Rising Star

Annissa Langworthy is an instructor of anatomy and physiology at Stark State College in Ohio. She has been actively involved in expanding the work of the STEM Equity Pipeline throughout the state. She coordinates the Ohio Science & Engineering Talent Expansion Program and the college’s STEM Ready! Academy and scholarship program. Last year, Anissa worked with the Perkins Coordinator at the college to provide Micromessaging training to STEM faculty members. As part of this training, she has served as a Professional Learning Community leader. Last April, Annissa received the Distinguished Teacher award at Stark State College. During the winter commencement ceremony, she emphasized the importance of embracing diversity in leading and serving one’s community.

Unsung Hero

Marie Mayor was appointed Maryland’s first sex equity coordinator in vocational education in 1977. She quickly became a “go to leader” because of her statewide efforts and her close proximity to Washington and the many CTE and equity-related interest groups. By the time of the first national conference for sex equity coordinators in West Virginia in 1978, she was considered a veteran coordinator.

Marie was critical in connecting with early organizational advocates and strong women leaders in CTE.  She served as the U.S. Department of Education’s Special Advisor on Women’s Issues and Sex Equity and as Maryland’s State CTE Plan Coordinator. In 1989, she was assigned to an interagency workgroup on special education services. After that, she administered programs for special needs students in Baltimore. She took a position at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education in 2000 and retired in 2009.

Marie’s contributions to the sex equity profession, and to the creation and early development of CTEEC and NAPE, are immeasurable. She always brought her “gender equity” lens to her work, especially that on behalf of students with disabilities.

Lifetime Achievement 

Lynn Vera is a school counselor at the Center for Technology, Essex, a high school tech center where students prepare for work in many technical areas. Lynn has worked as a carpenter and construction laborer, taught in public schools for more than 30 years, helped to found and coordinate a high school completion assessment program for adults, and worked as a gender equity specialist in technical education.

Lynn has been involved in community organizing for many years in civil rights and social justice issues. She helped to found rape crisis and domestic violence response organizations in Vermont and city-sponsored self-defense training for women. She has been active in developing and sharing programs to attract and support girls and women into the trades and in writing state legislation about harassment and bullying in schools and about first-generation students pursuing postsecondary education.

Teamwork

This year’s team is from San Jose High School in California. Teacher Tara Sikorski and current and former students Emma Eaton, Fadumo Osman, and Kiva Uhuru accepted the award. With funding from Motorola Solutions Foundation, NAPE has conducted Program Improvement Process for Equity training with a team of educators and students at the high school. Facilitated by NAPE Consultant Elizabeth Wallner, the team members banded together to establish the school’s first ever Student Taskforce for Equity and Motivation event, when amazing students presented on topics such as stereotype threat, media and personal identity, and micromessaging.  The event welcomed parents, high school faculty, staff, and students, and community leaders for an evening of robotics demonstrations, cultural awareness, equity information, and a lot of fun!
To continue the effort, the students have started a STEM Equity Club with the intention of infusing equity and access into all facets of the school.

Diversity in Technology Leadership

Lynn Dugle is a Vice President and President of Intelligence, Information & Services at Raytheon.  She also served as Vice President of IIS and Vice President of Engineering, Technology and Quality for the Network Centric Systems business, where she was responsible for strategic direction, leadership, and operations.  Before joining Raytheon in 2004, Lynn held challenging, officer-level positions with ADC Telecommunications. She began her career at Texas Instruments in as a Program Engineer and served as its Vice President of Quality for the Defense Systems and Electronics Group.

Emerita  

Nancy Massey began her career as an administrator and consultant in public libraries. During those years, she advocated for increased pay and progressive personnel policies in a female-dominant profession. Ready for a different challenge, Nancy accepted a position at North Carolina’s Literacy Resource Center, where her advocacy role was refocused on the 40 percent of the state’s population with limited literacy skills. After the Center became part of the North Carolina Community College System, Nancy became the system’s first Equity Coordinator for Career and Technical Education, which included the duties of MOA Coordinator.

Nancy first joined the NAPE Executive Committee in 2002 and served in multiple positions, beginning as member-at-large and culminating as past president. She was a member of the Executive Committee that formed the Education Foundation, of which she served as vice president for several years. She was active in organizing the first silent auctions and helped write procedures to guide future efforts. Throughout her tenure with NAPE, Nancy was the quintessential “servant leader”—she volunteered for every job.

Nancy retired from her state position last year, but she will never retire as an equity advocate. As she has observed, “Old equity officers don’t fade away, they declare victory and leave the field of battle.”