2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Leadership and Leverage: How White Women Can Use Their Privilege and Power to Protect Black Women Leaders in Middle and Senior Management Positions

Presented at Track 1: Technical Session 1: Leadership and Leverage: How White Women Can Use Their Privilege and Power to Protect Black Women Leaders in Middle and Senior Management Positions

Leadership and Leverage: How White Women Can Use Their Privilege and Power to Protect Black Women Leaders in Middle and Senior Management Positions focuses on naming and articulating the unique oppressive systems that our Black women leaders face in STEM and academia. This presentation shares how each diversity spectrum identity has unique needs and systemic, historical oppressors. The presenters share their unique experiences to enhance white women's understanding of the diversity spectrum at the intersection of feminist and critical race theory, sharing how Black women have two or more identities within the diversity spectrum. Think critical race theory and feminist theory, but how these identities could also include queer theory, disability theory, and socio-economic theory. Ultimately they equip white women attendees with tools and steps to make them more proactive members of the diversity community, leveraging their privilege effectively and equitably.

Join presenters Dr. Ershela Sims, Dr. Stephani Page, Mrs. Serita Acker, and Mrs. Beth Anne Johnson share their trials and tribulations in k-12 education, non-profit, and academic landscapes. Equipped with history and aided in social media vignettes, Sims, Page, Acker, and Johnson share how middle and senior-manager white women can use their privileges to expose harmful current academic practices and disengage harmful stereotypes unique to the Black woman’s experience in higher education and non-profit. Sims, Page, and Johnson exploring non-profit and Acker and Johnson sharing insights from higher education. Together, these women share insights that better the work environment for all and a “how to” for others desiring to be effective change makers in their organizations.

Authors

Dr. Ershela L. Sims http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-3395-3516 WEPAN, Inc. [biography]

Dr. Sims is the Executive Director of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network. Prior to joining WEPAN she served as Interim President of the SC Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics. She was the first black person and first woman to lead SCGSSM. She began her career at GSSM as Vice President for the Accelerate Virtual Engineering Program and later became Senior Vice President for Virtual and Outreach Programs. Prior to GSSM, Dr. Sims was the Dean of Engineering and Technology at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. She has 25 years of experience as an industry engineer and K-20 researcher, educator, and administrator; she was also a DEI practitioner across all of those positions. Dr. Sims holds a BSE in BME from Duke University and PhD in BME from the UNC at Chapel Hill. She is a lifetime member of the National Society of Black Engineers as well as a member of several other professional associations including ASEE and BMES.

Dr. Sims serves her community through multiple boards including the Florence-Darlington Technical College Area Commission, Columbia College Board of Trustees, and Cypress Adventures Board of Trustees and as a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Her accolades include the NSBE Dr. Janice A. Lumpkin Educator of the Year Golden Torch Award, National Science Teachers Association Vernier Technology Award and the NC School of Science and Mathematics Exceptional Contribution in Teaching through Scholarship and Keeper of the Dream awards.
Stephani Page WEPAN, Inc.
Mrs. Serita W Acker Clemson University [biography]

Serita earned her bachelor’s degree from Lander University and a Master of Education in Human Resources and Development from Clemson University. Before becoming the PEER/WISE director in August 2015, Serita Acker was the Director of the Women in Science and Engineering program. Additionally, she has over 25 years of experience in higher education, student support services, mentoring, and DEI programs. She is a certified Global Career Development Facilitator and Life Coach. Serita Acker sees the PEER/WISE's primary role as providing student success programs and services that can equip students with the resources they need to excel at Clemson University and achieve their educational goals to prepare for success after graduation.

Serita is also a graduate of the Riley Institute for Diversity Leaders and Upstate Class of 2011 and is also a Qualified Administrator (QA) for the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), the premier cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence, and National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) Facilitator.

She has won several State and National Awards: the Thomas Green Clemson Award, Woman of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of Mountains to Midlands, the James E. Bostic Diversity and Inclusive Excellence Award in 2017 as a diversity champion at Clemson University, Clemson University Woman of the Year, Martin Luther King Jr. Award, Clemson University Board of Trustees Award, Women in Engineering Pro-Active Network Distinguished Service Award, Career Communications Magazine College-Level Promotion of Education Award, National Association of Multicultural Engineering Advocates Award, Upstate Diversity Award, Calder D. Elhmann Outstanding, Individual. In December 2021, she received the College of Engineering and Computing and Applied Sciences Exceptional Staff Award and the WEPAN University Change-Agent Award in 2022.

One of the highlights of her career was graduating from the Presidents Leadership Institute at Clemson University in 2020.

Mrs. Acker was also featured on the cover of Insight into Diversity, a National magazine, September edition, for her work at Clemson University.

PEER and WISE received the 2018 and 2021 Inspiring Program in STEM Awards under her leadership from Insight into Diversity Magazine. According to the magazine Diverse Issues in Higher Education, the program marked a victory in 2018 when Clemson became the nation’s 13th-highest producer of African-American undergraduates receiving baccalaureate degrees. When historically black colleges and universities are excluded, Clemson ranked eighth among predominantly white institutions.

The ranking is a crucial benchmark because African Americans remain underrepresented in engineering, an in-demand field with high earning potential. While African Americans make up 13 percent of the population, they hold about 4 percent of engineering degrees, according to the National Society of Black Engineers.

She also served as MentorLinks Consultant for the American Association of Community Colleges in Washington, DC and sat on many state and national boards to help promote STEM. She serves as the National Society of Black Engineers Student Chapter and CU Black Graduate Student Association campus adviser at Clemson University. She also serves as the campus Principal Investigator for the Louis Stokes (LSCAMP) funding to encourage more underserved students to pursue Ph.D.s in STEM.

Recently, under Serita’s Leadership, PEER and WISE are now Implementation Partners for GE’s Next Engineers Program, a $5 million investment to diversify the Engineering pipeline in Greenville and Upstate.

In her spare time, she enjoys reading and, traveling and family. Her greatest joy is promoting education and inspiring people to reach their goals.
Mrs. Beth Anne Johnson WEPAN, Lamar Creative Co., Clemson University [biography]

Beth Anne Johnson is founder of Lamar Creative Co. LLC, a company that provides services in professional coaching, consulting, and creative services through equity frameworks and retention practices. Johnson knows companies and leaders can accelerate their success through creative innovation and strategic thinking.
She is the Community and Engagement Manager for the Programs of Educational Enrichment and Retention (PEER) and Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) at Clemson University, where she connects alumni and industry professionals seeking to work with the best talents and students the state has to offer.
Johnson was recently named the 2022 winner of the WEPAN Women in Engineering Champion Award for her volunteer contributions to STEM education at the primary, secondary, and collegiate levels for her work at Clemson. The WISE program was named winner of the Women in Engineering Program Award for an outstanding woman in an engineering program that serves as a model for other institutions.
Johnson’s path to STEM equity work is a fascinating one. With undergraduate degrees in English and the performing arts, she completed her graduate research as a leisure scientist in parks, recreation, and tourism management at Clemson University. “You can tell who’s equitable and free by who can pursue leisure, so I started with a social justice mindset. It was interesting to see that the statistics for woman-identifying athletes in male-dominated sports are like those for first-year incoming engineering and computer science students.”
In addition to owning her own business and her role at Clemson, Johnson serves as the past president of the WEPAN Board of Directors. She is honored to serve the WEPAN community alongside the executive leadership team. Together they will ensure WEPAN continues growing, and create a strategic plan, mapping out goals and objectives for three, five, and ten years into the future.
Johnson is a writer, adventurer, and family woman outside of work. Together with her partner, Adam, they raise two children. They spend their days rock climbing, eating good food, and continuously seeking joy as a family.

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