Ruth Sweetser, IIT’s Director, Corporate Relations and President of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) from 2005 – 2009, will speak at the opening dinner for the 2014 Women’s Conference on Diversity in Higher Education at the Hilton Miami on Sunday, July 20, 2014 in Miami, FL. The conference workshops will take place  July 21 – 22, 2014. This year’s conference theme is “All Women are Diverse!”

IIT’s Lisa Montgomery, Director of Diversity, will also be presenting and participate on a panel.

Sweetser works in roles which bolster IIT’s STEM enrollment, especially of women. Sweetser has served as national president of AAUW (American Association of University Women) from 2005 – 2009 following numerous positions at the state and national levels. She represents AAUW on the National Girls Collaborative Project board, as well as on its Illinois affiliate, both NSF-funded initiatives. Since 1996 she has been a member of the Gender Equity Advisory Committee of the Illinois State Board of Education. Former Governor Edgar appointed Sweetser to the Commission on the Status of Women in Illinois, for which she chaired the Education and Training Working Group. Sweetser has received recognition, including the Founders’ Award of the DuPage Area Association of Business & Industry (’95); the Julia Beveridge Award from Illinois Institute of Technology (’96); and Joint Honors Award of the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers (’96). She is a 1998 recipient of the YWCA Women of Achievement and a 1999 recipient of the NAWBO Influential Woman in Business Award. She has served on the Lombard Plan Commission since 1990 and in 2003 completed seven years on the board of the SciTech Museum. In 2008 Sweetser was named a Distinguished Alumna of Hope College in Michigan.

Sweetser is the Director, Corporate Relations, Illinois Institute of Technology. In this position she works to initiate and strengthen relations with business and industry. Sweetser facilitates engagement with the university in the areas of research collaboration, education and workforce preparation, and manages relationships with companies such as IBM and Microsoft as well as with key entities such as the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition, Chicago Career Tech and the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education.

To register for the 2014 Women’s Conference on Diversity in Higher Education, visit the conference website.  The registration fee of $445 includes all meals provided during the conference, as well as session materials. A negotiated room block under The Academic Network for $119 per evening has been arranged.