Women in STEM: New Year's Resolutions for 2024

Their resolutions reveal a unified agenda for 2024: empowering more women to enter and excel in STEM fields, as well as pursuing advanced professional development, and fostering greater collaboration and engagement across the industry, which, intriguingly aligns with English Heritage's recent announcement to install more blue plaques for women than ever before, a move set to amplify women's historical contributions to STEM.

The dedication of these women to continual professional growth and collaborative innovation coupled with the increase in blue plaques for women could work in tandem to significantly enhance public awareness and education about women's pivotal roles in STEM history, inspiring future generations.

Here’s what they had to say:

Ama Frimpong, Head of Product Development at 52 North Health:

• To continue working with partners on ways to support and encourage young women professionals to thrive and remain in engineering (and STEM as a whole), tackling areas such as mentorship, navigating career paths, parenting, allyship, promotions, benefits negotiations amongst others. This is so important because failure to retain means all the work put in to get young people to pursue STEM becomes futile in the long run!
• Working with young people and other organisations/partners to develop initiatives to create early opportunities to engage and introduce engineering, as a way to encourage more young people (with a focus on girls and those from underrepresented groups) to pursue engineering related disciplines.

Susan McDonald, Energy Transition Lead at Deloitte:

“My five professional New Year’s Resolutions for 2024 are:

• Reconnecting with colleagues and clients following the birth of my amazing daughter, and enjoying support for my return to work, continuing to help my clients develop and deliver their sustainability and climate strategies.
• Promoting careers in engineering through my role as a Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Ambassador, showcasing what an exciting and rewarding career engineering can be for everyone.
• Make the most of the personal learning I am currently self-funding, including a research expedition to Iceland, investigating ‘Killer Whales and their Prey’, and preparing for an expedition to the Antarctic in January 2025 with Homeward Bound.
• Bring industry insight and constructive challenge to my new role as Non-Executive Director and Sustainability champion at The James Hutton Institute.
• Continue to provide mentoring and coaching to my mentees, helping them reach their potential and goals.

Nada Lakhal, Field Application Engineer at NXP:

• In 2024, my objectives include assuming a mentorship role for a junior engineer on my team, providing guidance and support. As a member of the university relationship team at my company, I aim to support initiatives in prestigious engineering schools by delivering lectures and collaborating with professors to enhance curriculum, emphasising visibility for women in STEM.
• Additionally, I plan to actively participate in networking events that celebrate diversity and inclusion with the NGOs that I am currently a part of.
• For personal growth, I prioritise continuous learning, keeping up-to-date with tech news, and also intending to start learning a new language this year.

Lauren Neal, Founder of Valued at Work:

• My main “big picture” resolution is to do my part to help ‘fix’ the DEI narrative – that it isn’t about discriminating against white men, it’s about removing obstacles for everyone to have opportunities to succeed.
• My main personal resolution is to grow the ‘Valued at Work’ business this year through:

-Creating and publishing a companion workbook to ‘Valued at Work’ (the book)

-Getting paid speaking engagements

-Growing the coaching side of the business through both b2b and b2c

-And getting my website sorted!

Natalia Adamson, Lead Project Engineer at Ricardo:

• My new year’s resolution is to continue with my professional registration, aiming to get started on my development towards Incorporated Engineer. I believe professional registration is important as it ensures the industry recognises the skills and standards that is required to be a great engineer.
• Additionally, I have signed up to be a STEM ambassador, so I would love to do some more STEM outreach this year!