Staff Ambassadors are champions for Women in Engineering and IT in their work and networks, and support our activities, by facilitating workshops, interview panels, and offering skills-based help.
Staff Gender Equity Ambassadors
UTS Women in Engineering and IT Staff Gender Equity Ambassadors
The Gender Equity Ambassador Leadership Program
The Gender Equity Ambassador Leadership Program aims to equip our community of undergraduate and postgraduate students, staff, alumni, and industry professionals with the skills to be social change agents.
Participants join training in gender inclusion, leadership, communication, being an ethical bystander, and change agent to distil and enhance practical and cultural understandings of gender in study and work in Engineering and IT. The program will support participants to lead the transformation towards gender equity in their areas of work and study.
What is a Gender Equity Ambassador?
- A role model for WiEIT and the broader university community through behavior and language.
- Proactively addresses gender prejudice
- Attends WiEIT training and workshops when possible
- Utilise opportunities to provide information about the different gender equity programs at UTS and appropriate 2-way referral
Staff Ambassadors roles
Staff Ambassadors have access to events, workshops and activities to actively contribute to gender equity. Staff Ambassadors champion for WiEIT in their work and wider networks and support WiEIT through offering skill-based help such as workshop facilitation and being part of interview panels.
- Community: Facilitating workshops and events, as well as building community of new academic staff
- School outreach: Developing workshops and projects for school outreach (academic), consultation (professional)
- Communications: Sharing WiEIT content on social media and with FEIT schools, providing input for content, suggestions on topics covered
- Lucy Mentoring and industry events: Connecting us to industry partners and potential mentors and network on behalf of WiEIT
- Collaboration: Bringing in new opportunities, reviewing WiEIT new initiatives (consultant role), scholarship interview panellists, etc
- Engagement: Encouraging their students to get involved in WiEIT programs.
Become a Staff Ambassador!
The Gender Equity Ambassador Leadership Program equips our community with the knowledge and skills needed to become social change agents in their circles of influence.
Ambassadorship hours can count towards 20% of the service and engagement workload.
Meet our Staff Ambassadors!
We are excited to introduce our Staff Ambassadors! Get to know our Ambassadors as we find out more of their area of expertise, and motivations for being a Gender Equity Ambassador.
What is your Ikagi?
- What you love
- What you are good at
- What you can be paid for
- What the world needs
Anne Gardner – Associate Dean (Teaching & Learning), Faculty of Engineering and IT
Being a Gender Equity Ambassador, to me, means that I ask 'how might we...' questions in committees when gender equity may not be taken into account. It means I support FEIT strategies and activities that increase the accessibility of our programs for female participants.
Area of expertise: Engineering, Education, Research
What you love: engaging students in engineering, connecting people with similar aims. What you are good at: listening, educational research. What you can be paid for: teaching, research and educational leadership. What the world needs: more female engineers
Jiao Jiao Li - Lecturer, School of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT
Being a Gender Equity Ambassador, to me, means interfacing with the community so the public is aware of what STEM researchers can do to transform society and create life-changing solutions. It also means playing a role in breaking gender as well as cultural barriers in STEM, so that we have diverse representations of what a STEM researcher could look like, and inspire our younger generation from all backgrounds to pursue these careers.
Area of expertise: Biomedical engineering, tissue engineering, stem cells, biomaterials, nanotechnology
What you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, what the world needs: Being a biomedical engineer! I love working with people from around the world with diverse backgrounds and expertise to create new solutions for our greatest medical challenges, like osteoarthritis - an incurable joint disease that hundreds of millions worldwide suffer from and costs the Australian healthcare system over $23 billion annually.
Ian Zucker - Learning Designer, Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning), Faculty of Engineering and IT
Being a Gender Equity Ambassador, to me, means promoting and speaking up in those uncomfortable moments where someone says something sexist. It also means being seen as someone who can speak to the issue of gender (in)equity.
Area of expertise: Feminist theory, global politics, learning design, assessment design& academic integrity
What you love: Learning, thinking, and making sense of complex relationships. What you are good at: Thinking through problems, asking the right questions to get to the right solution. What you can be paid for: IT support for the elderly. What the world needs: More kindness
Dilek Cetindamar Kozanoglu - Director of Techcelerator, Faculty of Engineering and IT
It is important to change the mindset, it starts with associating yourself with identities you are proud of like being a Gender Equity Ambassador.
Area of expertise: Entrepreneurship and Technology Management
What you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, what the world needs: I love research, going after knowledge and
sharing it with the globe to make it a better place to live. I am good at people relations and I am a quick-learner. I enjoy swimming and good company.
Stuart Perry - Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT
Being a Gender Equity Ambassador, to me, means a chance to give back to the community in a positive way, encouraging diversity and empathy. I believe that diversity and equity are cornerstones of human society and our collective future.
Area of expertise: Computer Vision, 3D data, image processing
What you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, what the world needs: I love working together with kind empathetic people on challenging problems while having fun.
Valerie Gay - Associate Professor, Honours(IT) and Master of Technology Management courses director
Empowering people from diverse culture, age, background and gender to design, create and deploy technology solutions (e.g. in tech, AI, cyber, healthcare,...) for a better and fairer future.
Area of expertise: Mobile technology, Digital Health and Social innovations
What you love: creating and teaching/coaching/empowering people. What you are good at: tech/ creating and working across boundaries/ dealing with diversity. What you can be paid for: Academic work. What the world needs: diversity in tech
Monica Brockmyre - Project Engagement Officer at UTS Tech Lab, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Area of expertise: Project and relationship management - I'm a connector!
Amara Atif - Lecturer | Major Coordinator, Business Information Systems Management (UG, Information Technology) | Mentor Apple Foundation Program | School of Computer Science, Faculty of Engineering and IT
To me, being a Gender Equity Ambassador means promoting and supporting gender equality and connecting authentically with others to create a safe and respectful environment for females in STEMM.
Area of expertise: Learning analytics, educational technology, student engagement and transition, technology acceptance/adoption of information systems
What you love: Teaching and interacting with students having diverse backgrounds, cultures, skills and languages. What you are good at: Teaching/presenting information, empathy, finding the bright side or positive of a situation, teamwork, cooking, budgeting. What you can be paid for: Academic work. What the world needs: Unity, tolerance, and acceptance
Can Ding - Lecturer, School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and IT
Being a Gender Equity Ambassador, to me, means I can make my contribution to bringing equal rights and opportunities to women and men. Fighting for gender equity and promoting Women in Engineering and IT is not women's work. As a man, I am standing with women to make UTS better.
Area of expertise: Antenna design, 5G telecommunication
What you love, What you are good at, What you can be paid for, What the world needs: Use my expertise to bring better and faster wireless network to the neighbourhood.
Teresa Vidal Calleja - Deputy Head of School (Research), Faculty of Engineering & IT
Pam Price - Recruitment Consultant, Academic recruiter for Faculty of Engineering & IT
Louisa King - Lecturer, Landscape Architecture, School of Architecture, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
Madeleine Miller - Project Manager, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Cecilia Gravina da Rocha - Lecturer, School of Civil Environment and Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Elizabeth Tomc - Lecturer, School of Professional Practice and Leadership, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Anushree Mistry - Casual Academic, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Tania Machet - Lecturer, School of Professional Practice and Leadership, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Olivera Marjanovic - Head of School, School of Professional Practice and Leadership, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Faezeh Karimi - Scholarly Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Stella McDonald - Curator and Manager, UTS Gallery & Art Gallery
Min Xu, Associate Professor, School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Negin Shariati, Senior Lecturer, School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Maral Ansari, Postdoctoral Researcher, School of Electrical and Data Engineering, Faculty of Engineering & IT
Ikigai
Image credit: BODETREE, ADAPTED FROM FRANCESC MIRALLES
