IWITTS developed solid experience in the Community College System nationally during the organization's successful leadership of the WomenTech Project, a three-year National Science Foundation project, providing training and technical assistance to three community college demonstration sites - the Community College of Rhode Island, North Harris College and College of Alameda in California - to help them increase the number of females enrolled and retained in technology programs. IWITTS authored the WomenTech Best Practices CD based on this community college project. IWITTS has trained hundreds of community college educators via its WomenTech Educators Train-the-Trainer Workshop.
The principal investigator of the WomenTech Project was Donna Milgram, Executive Director and Founder of IWITTS, who has served as PI for three NSF grants. Read Ms. Milgram's bio and resume.
NSF Advanced Technology Education Center Experience
IWITTS Executive Director, Donna Milgram, presented at the 2004 NSF Advanced Technology Education (ATE) Center's National Conference as part of a "Marketing" Workshop. IWITTS has provided WomenTech two-day trainings to the following NSF ATE Centers:
ATE Center for Convergence Technology, Frisco, TX
Midwest Center for Information Technology, AIM Institute, Omaha, NE
Center for the Advancement of Process Technology, Mainland College, Texas City, TX
ATE Regional Center of Excellence in Telecommunications, Community College of Southern Nevada
SC ATE Center of Excellence for Engineering Technology Education
ATE Project - Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte's Engineering Technology Department
California Community College Experience
IWITTS has provided WomenTech Train-the-Trainers Workshop to the California community college system:
SouthWestern College, Chula Vista, CA
Rio Hondo Community College District, Whittier, CA
Los Rios Community College District, Sacramento, CA
Los Angeles (CA), Orange County Workforce Development Leaders
Tech Prep Consortium, Cabrillo College, Los Aptos, CA
San Diego (CA) County Office of Education
IWITTS has also made presentations on WomenTech themes at the following California Education Conferences and Networks:
California Educating for Careers Conference (Statewide)
Vocational Technology Education Association (VTEA) State Leadership for Industry and Technical Education, Quarterly Meeting (California community college system)
Project Community College Partner: City College of San Francisco
The City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is our partner for the CalWomenTech Project grant, and Carmen Lamha serves as the Co-Principal Investigator. Ms. Lamha is the Chair of the Computer Networking Information Technology (CNIT) Department at CCSF, and her Department also has an ATE grant from NSF, "Institute for Convergence of Optical and Network Systems" (ICONS) Project.
Ms. Lamha serves on the National Advisory Committee of the Project and oversees CCSF's role in the Project. She provides advice and guidance overall and testing of strategies and technical solutions. She also provides us with consultation on the feasibility of strategy implementation from the ground level. Concurrently, CCSF is also one of the eight community colleges receiving technical assistance during the course of this grant.
Donna Milgram - Principal Investigator
Donna Milgram, Executive Director of IWITTS, serves as the principal investigator (PI) of the CalWomenTech Project. Ms. Milgram served previously as the PI of two NSF projects, most recently the "WomenTech Project," which increased the number of women enrolled and retained in technology education in three national community college demonstration sites. Earlier, she served as PI for the "School-to-Work: Women in Science, Engineering & Math Project," which produced the widely-used interactive teacher training video "School-to-Work: Preparing Young Women for High Skill, High Wage Careers." Ms. Milgram has also served as a gender equity consultant to a half-dozen NSF ATE Centers and projects based in community colleges on recruitment and retention of women. Ms. Milgram led the IWITTS partnership with the Cisco Learning Institute, developing the domestic portion of the Cisco Gender Initiative. She has developed extensive resource publications and conducted hundreds of workshops on recruiting and retaining women in technology education and related occupations at state and national conferences and for state and local educational institutions.
Read more.
The CalWomenTech National Advisory Committee
From Left to Right: First Row - Louise Chatovich, Dr. Mara Wasburn, Dr. Cecilia Cervantes, and Dr. Sarah Rajala. Middle Row - Donna Milgram, and Carmen Lamha. Back Row - Dr. Scott Griffith, Dr. Ken Berry, Dr. Marshall Gartenlaub, Dr. Pierre Thiry, and Dr. Edward Leach
National Advisory Committee
Dr. Ken Berry, Associate Professor, Educational Technology, California State University, and Founder RoboEducators, Northridge, CA
Dr. Cecilia Cervantes, President, College of Alameda, Alameda, CA
Louise Chiatovich, Educational Consultant, California Department of Education, Sacramento, CA
Connie Elder, Coordinator, Computer and Information Science Department, Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, CA
Dr. Marshall Gartenlaub, Statewide Director, Centers for Applied Competitive Technologies, (CACT), Economic & Workforce Development, Alta Loma, CA
Dr. Scott Griffith, Director, Engineering and Technology Center, American River College, Sacramento, CA
Carmen Lamha, Chair, Co-PI for CalWomenTech and ICONS ATE Project, City College of San Francisco, Computer Networking and Information Technology, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Edward Leach, Vice President - Services and Programs, League for Innovation in the Community College, Phoenix, AZ
Donna Milgram (PI), Executive Director, Institute for Women in Trades, Technology, and Science, Alameda, CA
Dr. Ralph Mills, Vice President, Small Manufacturers' Institute, 28067 Braidwood Drive, Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Claudia Murrell, Executive Director, Center for Women and Information Technology University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD
Dr. Sarah A. Rajala, James Worth Bagley Chair and Department Head, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, MS
Pierre S.Thiry, Ph.D., PE, CCAI, Instructor & PI, Institute for Convergence of Optical and Network Systems (ICONS), City College of San Francisco, Computer Networking and Information Technology, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Mara Wasburn, Associate Professor, Organizational Leadership, College of Technology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN
Sharon Wong Specialist, Career Technical Education Unit, California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, Sacramento, CA
Project Consultants
Dr. Marshall Gartenlaub is State Director, Applied Competitive Technologies (Engineering and Manufacturing) of the California Community Colleges, Economic & Workforce Development Program and also Chairs, the VTEA Statewide Advisory Committee (California Community Colleges).
Dr. Scott Griffith is Dean of the Engineering Technology Center, a statewide Project funded by the California Department of Education and NSF's ATE Program. Dr. Griffith was the Coordinator of the California Educating for Careers Conference in 2002. As mentioned earlier, Dr. Griffith is currently a PI for the RoboEducators Project, an ATE Project sponsored by the Los Rios Community College District. He has convened a national RoboEducators conference for the past two years, and he has strong connections with the national NSF ATE community.
Project Evaluator
The Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology (PSCTLT)is based in Bothell, Washington andoffersprogram evaluationfor projects in the social sciences specifically related to education. Services include the administration ofonline surveys, qualitative and quantitative data analysis,research, development of customized databases to capture program outcomes, and reporting of formative or summative evaluations. PSCTLT has a robust online survey system (Perseus SurveySolutions 7™) to use for external data gathering.
PSCTLT has worked with school districts, educational service districts, government offices, institutions of higher education, funding organizations and not-for-profit foundations.
Vicky Ragan, Ed. D. is the Director of Evaluation & Research Associates at the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology and a Peer Coaching master trainer with edLAB. Vicky's work experiences include: classroom teacher, library media specialist, adjunct university instructor, technology integration specialist, program manager, program evaluation and technology coach. Serving as a technology integration specialist, she co-developed and implemented a comprehensive program of teacher technology competencies that focused on the integration of technology into K-12 classrooms. She also created and managed a pilot program to help librarians collaborate with classroom teachers to infuse project-based learning activities into their classrooms. Vicky has worked on several evaluation projects including a federal DOE grant, a NSF project and many independent program evaluations. A graduate of Nova Southeastern University, her Doctorate is in Instructional Technology and Distance Education.
Carrie Liston is a member of the Evaluation & Research Associates of the Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology. Prior to joining the Center, she worked on qualitative-based evaluations of a university science outreach program at Ethnography & Evaluation Research in Boulder and on large scale research projects at the L.A. Unified School District. Carrie did her undergraduate work at Occidental College and has an M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado.
The CalWomenTech Project is Funded by The Program for Research on Gender in Science and Engineering from The National Science Foundation - Grant no. 0533564
The CalWomenTech National Advisory Committee
