ASME President Kotb to Participate on Decision Point Dialogues Panel

The list of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) experts participating in the live taping of the second installment of ASME Decision Point Dialogues thought leadership series later this month is quite an impressive one, including such luminaries as ASME President Madiha El Mehelmy Kotb, Ioannis Mialoulis, president and director of the Museum of Science in Boston, and James Douglas, former governor of Vermont.

The live taping of this year’s Decision Point Dialogues discussion, “Critical Thinking, Critical Choices: What Really Matters in STEM,” will take place on April 23 at 10:00 a.m. at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. The panel discussion, to be presented in the forum of a Socratic dialogue, will explore the critical issues that government, business, education and engineering leaders are dealing with related to STEM.

Moderated by Emmy- and Peabody-Award-winning journalist John Hockenberry, host of the National Public Radio program The Takeaway, the program will try to address such questions as:

• Is there a true crisis in STEM education or is it simply another policy debate?
• What is the ultimate goal of encouraging girls and boys to pursue STEM?
• How do we attract, train, and retain high quality, inspired and inspiring STEM teachers?
• Do U.S. educators have something to learn from the way STEM is taught in other countries?

Joining Kotb, Mialoulis and Doulas as panelists attempting to answer these and other questions will be Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation; and Michele Lezama, executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (National GEM Consortium). Mark Conner, director of the Engineering Academy at Hoover High School in Hoover, Ala.; Irene Neequqaye, a graduate student at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services; Hal Salzman, a sociologist and professor of public policy at Rutgers University; and Kenneth Williams, public school teacher and a teacher of “Gateway to Technology,” the middle school STEM course for Project Lead the Way, are also scheduled to participate in the discussion.

The ASME Decision Point Dialogues will be the pre-conference event prior to the opening of the U.S. News STEM Solutions Conference, which brings together leaders from business, education and government to further develop the agenda for STEM education policy change in the United States. The U.S. News conference precedes this year’s USA Science and Engineering Festival on April 26 and 27.

The “Critical Thinking, Critical Choices: What Really Matters in STEM” Decision Point Dialogues discussion will be broadcast on ASME.org beginning in June. Admission to the live taping is free but limited to the first 200 registrants. If you are interested in attending, contact memag@asme.org.

For more information on the event, visit http://go.asme.org/dialogues. Also visit http://go.asme.org/STEMdialogues to join the conversation on this important topic.