Overview
The Women Chemists Committee is dedicated to attracting, developing, and supporting women in the chemical sciences and we plan to address such timely issues as the gender wage gap and promoting the nomination of more women and minorities for ACS awards. In addition, we are collaborating with the Younger Chemists Committee and the Senior Chemists Committee to hold a series of events emphasizing the importance of mentorship at all career levels.
Volunteer Opportunities
The Women Chemists Committee is seeking permanent members to shape its long term goals as well as volunteers to assist with event planning, connecting with other local women in science groups, and writing articles for The Nucleus. Please contact the WCC chair, Carol Mulrooney, at wcc@nesacs.org, if interested.
Who Are We
Carol Mulrooney
GSK, plc.
NESACS is proud to have a vibrant community of women chemists, and a variety of activities that promote female involvement in this central science.
Co-Owner, PID Analyzers, LLC
Reprinted from ACS Industry Matters Newsletter, October 15, 2020
As a co-owner of her family owned and operated analytical and environmental monitoring instrumentation manufact-uring business, PID Analyzers, LLC, Jennifer Maclachlan is responsible for managing relationships with distrib-utors and key clients, as well as the web-based marketing, social, and digital media initiatives, of which she was an early adopter.
In 2018, Maclachlan served as Chair of the ACS Multidisciplinary Program Planning Group (MPPG) and completed three years of service as Chair of the ACS National Committee on Public Relations and Communi-cations (CPRC), and is currently serving as a second year Associate to the ACS Committee on Chemical Safety.
Since 2010, Maclachlan has been the Public Relations Chair for the ACS Division of Small Chemical Businesses (SCHB), where she currently runs a weekly SCHB Zoom Happy Hour meeting to discuss business that is important to small chemical business owners. She has done this for the past 28 weeks and counting.
She is a founder of the Cape Cod Science Café, which she started in 2011, with support from the Northeastern Section of the ACS (NESACS) and an International Year of Chemistry (IYC2011) mini-grant.
STEM Journey, of which she is a founding member and organizer, is an award-winning K–12 annual public outreach, day-long event with collaborative efforts from the ACS Local Section (NESACS), the Cape & Islands Boy Scouts, Sandwich STEM Academy, and PID Analyzers, LLC.
In 2020, Maclachlan became Chair of the American Industrial Hygiene Association’s (AIHA) Teen Workplace Health & Safety Committee after completing three years of service to AIHA as Chair of their Teen Workplace Health & Safety Task Force, which she founded with administrative support from AIHA.
In her local community on Cape Cod, Maclachlan completed service as Rear Commodore during the summer 2020 season at the lake yacht club, where she was in charge of implement-ing and enforcing COVID-19 protocols and running daily operations at the grill with a teenage workforce.
COVID-19 is not only killing people all over the globe, it is proving to be lethal to small businesses. In its August 1, 2020 issue, the Wall Street Journal reported that “…as many as 1.4 million small businesses closed their doors or temporarily suspended operations in the second quarter …
Q: What are your biggest concerns about the pandemic’s impact on your small business?
As the Managing Director of a small, family-owned manufacturing company, my two biggest concerns have been and continue to remain the same: 1) Protecting personnel by operating smartly and safely and 2) Effective management of our supply chain when the products we manufacture aren’t mass-produced.
After receiving notification of the local school closures on March 13, 2020, I instructed our employees to bring home whatever tools/supplies/widgets/products etc. after each shift, that they would need, in case we needed to shut down the building, and shelter in place: that way they could keep working from home and we could continue to pay them.
When the Stay-At-Home order was issued for Massachusetts effective March 24, 2020, we were prepared and able to continue operations in our facility under the ‘Chemical’ provision as an Essential Business, however, in order to keep our workers safe and healthy, we determined that some workers could be entirely remote, and others would need to be hybrid, and we would therefore have to employ a staggered workforce.
The NESACS Multi-Generational Mentoring Initiative
By Carol Mulrooney, NESACS Women Chemists Committee Chair, and Catherine Rawlins, NESACS YCC Past Chair
The idea for the NESACS Multi-Generational Mentoring Initiative was conceived as a collaboration of the Younger Chemists Committee (YCC), Women Chemists Committee (WCC), and Senior Chemists Committee (SCC) led by Catherine Rawlins, Carol Mulrooney, and Morton Hoffman, respectively.
We recognized that there were overlapping goals of these three committees and successfully received an Innovative Projects Grant from the ACS! There are many stages of your career in which mentoring is needed and we sought to combine our efforts to reach a broader audience as a team. Thus far, three events have been run in 2017 under this initiative.
Know Your Worth Workshop with Ashley Pare
During the Fall 2017 NSYCC Career Symposium at Boston University, we organized a workshop on building salary negotiation skills. This stemmed from the Wage Gap Panel hosted by the WCC in April 2017. Because of the new Equal Pay laws in Massachusetts, there is a need for more training on salary negotiation as a way to close the gender wage gap.
This workshop was run by Ashley Pare, an expert on teaching negotiation skills with 10+ years in human resources whose company, Own Your Worth LLC, leads workshops in the Greater Boston Area. Ashley presented information on the wage gap among chemists and presented resources for chemists to find out what the expected salary range is for chemists of different backgrounds in industry. The undergraduate and graduate students attending the symposium learned about the need to negotiate their salary when starting their industry careers. In interactive sessions, the audience practiced negotiating by roleplaying employer and prospective employee salary conversations. In the feedback from the post-symposium surveys, many cited this workshop as their favorite part of the day’s events and felt that the training was valuable.
Graduate Programs in Chemistry: Deciding, Getting in and Succeeding
This panel discussion was geared towards undergraduate chemistry students considering graduate school and was cohosted by the Department of Chemistry at Bridgewater State University. The four panelists ranged in experience from a BSU alumna in her first year in a graduate program to a University Professor in charge of graduate admissions. The panelists participating were Phoebe Kurriss, graduate student at Brown University, Catherine Rawlins, graduate student at Northeastern and a co-host of the panel, Dr. Mindy Levine, Associate Professor at University of Rhode Island, and Dr. Carla Mattos, Professor at Northeastern University. Carol Mulrooney, chair of the NESACS Women Chemists Committee, moderated the discussion.
Utilizing resources from the ACS, the discussion started with the decision to go to graduate school and moved to what the undergraduates would need to do to prepare themselves for the experience. The second part of the discussion revolved around each year of graduate school and what the milestones are that the students can expect to achieve during their time. The presentation included numerous references to the ACS website and the extensive resources available to undergraduate and graduate students. Pizza and refreshments were served before the panel and students were given the opportunity to network with the panelists after the event. We plan to direct more events such as this to undergraduate-only institutions to reach a broader audience.
Perspectives on a Life in Chemistry: Mentoring
This symposium was the third IPG sponsored event, held at Northeastern University on December 5th. Four established, successful chemists spoke of their experiences from both having and being mentors. Throughout the presentations, a common theme surfaced and sent a powerful message about the benefits of mentoring. Opening remarks were given by Dr. Mindy Levine, NESACS 2018 Chair. Mindy shared some observations on her experiences with her past mentors, including some direct pieces of advice she has received, some helpful, some… not so helpful. The goal of this symposium was to share the wisdom from years of experience to students and early career scientists to guide them in their scientific journey. These were the highlights from each speaker:
Dr. Morton Hoffman, Professor Emeritus, Boston University spoke of his friendships with his mentors and mentees, and of the benefits of being a mentor in academia. These include the good feelings gained from helping someone and gaining a life-long friend. Mentors helping new professors also humanize an academic department by encouraging people to talk to each other. He summarized with an observation: everybody needs a mentor, although some hesitate to reach out for help.
Dr. Dorothy Phillips, Retired, Waters Corporation, introduced her presentation by defining mentoring as a key element of leadership. She spoke of the mentors she has had during her career as close friends. While moving up the industry career ladder, she received key pieces of advice, including one from a close friend and colleague who stressed publishing one paper a year. She also talked about how she asked for mentoring when serving in the National ACS leadership. Her plan when seeking advice was to introduce herself to one of the leaders, ask for some time and prepare specific questions for her prospective mentor. Dorothy ended her talk by specifying her most important mentoring relationships: her family.
Dr. Tom Gilbert, Associate Professor, Northeastern University, shared his observations on what it takes to be an effective mentor: a strong base of knowledge and experience, and an understanding of the value of being a mentor – that you lift yourself by lifting up others. Tom told us of a mentor-turned-collaborator who helped him grow as a teacher by understanding the needs of the students. Among the mentors Tom spoke of was our final speaker, Dr. Vouros, with whom Tom described as the “quintessential mentor.”
Dr. Paul Vouros, Professor Emeritus, Northeastern University, talked of mentoring as something that can come naturally, not having to be planned. He uses his past positive experiences with mentors to inform his own mentorship. His description of a good mentor included knowledge and excellence in the field of study, patience, warmth, and an interest in students’ goals and objectives.
The undercurrent of warmth, friendship and collaboration ran through each presentation and served to inspire the audience. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn how to be mentors from these excellent speakers!
Looking ahead to 2018, we plan to host more events targeting the different demographics represented by each of the three committees and expand our network to other organizations in the Greater Boston Area!
Woman Chemists Committee Needs You
The NESACS Women Chemists Committee is excited to be planning events for 2017! Our committee is dedicated to attracting, developing, and supporting women in the chemical sciences and we have plans to address such timely issues as the gender wage gap and promoting the nomination of more women and minorities for ACS awards.
If you are interested in participating or have ideas for additional topics, contact Carol Mulrooney at WCC@nesacs.org
ACS Webinar – Left, Right or Straight Ahead? Making Smarter Decisions
Launch Point: The Hidden Key to Taking Your Career to the Next Level
IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast
