Who We Are: Catherine Didion

Senior Program Officer National Academy of Engineering

Catherine DidionCatherine Didion is a Senior Program Officer at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Her portfolio is the Diversity of the Engineering Workforce program with a charge to provide staff leadership to the NAE’s efforts to enhance the diversity of the engineering workforce at all levels including the diversity of those being prepared to enter the future workforce. In addition to her duties at NAE, in March of 2007 Didion became the Director of the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. This is a standing committee with a new mandate to work as a focal point on gender across the three National Academies.

Didion served as Executive Director for the Association for Women in Science
(AWIS) for fourteen years (1990 to 2004). During tenure AWIS was awarded the U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring and she was the principle investigator for 17 government and foundation grants. Didion presented testimony before the United States Congress and U.S. federal agencies.

Didion is an internationally recognized leader and expert on issues of equity and gender in science and engineering. She has been an invited speaker on mentoring, networking, and women in science and engineering at over 200 conferences and has authored over fifty publications on women in science and engineering. She was the editor for Women in Science Column for the Journal of College Science Teaching from 1993-2002.

Didion has extensive experience on Capitol Hill including staff positions at the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, Office of Senator Robert Packwood (R-Oregon), the Senate Computer Center, and the Senate Press Gallery.

Didion’s honors and awards include AAAS Fellow (2005); AWIS Fellow (2001); Drucker Foundation Fellow (2000); Texaco Management Institute Fellow (1999); Secretary of the US Air Force Inaugural Environmental Civic Leaders Tour (1996); and Certificate of Commendation and Distinguished Service, Embassy of the United States of America (1989).

 

Officers

  • Telle Whitney, – President and CEO
  • James Beck, CPA & CMA, Managing Director & COO, Mayfield Fund – Treasurer, Vice President & Corporate Secretary

Corporate Counsel

  • Allison Spinner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Staff

Our Founder

Board of Trustees

  • Leah Jamieson, John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering and Ramsburg Distinguished Professor, Purdue University, Board Chair
  • Francine Berman, Vice President of Research and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – Vice Chair
  • Robin Abrams, Investor
  • Anushka Anand, Ph.D Candidate, University of Illinois at Chicago
  • James Beck, CPA & CMA, Managing Director and COO, Mayfield Fund – Treasurer, Vice President and Corporate Secretary
  • Mark Bregman, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Neustar
  • Debi Coleman, Managing Partner, SmartForest Ventures
  • Nancy E. Cooper, Retired, EVP and Chief Financial Officer, CA Technologies
  • Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President of Global Enterprise Information Solutions, LexisNexis
  • Nora Denzel, Senior Vice President, Big Data, Social Design and Marketing, Intuit
  • Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President of Knowledge, Google
  • Penny Herscher, President and CEO, firstRain
  • Kathy Hill, Senior Vice President, Development Strategy and Operations, Cisco Systems Inc.
  • Tracy S. Keogh, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, HP
  • Sarah Loos, Ph.D Candidate, Carnegie Mellon University
  • Brian Pawlowski, CTO and Senior Vice President, NetApp
  • Richard Rashid, Chief Research Officer, Microsoft
  • Justin Rattner, Senior Fellow and CTO, Intel
  • Mike Schroepfer, VP of Engineering, Facebook
  • Bill Unger, Partner Emeritus, Mayfield Fund
  • William Wulf, Former President, National Academy of Engineering
  • Telle Whitney, President and CEO, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
  • Margaret Ashida, Emerita (Term: 2003- 2009)
  • Linda Bernardi, Emerita (Term: 1996 -2006)
  • Wayne Johnson, Emeritus (Term: 2002-2008)
  • Maria Klawe, Emerita (Term: 1996-2011)
  • Greg Papadopoulos, Emeritus (Term: 1996 -2006)

Individual and Organizations

Board of Advisors