A major civic award that recognizes women's leadership has been presented to Ania Ulrich, Associate Dean of Outreach in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Engineering.
As part of the city's celebration of International Women's Day, Ulrich received the 2019 Women's Initiative Leadership Award. Presented by Women's Initiative Edmonton, the award recognizes individuals who "exemplified the qualities of service, vision, and commitment to improving the realities of many."
"This just came out of left field," said Ulrich. "Honestly, it just touches my heart."
Since her appointment as Associate Dean, Outreach, in July 2017, Ulrich has focused on supporting diversity and inclusivity among the student and faculty members.
Students have taken steps of their own, establishing the Diversity in Engineering student group and an Indigineering group for students of first-nations or Metis heritage. One of Ulrich's graduate students is leading a new group called FEM (Females, Engineering, Mentorship) that connects current engineering students with young women who are interested in the engineering profession.
Ulrich says the faculty is also appealing to a broader spectrum of prospective students and that DiscoverE, the faculty's engineering and science outreach team, plays a major role in nurturing an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) fields.
Ulrich added that out of each of these groups flows a positive and welcoming message to anyone who is interested in engineering. Part of delivering that message, she says, is educating people on the impact engineers have on the world we live in.
"I was recently invited to speak to over 300 school teachers, from kindergarten to Grade 12, who wanted to hear from a female engineer on this topic and how they could contribute in their classroom," she said. "Most people think that engineers only build bridges, buildings and cars and they're really surprised to discover how vast engineering work is and how we help people and society," she said.
"It makes me so happy that we are blowing up paradigms. The message of women in STEM is gaining traction and there's more awareness. It's very exciting."
What's needed moving forward, she says, is the support of allies. To that end, Ulrich says the Faculty of Engineering itself is making great strides, with the establishment of the male allies group.
"When 88 per cent of your faculty members are male, they're a huge part of the community and many of them want to help work toward greater equity, diversity and inclusivity," Ulrich said. "We need men who really care about this and want to be part of the process. They're the ones who are going to swing the majority and it is important to share that work.
"We've been focusing on our hiring practices to make sure our policies, practices and approaches aren't excluding certain groups, and the department chairs have been great allies in this area.
"We want to make sure our faculty reflects a diversity of lived experiences, expertise, values, and opinion. It is fact that a diverse engineering community creates high caliber solutions to problems."