International Women’s Day: ISU Addresses the Gap
Ahead of the International Women’s Day 2023, we at the International Space University have started celebrating diversity and women’s contributions with various events and engagements.
ISU associate professor Dr. Bertrand Goldman recently organized, for the Master of Space Studies MSS23 class, a panel about diversity and inclusion introduced by ISU President Prof. Pascale Ehrenfreund and ISU chancellor Dr. Val Munsami. It included the following high-level speakers:
- Misael Jesus Perez Oses, Inclusion and Diversity National Leader at Airbus
- Ersilia Vaudo, Chief Diversity Officer for ESA
- Cornelia Naumof Ionescu, Director Talent Acquisition, Talent Management & DEI at SES Satellites
- Cécile Deprez, Researcher at German Aerospace Center (DLR), Speaker – Sexism in STEM, Founder of Sexisme Flop, Coordinator – Visibility of Women in STEM for WIA-E
The panel agreed that a diversity and inclusivity policy is not just nice to have within an organization, it is a must-have. Let’s also keep proposing actions that enhance our establishments’ wealth of diversity!
ISU has for many years worked towards forging a gender-equal space sector reaching a 50% balance between women and men in the Master program for several years in a row for example!
The theme for International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023 is, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”. A theme that has inspired ISU alumni Michael Potter and Chris Stott and ISU faculty Nicole Stott, many years ago – they are the founders of the Kalpana Chawla project for innovation, entrepreneurism and space studies at ISU, established to honor the Indian-American astronaut Dr. Kalpana Chawla. This scholarship program is focused on developing strong technical and leadership qualities by helping talented Indian women attend the ISU programs/ISU Space Studies Program.
