WASHINGTON, Oct. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- STEMconnector®'s STEM Higher Education Council (SHEC) will host its inaugural event, Advancing a Jobs-Driven Economy: A National Summit on October 8, 2014, at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, DC. This unprecedented gathering will bring together over 80 business and higher education leaders to showcase high impact cross-sector partnerships. SHEC members will share these boundary-breaking partnerships focused on improving the STEM ecosystem in higher education. A particular focus will be on partnerships that lead to employment in STEM jobs.
Rob Denson, President of Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC), chairs the Council, and both Dr. Martha Kanter, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Higher Education at New York University, and Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, President, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, serve as Senior Advisors. SHEC is guided by its mission "to bring focused energy to higher education's leading high impact practices, increasing emphasis on STEM pipeline-to-jobs (and what we call STEM 2.0™)."
"Higher Education will need to aggressively align itself with the demand for STEM-skilled employees by creating a sustainable supply of highly qualified applicants. This is what we were created to do and we do not intend to disappoint either our business partners or our students," says Denson, regarding the partnerships this Council Summit will highlight. "We have the right people at the table now and will continue to in the future."
The Summit will feature a dynamic program, including Dr. Hrabowski's morning keynote, and a lunch keynote from Former Governor of Maine John McKernan, President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Keynote addresses will be complemented by several discussions featuring SHEC members and their partners. A book will be released on February 24, 2015 that highlights participating organizations, summarizes successful industry collaborations and provides descriptions of scale-up initiatives.
A dinner and reception will welcome Summit attendees on October 7th and will feature a keynote presentation from Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup and author of "The Coming Jobs War."
According to Clifton, creating employment opportunities and preparing people for those opportunities are the most critical priorities for our society. "Leaders of countries and cities should focus on creating good jobs because as jobs go, so does the fate of nations. Jobs bring prosperity, peace, and human development -- but long-term unemployment ruins lives, cities, and countries," says Clifton. Having a strong STEM ecosystem in higher education will lead to a successfully employed populace and a fully staffed business sector, which is a sentiment shared by Dr. Hrabowski. "America needs to take much more seriously this challenge of preparing talent from a broad pool of citizens. It is imperative that higher education and industry work together to achieve this, if the nation is to continue having the strong science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workforce needed to compete globally."
Join the conversation and connect with attendees and speakers on Twitter via #SHECSummit.
About STEMconnector®
STEMconnector® is the "one-stop shop" for STEM information. With several products and services, STEMconnector® supports its members in the design, implementation and measurement of their STEM strategies. Since its launch in 2011, STEMconnector®, which is a subsidiary of the top ten U.S. executive search firm, Diversified Search, has been the leader in leveraging a network of STEM stakeholders to "make things happen." STEMconnector®'s charge is to identify, inform and connect entities working in STEM education/careers to assess smart STEM investments and results.