Who We Are
Understand more about our motivations and why we were founded
In 2013, President Obama publicly recognized the need for more gender diversity and female role models in STEM fields.
Personal experience and obstacles she faced as not only a STEM student, but also as a STEM professional such as limited STEM exposure, a lack of female role models in STEM professions and non-family friendly practices led our founder to create a not-for-profit organization called Fems4STEM™ which addresses these issues by:
- Encouraging girls to pursue STEM careers and inspiring them to be the next generation of innovators by boosting their self-esteem and confidence
- Increasing the number of women in STEM professions by establishing a large network of female mentors to show girls that they can excel in STEM professions thus eradicating gender stereotyping and negative perceptions
- Empowering girls through hands-on activities and early exposure equipping them with the necessary tools to be competitive in all stages of their STEM careers.
Why Us?
Cultivating female talent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is critical to America’s global leadership and ability to “out-build, out-educate and out-innovate future competitors.” Perpetuating gender stereotypes in STEM is a problem and hinders girls from believing that careers in these fields are within their reach. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy,
0
%
of jobs in the USA are carried out by women
0
%
Of PHD’s in STEM subjects are held by women
0
%
hold a tenure-track faculty in those fields
Our Founder
Aisha Martin, a nurturer by nature is a cultured, creative, powerhouse with a youthful spirit and personable demeanor. Raised and educated primarily in Europe she has combined her artistic gifts, global travel, and experiences as a seasoned biologist with her heart for inspiring girls to be authentic, confident STEM leaders.
Aisha’s STEM journey spans almost a decade and began at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA as a Molecular Biologist. She has held positions at Emory University Medical School, the Georgia Public Health Lab, and Baylor Genetics. As a certified Girls Empowerment Coach and STEMinist, her vision is to close the “gender gap to innovation,” by engaging girls from underserved and historically underrepresented communities through early exposure to STEM education and specialized mentoring. Aisha holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biology and a Master of Science in Forensic Science (MSFS).
Aisha’s mantra is “girls can’t be what they don’t see!” Her experiences as a female scientist in a male-dominated industry, coupled with her frustration at the lack of female STEM role models and mentors were the inspiration behind Fems4STEM™ which she founded in 2015. Aisha saw the need for early exposure to STEM through hands-on activities and resources to ensure that girls are successful and competitive in STEM. More importantly, a void needed to be filled in terms of female mentorship to combat the lack of gender diversity in STEM professions. She found that if more girls were exposed to STEM with the support of a female mentor on a consistent basis and with whom they could identify, they were more likely to pursue a STEM degree and career.
Fems4STEM™ is on a mission to empower, inspire and equip a nation of girls with the knowledge; skills and confidence to be global STEM leaders.
“One of the things that I really strongly believe in is that we need to have more girls interested in math, science, and engineering. We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in those fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.”