By CAGIS
CAGIS Chapters are run by teams of amazing volunteers, with support provided by a small team of CAGIS National staff. Bonnie Douglas has volunteered with CAGIS London for 19 years, working with other volunteers to plan monthly STEM adventures to cool locations, led by STEM professionals. Bonnie is an engineer and Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades, and Technology (CCWESTT). Read on to learn more about Bonnie!
Meet Bonnie Douglas
Tell us about your involvement with CAGIS. How did you first discover CAGIS? When did you start volunteering with us?
I first discovered CAGIS as a young engineering professional who came to work in London, Ontario in the food manufacturing industry. My Mom, always a passionate educator who loved math and science, was a teacher in a Grade 8 classroom and recommended a book to me. It so happens that the book was about young girls in STEM and was written in collaboration with CAGIS. I first learned about CAGIS from the write-up in the back of the book, and reached out immediately to see if they needed volunteers in the London area.
What is your most memorable CAGIS event?
The event that stays fresh in my mind is an event I helped lead on electricity. I taught the London Chapter group about the basics of electricity, and we did an experiment making lemon batteries. I had explained the principles of circuits in series and parallel for some of the advanced youth, and when a group was puzzled by why their light wasn’t very bright, I challenged them to use their new knowledge to solve the problem. Upon realizing they could set up the circuit differently, I was so proud to see a proverbial light bulb go off in their minds as they connected the theory to practice. It’s moments like these, when we see we truly are inspiring underrepresented youth to embrace STEM, that make the efforts of the CAGIS volunteers so worth it.
You are an ice cream engineer! Tell us about a day in the life of an ice cream engineer.
After earning my degree in engineering, my speciality in food manufacturing became industrial engineering, and I found myself working in a large ice cream factory. The field of industrial engineering focuses on analysing systems, and making improvements to productivity by reducing waste in materials and time. On a daily basis I would be involved in analysing data and working closely with the team on the shop floor to implement improvements. A wonderful bonus was participating in the daily taste testing of ice cream as part of the quality assurance process! I also had the chance to work closely with food scientists and marketing to help figure out the costs and equipment involved to make their new ice cream product ideas come to life. This too involved lots of experiments and tastings!
You just became the Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition of Women in Engineering, Science, Trades, and Technology (CCWESTT). Tell us about your work and why you transitioned to advocacy for gender equity in STEM.
After nearly 20 years of working in food manufacturing, my work in continuous improvement led me beyond technical solutions to cultural improvements – how people treat each other. During much of my industry career, I volunteered for CAGIS – still seeing the need for role models and safe spaces for underrepresented youth to explore STEM. As my career progressed, I became Production Manager at my factory and I found myself advocating more and more for women and underrepresented folks to be supported and promoted in technical work. It took me some time to realize I was doing this advocacy in addition to my own technical job – something that my male colleagues didn’t even worry about. When the opportunity to work for CCWESTT came up, I jumped at the chance to shift my career and use my project management skills for something aligned with my values – and something I was already volunteering to do! I became Executive Director of CCWESTT last year, and I am proud to continue the work started by volunteers more than 30 years ago! CCWESTT is a national coalition of organizations and individuals who champion a diverse and inclusive science, engineering, trades and technology (SETT) workforce. We host conferences, act as a resource hub, and advocate for gender equity with a unified voice. Some of our project work that I am proud of is focused on supporting a cultural shift in the skilled trades to be more supportive of women and gender diverse people. I am excited to be releasing a Gender Equality Report Card in SETT with my team this fall. Hopefully, this report card will be the start of a national conversation that there is much work to be done to ensure everyone has equity in SETT workplaces.
You recently returned from the United Nations Commission for Status of Women as a member of Canada’s Official Delegation. What can you share with us about that experience?
It was an honour to be selected as part of Canada’s Official Delegation at the United Nations Commission for the Status of Women (UNCSW) this year. The experience was amazing, as I had the opportunity to connect with leaders within the Government who are championing gender equality. I was also able to develop strong connections with folks from all over Canada who are also advocating for accelerating progress in gender equity – connections that will strengthen our collective efforts. A representative from the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women and I were given some time to participate in the formal dialogue between nations on how to restructure the Commission to accelerate progress in gender equality. I was proud to bring a message to the conversation about the need for a strong accountability system, measures, and most importantly the need for STEM experts to be involved in generating solutions towards gender equality. If I recall, my statement was the only one that morning that mentioned the need for STEM experts specifically.
What is something CAGIS members might not know about you?
One of my all-time favourite projects was building the World’s Tallest Ice Cream Cone. While I’m not a Guiness record holder (to our disappointment we didn’t make all the technical requirements) – the strawberry cheesecake cone we built was taller than the record holder at the time. It was so rewarding seeing the factory team come together and think outside the box to solve a really big problem! We needed to construct, fill, freeze, and relocate the 3.36m tall behemoth! This cone, a scaled-up version of the real thing, contained a wafer cone, chocolate coating, strawberry topping, graham crumbs and 1,200L of ice cream – that is about 11,000 scoops! I never imagined I would be using my engineering degree to solve such a tall problem!
You have had many STEM successes and strongly advocate for girls and gender-diverse youth in STEM! What advice do you have for the next generation in STEM?
I am continually inspired by the STEM success stories from amazing people in my network. But through all the successes, there are so many reasons that advocacy is still needed – and why my work and the work of CAGIS is so important. So my advice is this: if you love STEM, pursue what you love! But it will be so much harder if you try to do it alone. To support you in being as successful as possible – find your people – that club, like CAGIS, or at school, a professional network, mentors and role models.
There are so many areas of STEM that can make rewarding and interesting careers. And it’s ok to not know exactly what you want to do. It’s important to be true to yourself.
