STEM education maverick, Maria Klawe is our next Lunch with a Leader guest
On Tuesday, March 8, the Bedrosian Center welcomes Maria Klawe to USC for our second Lunch with a Leader event of the semester! Ms. Klawe is the President of Harvey Mudd College and has been a powerful force in closing the gender gap in science and engineering. She has devoted significant attention to improving K-12 science and math education and has studied the effects of gender on electronic game-playing.
A renowned computer scientist and scholar, Klawe joined Harvey Mudd in 2006 as the College’s fifth president and the first woman to lead the College since its founding. Previously, she served as the dean of engineering and a professor of computer science at Princeton University. Before Princeton, she was the dean of science at the University of British Columbia. She holds a number of positions on nonprofit boards and has received numerous awards for her work and leadership, including the 2014 Women of Vision ABIE Award for Leadership and a ranking on Fortune’s 2014 list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders.
Ms. Klawe is passionate about bringing more women into the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. At Harvey Mudd, women at the college now make up 40% of the computer science majors, up from 10% in 2005, thanks in large part to Klawe’s leadership. As she describes her work, “My life goal in changing the world is to make the culture of science and engineering supportive of everyone with interest, ability, and willingness to work hard, independent of race, gender, sexual orientation, other interests, or anything else. For that to happen, we need more women, people of color, poets, artists, ballroom dancers, and football players to enter, succeed, and persist in all areas of science and engineering.”
Lunch with a Leader provides students, faculty, and members of the public the opportunity to hear ideas from local, state, and national leaders, share their own ideas, and gain inspiration for effective governance in a more intimate and informal setting. Join us as we hear from forward looking and groundbreaking educator Maria Klawe.
Seating is limited. Please email [email protected] to request an invitation. We look forward to seeing you there!
