Monroe School Board Director Nancy Truitt Pierce has been appointed to governor Inslee's new STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Alliance.
Governor Jay Inslee's efforts to bolster science, technology, engineering and math education and launch his STEM Education Innovation Alliance have been bolstered this year by a $170,000 grant to Washington State from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices.
Truitt Pierce's experience on the Washington State School Directors Association's educational legislative committee and her personal involvement with many companies in the technology sector led to her appointment.
"My hope is that the Alliance will be able to look at the barriers that are holding kids back from going into STEM careers and come up with systemic big-picture changes that help more kids make that choice,GÇ¥ said Truitt Pierce.
In 2013, the Washington Roundtable, an organization representing business and industry leaders in the state, revealed a disturbing statistic GÇô that 25,000 jobs in Washington remained unfilled, and 80 percent of those jobs were in STEM fields such as computer science and engineering. That gap is expected to grow.
"STEM-based industries such as computer science, aerospace, agriculture, clean energy, life sciences and advanced manufacturing are the backbone of our state's innovation economy," said Gov. Inslee, "but we can't take these industries for granted. We need to make sure our education system is keeping students ahead of the curve and providing employers' access to a world-class workforce."
The Alliance will bring together members of industry and education to develop systems that prepare Washington's students to succeed in these challenging fields.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment