By: Jan Mazotti Issue: Collaborative Women Section:Advisory Board
Executive Director, American Transplant Foundation
As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the American Transplant Foundation, Heidi A. Heltzel is a visionary who leads the organization by launching educational and outreach programs, directing fund raising efforts, and coordinating collaborative efforts with organizations throughout the community to ensure that the Foundation fulfills its mission to reduce the growing list of men, women and children who are waiting for lifesaving transplants.
Ms. Heltzel was previously the Vice President of Governmental Affairs at the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry (CACI), the State Chamber of Commerce. CACI advocates free enterprise through a public policy agenda that works towards a prosperous business climate in Colorado. Her lobby experience touched on a broad range of legislative and regulatory aspects of business operations, including tax, technology, environment and education.
Ms. Heltzel gained visibility in the policy arena as CACI's spokesperson for the Colorado business community at the State legislature. In addition to her policy work, she also directed CACI's political action committee, the Colorado Public Affairs Council.
Prior to her policy leadership at CACI, Ms. Heltzel was well regarded as a policy analyst at the Office of the Legislative Council, which is the nonpartisan research arm of the Colorado General Assembly.
Ms. Heltzel’s community involvement has included serving on a number of Board committees including Parent Pathways, the Curious Theatre Company, and the University Club.
Gretchen Peters is the author of Seeds of Terror, an international bestseller that traces the role that the opium trade has played in three decades of conflict in Afghanistan. With the help of local reporters, she spent five years researching Seeds of Terror, surveying and interviewing hundreds of Taliban fighters, extremists, smugglers, law enforcement officials and intelligence agents. Peters seeks to reshape how people define the Taliban and al Qaeda, and to track how they are morphing into a powerful narco-mafia that earn hundreds of millions of dollars annually from organized crime, and particularly drug smuggling.
Dr. Erin Trapp, Director of Cultural Affairs for the City and County of Denver, is inspired by women who “have broken new ground.”
Experience counts, especially if you are charged with leading one of the largest international events in the world. Biennial President Donna Good has overseen seven international events over the years, including two in Denver: Pope John Paul II’s visit for the 1993 World Youth Day and the 1997 Summit of the Eight, which brought the heads of state from the United States, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, European Union Commission and Russia.
Paola Santoscoy leads the effort at the Biennial’s signature artistic exhibit, being held in the newly-renovated McNichols Monument in the heart of Denver at Civic Center Park. The young, emerging Mexican curator is transforming this long dormant, 28,000 square foot former Carnegie library into a place where the America’s spirit of friendship and collaboration can be felt by sharing something beautiful we all have in common - art and culture.
Perception and reality are two concepts Colombian Ambassador Carolina Barco deals with on a daily basis. Often Colombia is perceived, through the help of media, as a county that is overrun by violence, kidnappings and drugs. While there is no denying this country has seen its share of these problems, it couldn’t be further from the reality of the country now.“Colombia has entered a whole new era within the last decade. Since President Alvaro Uribe took office in 2002, homicide rates have fallen sharply and kidnappings have dropped by 78%. Violence in Colombia has been halved. We had decreased our poverty by more than eight points. Tourism has increased 65% percent since 2002 and this year the New York Times listed Colombia as one of the 31 places to visit in 2010.”
Colombia is in a new moment and Ambassador Barco sees the Biennial as a unique opportunity to share with the world her country’s success story and how some of this success might be replicated. "This event will give Colombia and other countries in the hemisphere a needed forum to exchange experiences and ideas on policies that are successfully working in our respective countries. Together we'll look at ways to replicate these successes and build more unity on issues we are all facing, like the economic downturn." Bolsa Família (Family Pouch) is just one example of how ideas can cut across country lines. Created in Brazil in 2003, Bolsa Família is an innovative social initiative that ties direct monetary transfers to commitments from families to keep their children in school and take them for regular health checks. With its statistical success, over 20 countries have now adopted similar programs including Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and more recently New York City.
The substantive policy discussions and transnational summit is what makes the Biennial of the Americas unique from other Biennials. In charge of the discussions is Marsha McLean, Senior Consultant to the State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Bureau.
Since 1994, Marcela de la Mar has been a champion for Mexicans who live in Colorado. As the Director of Community and Cultural Affairs and most recently the Executive Director of the Mexican Cultural Center for the Consulate General of Mexico in Denver, Marcela works to engage Mexicans in the arts and connect Coloradans to her country’s rich culture.
Biennial Board of Directors member, philanthropist and avid art collector Delisa Mayer envisions that “the Biennial will put Denver on the map and in a league where we won’t feel like the Pony Express is riding through our town. People will see we are not just about sports or skiing, but that we have a lot of cultural experiences to offer,” said Mayer.
As she assessed her last six years she knew she was ready for a change. In December of 2005 she received an invitation to attend the World Vision AIDS Breakfast. She sat and listened to the plight of women living in the developing world. In Africa and Asia women have little education, many dying in their 20s. Her heart broke, her sabbatical ended and her new adventure began. This was the catalyst for the Women With A Cause (WWAC) movement.
The “fifty percent” issue raised by Leslie earlier—ignoring half the population of a community which you wish to help—is an apt metaphor for some of the ills plaguing the engineering curriculum today. A recent National Research Council study, Women Scientists and Engineers Employed in Industry: Why So Few? explored the reasons why women comprise only 12.3 percent of the industry workforce. Here is a short summary of their findings.
But what is perhaps most fascinating is that EWB-USA completely bucks the trend of declining female involvement. Noted in a National Research Council Study, women tend to avoid engineering because of its isolationists tendencies. Yet, in an IEEE Spectrum article, Engineers Without Borders’ Prachi Patel comments on the “Higher Purpose” of the EWB-USA volunteers and their desire to make real changes in the poorer communities around the world. He says, “That higher purpose is particularly attractive to women, who make up more than 40 percent of student volunteers, twice the proportion of female engineering graduates.” In Patel’s article, Leslie observes that, “Women identify more with people and humanity. They don’t thrive on creating technology for technology’s sake.” This is not to say that solid engineering and math skills are not important, but that there are some educational and professional gaps in the areas of community outreach and communication that must be addressed. In other words, if you create a culture of collaboration, communication and community outreach, you will attract more women to the field. Ultimately, what we see is a positive feedback loop: as volunteer organizations attract more women, at all levels, they are better able to interact and benefit the women of the communities they are trying to help, as well as the engineering community as a whole. And as a result, both communities prosper.
