- Texas A&M University - College Station, TX

Next Conference:

February 23, 2019

Registration Deadline:

10 a.m., Tuesday, February 19, 2019

WISE Conference:

WISE Awards:

Conference Payment Information:

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Purchase Orders (PO's) are NOT accepted!

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Absolutely NO refunds!

Keynote Speaker

Shayla Rivera
Comedian and Director of ENGR[X] within the Texas A&M College of Engineering

Shayla Rivera is an Aerospace Engineer and former Rocket Scientist with NASA turned corporate trainer, Keynote Speaker, TV & Radio Host, Emcee, Writer, Facilitator, Moderator, Actor, Comedian and Awareness Expert. As of 2017, Shayla is also a Professor of Practice as well as the Director of the ENGR[x] program for the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.
Shayla was born and raised in Puerto Rico. After obtaining a degree in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Psychology at Texas A&M University, she spent 5 years working with NASA's Space Shuttle and Space Station programs. From there she moved on to technical sales where she sold analyzers and water treatment chemicals to the chemical and refining industries. It was in sales where she found her passion for speaking. Shayla then moved into corporate trainings for stress management and motivational speaking. This is where she discovered the comedic talents, which led her into Standup Comedy.
Approaching very serious subjects with a very light heart, Shayla helps young and old alike become clear about the personal perspectives that might be getting in the way of their real desires. Shayla has been speaking and performing in both English and Spanish for over 27 years and always uses the power of the humor she has found in her own life story. She wants to help you do the same.
Shayla says, "My number one goal is to inspire through laughter."

Session Presenters

Session	Name	Presentation
Session I	Morgan Shirley	Advocating for yourself and playing in the white space In a time of rapid access to information and on-demand metrics, knowing how to properly and adequately advocate for yourself is an essential skill, whether it be advocating for a job, promotion, increased responsibilities, etc. During this session, we will discuss what it means to advocate for yourself, and how to contextualize your contributions in this framework. We will correlate this to what it means to play in the white space. White space is what we refer to as any part of an organizational structure where the authority, rules, goals, or strategies are unclear. This is often the area where we know something needs to get done to progress a project or organization but it's not part of "our" job to do so. Morgan Shirley is a sales engineer at Chevron. Before that she has worked as an experienced Research Chemist with a demonstrated history of working in the oil & energy industry at Chevrom Oronite for five years. She has graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) focused in Organic Chemistry from Texas A&M University.
Session I	Kristi Shryock	Emphasizing Personal Growth While our studies and research work are essential, sometimes we need to focus on ourselves and do things for our personal enrichment. Having a good balance ultimately makes us more successful in our career and our lives in general. In this interactive presentation, attendees will learn more about their personality and discuss strategies to help us overcome challenges. We will discuss the importance of taking responsibility for self-improvement and develop a plan to help us take care of ourselves. Kristi Shryock is a mother, wife, Associate Department Head of Aerospace Engineering, Director of Craig and Galen Brown Engineering Honors Program, and Frank and Jean Raymond Foundation Professor at Texas A&M University. She is known and loved by students for her boundless energy, enthusiasm, and true passion for helping students learn and succeed.
Session II	Loan Vo	Answering the question, "How can I add value ..." What skillsets have you learned up till now will land you a good job, will make you a lot of money? The answer is all of them. Knowing how to apply the skills you have learned from school into solving real world problem ... that's the additional skill we need to learn. Loan Vo graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Organic Chemistry. in 2004. Since then, she has done a few different things, but majority of the time was in the Oil and Gas industry. The biggest lesson Vo has learned from her working years, is to always walk into a situation with an attitude 'how can I add value here?'.
Session II	Natalie Johnson	Writing grants and addressing Valentine's cards Grant submissions often arrive in early February. Burnt out from constant writing to get in a grant and also a manuscript for publication, I quickly moved to my next task, decorating Valentine's for my daughter's first day-care party. Needless to say, ours were not the cutest in the class, but I had hope my grant would get funded. In this session, I will share my path from getting through graduate school, moving for a postdoc while balancing my husband's career, interviewing for faculty positions, and starting as an assistant professor at the same time as starting my family. Through my experiences and dialogue with session attendants, we will discuss strategies for increasing work productivity and nurturing your emotional and physical health.
Session III	Sandy Payne	Balancing Personal Life while Excelling Professionally Maintaining a personal life, while the professional world becomes ever more competitive, can be a significant challenge. In this interactive presentation, Sandy Payne talks about how you can build a foundation, obtain high satisfaction, and minimize stress in your career. Sandy Payne is the North America marketing manager for plasticizers and Oxo C5 & higher alcohols at BASF Corporation with the Petrochemicals Division at its headquarters location in Houston, Texas. She has worked in various sales and marketing positions in the Plastics industry at Witco and later Ciba, including a three-year delegation at Ciba's headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. After Ciba was acquired by BASF, Sandy repatriated to the US in 2009 and managed distribution sales for several BASF operating divisions.
Session III	Amanda David	Networking and self-branding Networking should not be dreadful; it is an opportunity to meaningfully connect with people of influence in your workplace. Networking is embracing and creating a brand of your professional self. Come and learn how networking can happen naturally in your daily life and how successful networking interactions can enable career advancement. Learn to recognize visual cues for successful approach and harness the power of simple questions to lead conversation. Walk out with an action plan that you can implement right away! Amanda David obtained a Ph.D in Inorganic Chemistry from Texas A&M University in 2015. She now works as a Process Engineer at Intel Corporation (3 yr). In her personal life, Amanda is an avid rock climber and outdoor enthusiast. Her most recent adventures included rock climbing in Spain and ice climbing in Colorado.