This is a March 2016 interview with Edie Fraser, CEO and founder of STEM Connector and Million Women Mentors, describing her career background and the two initiatives she leads. STEM Connector began as a website (stemconnector.org) to map STEM activity and careers and has grown to include ~155 members, ~250 organizational partners, and an initial listing of about 5,500 organizations; programs include an Innovation Task Force, a Higher Education Council, Career Accelerator Day, and outreach that reached ~19,000 students per week during a recent campaign. Million Women Mentors (launched ~25 months before the interview) set a goal of one million mentors (each committing at least 20 hours/year); the site millionwomenmentors.org was developed with Tata Consultancy Services contributing over $2M in-kind, and as of the interview had ~540,000 mentor pledges. Supporting data cited: partner My College Options tracks 12 million high-school students and in a sample of 378,000 reported only 4% had been mentored/encouraged into STEM careers. Fraser emphasizes that technology skills affect ~80% of jobs and that up to 5 million current jobs are unfilled due to lack of skilled talent; she issues a call to action for companies, organizations, and individuals to pledge mentors, internships, sponsorships, and to participate in Career Accelerator Day.
Questions this video answers
About 5,500 organizations.
155 members.
At least 250 organizational partners.
Approximately 19,000 students per week.
About 25 months before the interview.
Hello, this is J.J. diGeronimo, the president of Tech Savvy Women. And I am so honored to have Edie Frazier with me today. She is the CEO and founder of STEM Connector and Million Women Mentors. Edie, thank you so much for joining us. Tell us a little bit about your work, jj.
It's just a delight to join you and know what you've done in your career to truly push and advocate for women and for technology. So let's just give you a little background on why we started STEM Connector and why we started Men and Women Mentors. It was really amazing. I had the ability to build two companies and I sold my last one some 10 years ago. And I then joined the world's largest woman owned executive search firm by the name of Diversified Search. I'm a vice chairman today of Diversified search. We're in 10 US cities and growing and in about 40 countries around the world. And we truly are so proud to be a woman owned firm. But we also know that it is so important that we focus across the board on just the best talent. And it was only five years ago that one of the companies came to me and said, Eddie, we're spending over a trillion dollars in this country on STEM education and no one knows who's doing what. We kicked off a website, stemconnector.org with 5,500 organizations and with the purpose of focusing on careers and jobs, knowing of course it was important to focus on education to we say K to J kindergarten through jobs. But it was really critical to get it right where the jobs are. We truly built 155 members today of STEM Connector and we have at least 250 organizational partners and we work with thousands of organizations. So just to tell you, we work with an innovation task force which we have set up and is got three main goals including a global summit including something called Career Accelerator Day. Last year we got 19,000 students per week in different headquarters to go and experience jobs. We're going to see that technology has alignment with everything that we do because every industry is going after tech talent, big data, analytics, it, et cetera. So we're seeing that in IT and clearly in career and technical education you may not even need a four year, whether you're going to be a coder or a welder. It's so exciting. And just think back with me, only 25 months ago we launched Million Women Mentors. And why did we do that? Well, it's been you and I have been involved for years. I've been involved for decades for the advancement of women and girls and minority women and girls. But we have a partner, my College Options, that tracks 12 million high school students. And out of that they found of a sample of 378,000 high school grade rurals, only 4% said they had been championed or mentored and encouraged to go into STEM caniers, be it technology or engineering. So what about the other 96%? So what an opportunity to bring everyone together to build a movement. And so in January two years ago, we set the goal of a million mentors. And with that we said to be a mentor you got to give at least 20 hours a year. That's less than two hours a month and really coach all the way from middle school up the system to corporate boards and drive change. We went back and worked with 67 groups and they may be Techbridge and Black Girls who Code and the Girl Scouts and Girls Inc. And others. But we signed agreement with organizations representing 30 million women and girls. And what we knew we needed to do was build a website. And we're so grateful. Tata Consulting has put in over $2 million in kind to building millionwomenmentors.org so we've got stemconnector.org and a great website and other websites, but we truly have built millionwomenmentors.org and today we have 540,000 pledges to mentor. So company after company is building their pledge systems for the mentoring or sponsorships or internships or all the way up the system. And then we've done the same thing as we're building higher education. We're asking every entity to get involved, make a pledge and really build this momentum. And so how important that you and I are talking in March, because it's Women's History Month and we're about making history and changing the lives for women and girls. And we believe Million Women Mentors is such a vehicle to accomplish that. So we have events all across the nation. This month we're doing an event with the governor in Virginia. We will sign a proclamation in the state Capitol. On March 15, we're going to be in the United States Senate with some 20 senators that will truly focus on what they want to do to make sure that we are impacting women and girls. We believe that technology is the most important issue driving the future of this nation. That today that technology skills impact 80% of all jobs. You can't look at whether it's manufacturing or clearly agriculture, finance. And then you think about the aerospace and defense. But any company, any government agency, any nonprofit, the skills Today in retail demand technology. So it's really exciting. Yes, engineering is really critical. Science is making the difference with R and D and we're committed to all but we through all the STEM arena and working in partnership because no one does our work alone. It is about alignment, partnership and why we named our stuff STEM Connector because it's connecting with all those that want to jump on the bandwagon together, set their goals and drive for results.
Edie, I am so fascinated on what you've been able to do in this space because so many people talk about it, but very few can get all the necessary parts to really create the impact you've already made with STEM Connector and million women mentors. So I'm so honored to have sort of heard why all this has come about and already the impact you've made. If people are interested in getting involved, how do you suggest they do that?
So if you want to be involved with being women mentors, go on beingwomenmentors.org and look at whether it's a corporation, whether it's an organization, whether you're involved in higher education and think about a goal, a four year goal where you can pledge to mentor and if not, call us up and talk through it because you've got to be part of the movement. And the same thing's true in STEM Connector. If you want your organization to participate in Career Accelerator Day during the month of October, if you want to join our Higher Education Council, our Innovation Task force, if you want to make a difference in this nation, get involved with STEM Connector and million women mentors and join our call to action. Let's hold each other accountable because we have so many jobs. We calculate up to 5 million available jobs not being filled now because we don't have the skilled talent. And you want to be part of the solution. JJ is a joy interviewing with you, knowing your commitment, our commitment because we do everything together.
Edie, thank you. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for all the people you elevate along your path and thank you providing somewhere for people to go to get involved to make the difference. I appreciate you joining us today.
