominees: Due to the awesome IMPACT! of all previous nominees, for the 2011 award the NMNWSE Board opted to reconsider past nominations rather than solicit new ones.
2010: Eleanor Walther, Albuquerque
Eleanor Walther has been a member of NMNWSE for almost 30 years and served in a variety of positions, including statewide president. Since 1991, she has been on the organizing committee for the Albuquerque Expanding Your Horizons conference for 6th-12th grade girls to encourage them to pursue non-traditional careers. Additionally Ms. Walther has been involved in the Supercomputing Challenge, a year long program for mid and high school students to promote math and science, and Project GUTS (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically), a summer and after-school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program for middle school students. In June 2010, Eleanor worked with 21 female teachers with limited computer modeling and programming skills to to become GUTS Club leaders and/or Supercomputing Challenge partners -- Ms. Walther's depth of knowledge and friendly, comfortable personality made the training a success. "Eleanor is an exemplary model in her extraordinary efforts in furthering the goals of the New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering," states Celia Einhorn, program manager of the Supercomputing Challenge. "Her outstanding participation in both Project GUTS and the Supercomputing Challenge has been an exemplar for women for over a decade."
2010 nominees: Eleanor Walther (winner), Carolyne Hart, Rosa Romero-Flores, and Janet L. Williams.
2009: Joan Woodard, Albuquerque
Joan Woodard is recognized for championing women in non-traditional fields. Ms. Woodard's outreach and visibility extends broadly -- she is a life member of the Society of Women Engineers, on the Planning Committee for Lockheed Martin's Annual Women's Leadership Forum, and a member of the New Mexico Women's Forum. During her tenure at Sandia National Laboratories, Ms. Woodard has mentored many women in engineering and technology. Currently Ms. Woodard is actively mentoring four women, and conducting "Walk and Talks" to speak with women in management about their accomplishment and issues. Ms. Woodard's outreach includes presenting to the Laboratories' new hires on "Research, Technology and Career Opportunities at Sandia National Laboratories;" chartering, sponsoring, and acting as lead speaker at a Sandia Women in Management Workshop; commissioning a Workforce Study to assess issues, particularly for women and minorities; and serving as a member and champion for the Sandia Women's Action Network.
2009 nominees: Joan Woodard (winner), and Mary Gonzales.
2008: Betsy Frederick, Albuquerque
Betsy Frederick is recognized for her long career of facilitating learning in Mathematics and Computer Science. Ms. Frederick taught for the Albuquerque Public Schools for 20 years, assisting schools in their acquisition of hardware and software, and finding meaningful applications for the new technology in curricula areas. Ms. Frederick has chaired several organizations including Expanding Your Horizons, New Mexico Council of Computer Users in Education, and the International Telecommunications in Education Conference. Additionally, she has been a board member of Network New Mexico and the International Society for Technology Education. Currently, Ms. Frederick is a member of the managerial team of the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge, a year-long project-based Computational Science and problem solving competition that attracts a diverse student body, and Co-Principal Investigator for Santa Fe Institute's Project GUTS, a STEM afterschool and summer program for middle school students.
2008 nominees: Betsy Frederick (winner), Deborah Peacock, Leslie M. Phinney, and Donna Cowell Senft.
2007: Chris Morgan, Albuquerque
Chris Morgan has spent the last 35 years as a software practitioner, excelling in her career while encouraging many other women to enter science and engineering professions. A distinguished member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, Ms. Morgan has developed, maintained and tested many software applications. She is a core member of the Sandia Women's Action Network and, throughout her career has mentored other women. Ms. Morgan also makes numerous contributions through her devoted service to Girl Scouts, and co-developed the Chaparral Council's Science Spectacular and Math Magic Programs.
2007 nominees: Chris Morgan (winner), Julia A. Coonrod, Daisy J. Nez, Leslie M. Phinney, Denise Schultze, and Jane Selverstone.