Category Archives: Mentoring & Other Business

October 7, 2025 · 11:51 am

TechWomen Team Rwanda

I am proud to be an Innovation Mentor for the US State Department’s TechWomen’s Team Rwanda! Three mentors (Keana Lucas, Rachana Mitkar, and me) had our first meeting online with the five Emerging Leaders on 2 October, followed by four intensive days developing project and presentation that will benefit Rwanda. On Sunday, we met at my house in San Jose, California, for dinner and further discussion. They enjoyed a tour of WP668, my railway caboose office. Yesterday, we gave our first project presentation. Here is more about what we are working on. Pretty good for such a short development period! We will refine and further develop this as we get feedback from colleagues and potential partners, and our understanding evolves.

Problem Statement: “In Rwanda, professional and academic women face underrepresentation in STEM fields because of the lasting impact of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. This matters because generational trauma causes many women to carry the weight of depression, impostor syndrome, and self-doubt that quietly limit their potential. Greater representation of women in STEM will enhance productivity, expand opportunities, and inspire the next generation of young women.”

Project Description: “The KIRATECH (healing through technology) project creatively addresses the underrepresentation of Rwandan women in STEM by focusing on one of its most overlooked barriers: mental health challenges rooted in the lasting effects of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Many women continue to struggle with depression, impostor syndrome, and self-doubt that quietly limit their confidence and participation in science and technology. KIRATECH brings together technology, mental health advocacy, and community building to create a supportive digital ecosystem where women can heal, connect, and grow. At its core is an AI-powered chatbot that allows women in STEM to discuss mental health concerns confidentially or anonymously, offering a trusted space for emotional support and early intervention.

Key components of KIRATECH include a resource hub that connects users to professional counseling and mentorship programs through existing organizations, along with a community engagement section that promotes monthly meetups and annual conferences for peer support, networking, and shared learning. The “Share Your Story” section provides a platform for women to share experiences, highlight achievements, and inspire others through authentic storytelling that builds collective resilience.

The project team is currently refining the technical design of the chatbot to ensure it is culturally sensitive, multilingual, and responsive to diverse user needs. KIRATECH is also strengthening partnerships with mental health professionals and women-led STEM organizations to enhance credibility and sustainability. Together, these components aim to build a resilient community of women in STEM who are mentally supported, professionally empowered, and motivated to lead Rwanda’s future in science and innovation. Success will be measured through user engagement, mentorship participation, feedback from community events, and visible growth in women’s participation and leadership across STEM fields.”

I was honored to be part of the TechWomen 2014 delegation to Rwanda, which provided helpful background in my support of this year’s team.

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Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Mentoring, Rwanda, San Jose, teaching, technical women, TechWomen, WP668

June 16, 2025 · 11:57 am

Fabric from Togo

I was honored to be part of March 2024 TechWomen Delegation to Cameroon. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs that I helped design and for which I proudly serve as a mentor. In addition to the official delegation week in Cameroon, I was able to visit our TechWomen Fellows in Nigeria. On the way, I flew twice through the Togo airport in West Africa and bought some unique fabric.

One of the side delights of my many trips to the continent is visiting fabric shops to see the lovely cotton print patterns. I have written many times about this – including showing where I have used the fabric. My dining room now has an interesting new Togolese tablecloth made up of two fabrics – each with what looks like a splattered / rolled-on pattern on a red base. My friend Anne Karoly and her sister were kind enough to sew these for me. I made a donation to Education for Ministry in thanks. I think the new tablecloth and napkins complement the fish curtains (fabric from Sierra Leone 2017), and masks I bought in Cameroon (2024). One of the other mentors wrote, “That’s a typical TechWomen mentor house 😉 With goodies from the participating countries. Love it.”

Cloth from Togo 2024 - for new tablecloth

Support TechWomen: Hundreds of Beautiful Daughters

Jessica Dickinson Goodman and Katy Dickinson, US Capitol, 16 March 2025

When I started working in 2010 as a Process Architect with the US State Department – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and the Institute of International Education (IIE) to design the TechWomen mentoring program, I gained hundreds of beautiful daughters. I knew the program would include brilliant and productive leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) but not that it would eventually include thousands of inspiring women in dozens of countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. I have grown to know and love hundreds of them as daughters and colleagues in making the world a better place for us all.

Ten days ago our community experienced a deeply troubling surprise. Numerous factors, including Executive Orders, program suspensions, and changes in the payments and processes of the U.S. Department of State impacted IIE’s operations. In response, they took difficult and necessary steps, including reductions in workforce. For TechWomen, this meant that most of the team went on furlough. Since that sad and scary news came out, hundreds of us mentors and Fellows have been working daily to inform elected officials, news services, and powerful people who may help us get TechWomen reinstated in time for 100+ emerging leaders to arrive in October 2025. Over 6,000 STEM women applied to join TechWomen in 2025. Last week, I was on one of the selection committees that met with the last active TechWomen staff member to get ratings recorded in the hope that the new cohort can join us in the Silicon Valley and Chicago.

TechWomen and citizen diplomacy make our world safer. If we want America to be safe, productive, and effective in STEM and related businesses, we need programs like this. Together with mentors and Fellows, I am working to get funding restored for TechWomen and other programs, including those supported by the Alliance for International Exchange and the Fulbright Association. Exchange programs such as TechWomen are a relatively low-cost way for American businesses to benefit from new ideas, innovation, entrepreuneurship, and worldwide partners. I meet monthly with three different country teams I have coached through TechWomen; it is a vital and deeply rewarding part of my life. TechWomen mentors, Fellows, and community allies who want to join our efforts to reinstate TechWomen program funding, please contact me.

27 March 2025: Today, our community was relieved at the good news that TechWomen funding has been restored and furloughed staff will be reinstated. More on Jessica Dickinson Goodman’s article: https://hackernoon.com/techwomen-is-back-online In these unsettled political times, we will continue to be vigilant to support our beloved program to empower global STEM leadership and innovation.

TechWomen Team Tunisia in San Jose, CA 2022-10-1 — TechWomen Team Lebanon 2024

TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East, 2015 by Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Susan Roger, Katy Dickinson — 2015 Poster: TechWomen Emerging Leaders from Africa and the Middle East, by Jessica Dickinson Goodman, Susan Roger, and Katy Dickinson

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Filed under Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as Africa, Central Asia, Mentoring, Middle East, technical women, TechWomen

February 26, 2025 · 7:00 pm

Hope in Spiritual Care

I am honored to be one of the panelists for tomorrow’s “Hope in Spiritual Care” virtual event hosted by the Berkeley School of Theology. You can still register if you are interested!

To prepare for the panel, I asked my fellow chaplains in the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy staff meeting today how they gave hope in a complex world to the county jail inmates while offering pastoral care, during worship, or scripture study. Here is some of what the chaplains said:

Encourage writing and reflection
Give feedback to let them know they are heard
Listen to their requests and offer choices when possible (what music to play during worship? what color paper?)
Encourage immediately if possible to identify growth and progress
Support them in speaking about gratitude and what is good in the present moment
Encourage trust in the divine message today to build future hope
When opportune, give messages of God’s love: each of us is noticed and important to God
Encourage art and creative expression
Help inmates to manage realistic expectations of the justice process
Even when things go badly, say God is with them and the chaplains will be there to listen
Be in the role of offering service rather than advice on how to fix things

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Almost a Doctor!

Yesterday, I submitted my completed Doctor of Ministry dissertation (142 pages) to the Dean of the Berkeley School of Theology Thanks to my husband, John Plocher, for a final late-night review and edit!

Since 2021, I have been a BST Doctor of Ministry student (as well as a jail chaplain, TechWomen mentor, and Founder of Mentoring Standard). The DMin degree is based on a project that comes out of the student’s regular work. My project was to rewrite The Transforming Literature of the Bible (TLB) class I present weekly in Santa Clara County jail. My successful oral dissertation defense was on 5 December 2024 with my DMin Academic Committee, the Rev. Dr. LeAnn Snow Flesher (BST Vice President of Academics & Dean of the Faculty, Professor of Biblical Interpretation), the Rev. Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins (BST Professor of Public Theology, and Mayor, Collegeville, Pennsylvania), and the Rev. Liz Milner (Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy Executive Director & Facility Chaplain, Correctional Center for Women). The dissertation I just sent in includes the three minor revisions requested by the committee during my oral defense. Next, the Rev. Dr. Sangyil Sam Park (BST Professor of Preaching & Director of Doctor of Ministry Program) will coordinate the process of final review and preparation for submission to the Graduate Theological Union Library.

Here is the Conclusion – Next Steps section of my Doctor of Ministry dissertation:

“The Transforming Literature of the Bible project is going strong after over forty years in use, and I am honored to guide the transformation of the Rev. Canon William Barnwell’s work into the twenty-first century. My vision is to continue tailoring the program materials to meet the diverse needs of inmate populations, publish the TLB materials for general use in jail and prisons, and train additional mentors in their use.

Work yet to be done includes seeking permission to publish TLB literary selections that are still under copyright, continuing to work toward the TLB class materials getting published and distributed as a spiritual education program, and scaling its use within and beyond Santa Clara County.

Possible future work includes creating a TLB version for much lower-level readers, and another for women prisoners. I have detailed some of the requirements and challenges of these two potential program extensions in the Scope of the Project section. Jail policies require two chaplain / mentors per class, so additional volunteers will be needed to extend the program.

It has been inspiring to update the TLB to support the most marginalized among the jail inmates and I am thankful to God, my family and community, the jail inmates and my work colleagues, and the Berkeley School of Theology for its support during this process.”

BST graduation will be in May 2025.

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Filed under Chaplain, Church, Home & Family, Mentoring & Other Business, Mentoring Standard, News & Reviews

Tagged as Berkeley, Berkeley School of Theology, Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy - CIC, Jail, John, teaching

October 5, 2024 · 10:55 am

Coaching TechWomen Team Lebanon

This year, I have the honor to work with sister mentor Caitlin Doyle as Impact Coaches for TechWomen Team Lebanon. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I helped design this mentoring program in 2010-2011, and it is very dear to me. This is my second time mentoring a cohort from Lebanon, a country I enjoyed visiting in 2013 hosted by my beloved TechWomen mentees, Adla Chatila, Sukaina Al-Nasrawi and Maysoun Ibrahim.

Caitlin and I are working with the six Lebanese STEM professionals to develop a technical project that will help find housing and resources for people recently displaced by the conflict in Lebanon. The team is developing this project to use their experience and skills to help their homeland during this difficult time. The team also has a group of professional and cultural TechWomen mentors supporting them. Some of our team is housed in San Francisco and some in the South Bay, so we have been meeting every few days on Zoom, plus a working dinner at my house. This weekend we are finishing up our pitch presentation for Monday’s TechWomen pitch day. We are very proud of them – wish us luck!

More about TechWomen from the Institute of International Education, “TechWomen empowers, connects and supports the next generation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from Africa, Central and South Asia, and the Middle East by providing them the access and opportunity needed to advance their careers, pursue their dreams, and inspire women and girls in their communities. Through mentorship and exchange, TechWomen strengthens participants’ professional capacity, increases mutual understanding between key networks of professionals, and expands girls’ interest in STEM careers by exposing them to female role models.”

8 October 2024: Here is a link to the inspiring 3 minute pitch that Team Lebanon gave yesterday about their “Hadak Lebnen” project to create a platform to support over a million recently displaced people in Lebanon.

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TechWomen in Nigeria

After the TechWomen Cameroon Delegation, in March 2024 I made a side trip to Nigeria to visit the TechWomen Fellows there. Private side trips, or as we sometimes call them, mini-delegations, have been an unofficial part of TechWomen since the start. My first mini-delegation was in 2013 with my daughter Jessica Dickinson Goodman when we visited Lebanon. Jessica and I also went on a mini-delegation to Palestine and Gaza in 2016. TechWomen is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. I helped design this mentoring program in 2010-2011, so it is very important to me. I am grateful to Binta Moustapha, Fatima Abdulaziz Sule, Rumana Kabir Aminu, and the remarkable TechWomen Fellows team that invited TechWomen Mentor Kathy Giori and me to visit them in Abuja, Nigeria for the 2023 Tech Community Impact Week.

Getting to Nigeria is painful. Visas are exceptionally difficult and frustrating to secure and after many months of effort, I only received mine the day before I left. However, once in Nigeria, people are welcoming and generous and there is much to do and learn. I learned that we arrived in Nigeria at a difficult time when fuel prices were very high so I was grateful that the inspiring TechWomen Fellows were able to drive us or find drivers for us to get around. I am grateful that the dedicated and persistent Fellows were able to put together our presentations and visits despite these hardships. I would love to visit them again to see more of their amazing country.