Women with Drive

Greetings AWAF Members,

AWAF has had a busy 2019 so far with much more to come!

Our professional development program, “You, Inc.” on April 26 was led by our own AWAF Board member Corinne Smereka and focused on developing and showcasing your own “personal brand.” Not only was the course informative, but Corinne made it fun as well! 

That was followed by our first mixer of the year on April 29 at The Moose Preserve.  We had a large turnout and it was a great chance to network with other members in a relaxed setting.  By the time you read this note, we will have had another mixer at Mojito Rio Grande on June 18.  I encourage you to join us at our mixers and take advantage of quality one-on-one time with leading women in the auto industry.

AWAF’s increased focus on STEM began with our sponsorship of DAPCEP STEM Day on May 7 at the Michigan Science Center.  The Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP for short), is a nonprofit organization that provides historically underrepresented youth with innovative educational programming in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine.  Each year DAPCEP hosts over a thousand students at DAPCEP STEM Day.  AWAF members participated in several panels during the day, showing the students the variety of careers in the automotive and mobility industries. 

In keeping with our focus on STEM, we have a special treat at our Christmas in July program on July 16 at Leon & Lulu.  Anna Sun, one of our AWAF scholarship recipients, will be signing copies of her book “Sara’s Spark for STEM”, about a young girl with an interest in science.  This is our second Christmas in July event at Leon & Lulu – and it looks to become a tradition for us.

And last but certainly not least, our major scholarship fundraiser is coming up on August 12 – “Swinging Fore Scholarships” at the Edgewood Country Club.  In addition to great golf, you will have the opportunity to bid on lunches with auto and mobility executives like Ford’s Joe Hinrichs, GM’s Christine Sitek, and CAR’s (and AWAF Executive Advisory Committee member) Carla Bailo.  So get a foursome (or two) together and join us!

I look forward to seeing you at an upcoming AWAF event!

Sincerely,

Sue Rokosz
President, AWAF

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STEM Presence

Thank you to the volunteers and board members that represented AWAF so well at DAPCEP’s 2019 STEM Day on May 7 at the Michigan Science Center.  This was AWAF’s first STEM initiative.

From a volunteer breakfast beginning at 8 AM to four panel discussions held through the afternoon AWAF helped rock the Motor City and put the STEM spark in a lot of students.

With the panel topic: STEM & Mobility: You Go Girl! – the panelist engaged the girls and the boys in conversations about mobility and how we can enhance it for others. 

During the event panelists and volunteers had the opportunity to scope out what other STEM activities were going on and noted that next year having a booth with hands-on activities to get the kids more engaged might be the way to kick it up a notch.

Sponsors of the event included:  Aerotek, BrassCraft, Comerica, COMTO, Ford, GM, FTCH, Macomb Community College, Marathon, NBMBAA, Rousch, University of Michigan, Wayne State University and AWAF.

This was the first of three events AWAF will be partnering in this year.  The next two events are in the making and most likely will entail partnerships at the high school and college level.

“Wow! What an amazing STEM Day 2019. You must know that Team AWAF will forever be known for their enthusiasm, excellence and commitment to young people. 

Thank you again for all you do to increase the number of prepared students who will enter the STEM pipeline. I have no doubt you will see some of the young women you served, showing up at your door with resume in hand!

On behalf of DAPCEP and the 1,090 students who attended STEM Day 2019, we say "THANK YOU AWAF." -- Maria Webb, Director of Development, DAPCEP

DAPCEP (Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program) is a nonprofit organization with 40 years of experience partnering with universities, training programs, and K-12 school systems in order to connect youth to the best science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) educational experiences in Michigan.

Our next event we will be participating in is July 15th from 3 to 5 pm at U of D Mercy. tecsystems.com and include your contact information and cell number.

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Save The Date For These Upcoming Events

Tuesday, July 16, 2019 - Christmas in July
Get a head start on Christmas shopping at the iconic Leon & Lulu, metro Detroit’s award-winning lifestyle retail store, with 10% of sales being donated to AWAF. Besides stellar shopping, you  will also  have the unique opportunity to meet Anna Sun one of AWAF’s recent scholarship recipients. Anna will be signing her recently published children's book  “Sara’s Spark for STEM,”  which focuses on the importance of young girls in STEM.  And, Janine Fruehan, style advisor for WORTH New York, will give tips on how to put your best fashion foot forward talking about closets must haves that are work appropriate ...or not! Register here.

Monday, August 12, 2019 - Annual Swinging "FORE" Scholarships Golf Outing takes place at Edgewood Golf & Country Club in Commerce Township. Our largest fundraiser for scholarships, this outing begins with breakfast and registration at 7:30 am and golf at 8:30 am. Be part of the fun by becoming a sponsor, golfing, donating a silent auction item or attending the lunch.  We have a great line up of industry leaders you will have a chance to bid to have lunch with, see list below. For more information and to register go here. 

Wedneday, September 25, 2019 - Future of Mobility
Join us at the Cauley Ferrari Detroit in West Bloomfield where Diane L. Peters, Ph.D., P.E., Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Kettering University in Flint, Michigan will give us insight on where mobility is heading. Dr. Peters teaches primarily in the area of dynamic systems and controls, and my research focuses on mechatronics and control systems. Registration and more details will be available in August.

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Past Event Highlights

"You, Inc." - Discover and Create Your Professional Brand,  April 26, 2019 at Schoolcraft College in Livonia. This professional development session was led by Corinne Smereka, head of Workforce Training Solutions and business development initiatives for the Schoolcraft College Business Development Center, VP of Education, Goren & Associates and AWAF Board Member & Co-Chair of AWAF's Professional Development Committee.

The day-long workshop addressed the importance of developing and honing your professional brand and how the strength of your brand can impact your success in life - both professionally and personally.  All one needs to do to recognize the power of a brand is to think about a few - GM, Ford, Apple, Google, Coke, Pepsi, etc.  And your own brand can be just as powerful - if developed and applied appropriately.  Some of the key aspects of brand development include:

• Building relationships and cultivating your networks
• Recognizing that perception is reality - are people's perceptions of you what you want them to be?
• Honing your assets - emphasizing your uniqueness
• Making sure the right people are noticing - those people who have a need or desire that you can fulfill
• Delivering your brand - are your presenting yourself to the world as you intended?
  

Authenticity and specificity are keys to a strong brand; a strong brand is mobile and can serve both the person and the company.

Participants rated both the workshop instructor as well as the course content and relevance as excellent. Course evaluation comments included: "even better than expected - absolutely amazing!"; "highly interactive with valuable information"; "very well done and relevant"; "excellent, as always"; "very knowledgeable and awesome presenter"; "got a lot out of this course" - and 100% of the participants would recommend the course to others.

Watch for the next professional development workshop coming up in the fall!

Two AWAF Mix & Mingles held in 2019.  Over 50 people attended each of the two Mix & Mingles held this year, one at The Moose Preserves Bar + Grill in Bloomfield Hills on April 29th and the other on June 18th at Moijto Rio Grande in Sothfield. These events are a great way to meet other women in the auto industry in a casual, relaxed atmosphere.   

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Membership Corner

Linda Taliaferro, Vice President of Quality at Meritor has joined the EAC. We are so excited that Linda, who served as president in 2017 and 2018 has agreed to continue to support AWAF by being part of the EAC.  The EAC offers senior level executives in the automotive and affiliated industries the opportunity to provide counsel and guidance to AWAF for thought provoking ideas related to strategic direction, mentorship to AWAF membership and enhance relationships through professional socializing. 

Judy Asher, ITCyberSecurity Manager, Global Risk & Compliance, Security & Controls, Ford Motor Company and an AWAF EAC Advisory Board member was named Crain's 2019 Notable Women in STEM by Crain's Detroit Business in May. Congratulations Judy!

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Member Benefit - Are You Taking Advantage of This?

We want to extend a warm hello to all members of AWAF!  The membership committee has been working on making YOU, the member, feel welcome to the organization.

Launched in April, new members are assigned a board member “buddy”.  The buddy is there to orient you to the organization, help you find a committee to get involved in, and help you to make connections at our events. If you don’t already have a buddy and would like one, please reach out to Kristine Frost [email protected]

If you are interested in joining the membership committee, please send a note to co-chairs Kathy Smith ([email protected]) and Dawn Dorsch ([email protected]).  We meet four times/year outside of the scheduled AWAF events for planning, reviewing our growth and retention, and discussing ways to better the membership experience.  We would love to include you! 

You have made a great decision by joining AWAF!  Your involvement and support enables women from all aspects of business become educated and employed in automotive/mobility careers. 

Feel free to send us your thoughts/comments/suggestions. Thanks on behalf of the membership subcommittee – Kathy, Dawn, Kristine, Natalie, Deanna.

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Scholarship Recipients

Since our last newsletter we have given out three scholarships to the following:

Alexandra Jodzis Awarded on 5/6/2019	Ryann Kullmann Awarded on 6/3/2019	Anna Sun Awarded on 6/3/2019

For bios click on their name or visit our past scholarship recipient page for all bios and all of our scholarship recipients.

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Industry News

AWAF is pleased to annouce the Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation Awards.  This recognition is designed to celebrate and honor the achievements of the women and change champions who live the AWAF mission of advancing and empowering women in the automotive industry! All awards will be presented at the Holiday Event the first week in December 2019. Awardee attendance is required for all awards.  There will be three categories.

AWAF paticipation at TU Automotive Detroit this June
Over 25 women attended the breakfast where AWAF was featured. Board members Jane Bishop and Vanessa Miller spoke about AWAF's scholarship recipients and Jeeva Nadarajah presented a talk on how Test Driven Development can increase confidence in building software so that it increases trust not just for the end user but also for product teams and businesses. Presentation slides are here : https://hurleycollective.com/hc-home-page/community/. The following was the abstract for the talk : Let’s talk about Test Driven Development. Agile delivery within technology teams is discussed in many women's forums but Test Driven Development, which is the core building block is rarely spoken of. In fact, many. Only 20% of all Automotive software teams attempt at bringing agility to their code. Let's have an interactive discussion on why that is. 20 years after Test Driven Development was discovered or re-discovered, it still remains a challenge for agile teams to adopt this methodology within their software engineering groups. Let’s discuss the benefits and the steps to take a test first approach. Let’s also address the reasons why TDD can be difficult. It’s not all doom and gloom - there are some things we can do to make Test Driven Development second nature to our development teams.

Automotive Heritage Awards to Be Presented at the Councours D'Elegance 
The second annual Automotive Heritage Awards will be presented during the Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s, Plymouth, Michigan, on show day, July 28th, 2019. The program will be hosted by Brembo in their media hospitality tent. The AHA will fill some of the space left behind by the passing of Tom Kelley who produced and presented the International Automotive Media Competition with the help of many dedicated volunteers. It was a project with a long and respected history. There are other automotive awards programs around the country, each with a different focus. Tom’s was certainly one of the most comprehensive.

Four nomination categories:
Automotive Heritage Jouralism Awards
Lifetime Achievement
Future Collectible Vehicle of the Year
Concept Vehicle of the Year

Sponsorships
Support the  mission honoring those extraordinary journalists and vehicles that document automotive history and culture. There are a variety of creative sponsorship options for those who support our mission and want to be a part of the Automotive Heritage Awards, the Automotive Heritage Foundation, a 501(c)3 charitable non-profit, and the Concours d’Elegance of America at St. John’s.

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Support AWAF through Amazon Smile

AWAF is now listed as a charitable organization through AmazonSmile. By designating Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation as your favorite charity, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to AWAF. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know - same products, same prices, same service. Click here to designate the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation as the organization of your choice to support and make sure when you shop through Amazon you are shopping on the AmazonSmile website.

“AmazonSmile and the AmazonSmile logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates."

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Welcome Quarterly New Members

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Our Gold Members

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Thank you to Our Sponsors

2019 CORPORATE SPONSORS

Horsepower Sponsors
             

Hybrid Sponsor

Adaptive Sponsor
Envisics LLC

Drivetrain Sponsors
Plante Moran
Irvin Automotive Group

Future of Women Scholarship Sponsor

Become a sponsor go here

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Housekeeping Items & Friendly Reminders

If your membership is up for renewal, please visit our website, log-in and renew today! We guarantee you will not want to miss any of these upcoming events!

• Please don’t forget to “Join”, “Like” and “Share” on AWAF’s social media pages

• Please remember to keep your member profile up-to-date on the AWAF website - adding your profile picture and ensuring your company name is up to date! 

• Please visit our website to keep an eye on the news section for more opportunities and events.

We’d like to thank all of our Committee Members who ensure our programs are successful.
If you‘d like to join a committee, please email us at [email protected]. If you have
suggestions for the newsletter, please reach out to your AWAF Board Marketing Co-Chairs
Michelle Blakeley [email protected] or Patricia Price [email protected]

Mission Statement: The mission of the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation is to advance and empower women in the automotive industry.
Vision Statement: The vision of the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation is to help create and sustain a diverse industry optimized by empowered women.

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