NEWS

As part of Women’s Week, the Louisiana Tech University College of Engineering and Science, Office of Women in Science and Engineering, and Prescott Memorial Library will present a panel discussion featuring three successful women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 23, in Prescott Memorial Library on Tech’s Ruston campus.

During the talk, “Sharing Their Journey: A Female STEM Professionals Panel,” panelists Amanda Sutherland, Dr. Krystal Corbett Cruse, and Dr. Laura Kidd will outline through stories about their personal journeys and professional experiences how they navigated the male-dominated fields within STEM.

Sutherland, a chemical engineer who earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Tech and a MBA in Finance and Strategy from Tulane University, is the Senior Director of Fuels Risk Management at Murphy USA and is currently leading the company’s Enterprise Portfolio Management Office, overseeing $75 million in strategic initiatives.

Cruse, who earned doctoral Engineering Education, master’s Mathematics, and bachelor’s Mechanical Engineering degrees from Tech, is an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and program chair of Tech’s innovative, first-year Living with the Lab course series.

Kidd, a 2004 Tech graduate with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering and a Medical Doctorate from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, is a Pathology Specialist for Delta Pathology and has completed fellowships in Surgical and Renal Pathology at both the Methodist Hospital in Houston and the University of Texas at Houston.

Sutherland, Cruse, and Kidd will discuss how the challenges they faced and the strategies they used to overcome them shaped their careers. They will talk about how the challenges they faced were similar and how challenges (and solutions) in various fields may be different 

The event – beginning at 5 p.m. on the second floor of Prescott Memorial Library – is free and open to the public. For more information about Women’s Week, go to the OWISE website.