Fuzionz Magazine and TV 2014 Winter Special Edition | Page 19

Karen Horting

The Society of Women Engineers

Karen Horting is currently the Executive Director and CEO of Society of Women Engineers, going on eleven years. She started out as director of fund development, working with all of the programs, Corporate Partners, then moving into the Deputy Executive role back in 2006 and then into the CEO role January, 1, 2014. Prior to that, Horting worked at a couple of scientific organizations; again, in similar roles working with fund development, working with government agencies and corporations, to definitely focus on diversities in careers.

In an interview with Horting, we asked when the program was started and what some of the challenges which women engineers have experienced within the industry, and this is what she had to say, “The organization was started in 1950 because I think the founding members

really felt that there just wasn’t support for women in the field, either in the existing organization and certainly within the institution or organization where they were working. They said, “Hey, we want to form an organization that’s going to foster the career development, the career advancement of women and also celebrate the accomplishments of women in the field. So it was really about creating that environment where women could support each other, to get the skills needed to be successful in their career, to build that all important social network that we know is so supporting and also important in career development and also to have an organization that was going to celebrate those accomplishments excessive. I think our mission today really follows that. Our tag line is Aspire, Advance, Achieve. I think

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