Society of Women Engineer’s (SWE) returns to The Cooper Union, which hosted SWE's founding meeting 75 years ago for a Founder’s Day Celebration on May 6, 2025. This special milestone event honor SWE's history, celebrates its accomplishments, and shares a vision for SWE's future. The free event features a keynote from astronaut and TikTok star Kellie Gerardi and a panel discussion with SWE collegiate and professional members sharing stories of women in engineering past, present, and future. Panelists include Jill Tietjen, PE, F.SWE, a SWE past president, Inaas Darrat, SWE president-elect, Troy Eller English, SWE archivist, and Lizelle Ocfemia, president of The Cooper Union's SWE student chapter. Current SWE President Karen Roth moderates. 

Register here.

Kellie Gerardi is a multi-mission research astronaut who became the 90th woman in history to fly to space and one of the world’s first payload specialists to fly on a commercial spacecraft. As a mother, researcher, author, and daily source of inspiration to millions of followers on social media, USA Today calls her “a woman of many successful missions” and named her one of their 2025 Women of the Year. Gerardi served as a payload specialist on the IIAS-01 / Galactic 05 science mission with Virgin Galactic in 2023, during which she conducted biomedical and thermodynamic fluid research in space on behalf of the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences, where she serves as the Director of Human Spaceflight and a microgravity instructor and Test Flight Director. Gerardi will lead the IIAS-02 research mission in 2026, and her second spaceflight will advance the scientific knowledge gained from IIAS-01 and introduce novel biomedical research alongside her international IIAS crewmates. Here on Earth, Gerardi has tested and matured technologies across more than 150 parabolas in microgravity research flight campaigns, including with MIT, the National Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Space Agency.

Jill Tietjen served as the 1991-1992 SWE national president, and is currently the president and CEO of Technically Speaking, Inc. An electrical engineer, she has spent more than 45 years in the electric utility industry where she provided planning consulting services to electric utilities and organizations comprising the electric utility industry and served as an expert witness before public utility commissions and other government agencies. Tietjen graduated from the University of Virginia (Tau Beta Pi, Virginia Alpha) with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics (minor in Electrical Engineering) and received her M.B.A. from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. She is a registered professional engineer in Colorado.

A SWE member since her first year at the University of Kentucky, Inaas Darrat has served as her collegiate section’s president as well as in regional roles. As director of chemical sector services for Trinity Consultants Inc., Darrat leads a team of specialists who assist chemical plants, refineries, and oil and gas facilities with compliance with U.S. federal regulations. She also provides expertise to facilities in Canada and the Middle East. Darrat earned a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Kentucky and the University of Texas at Austin, respectively.

Troy Eller English has been an archivist at SWE since 2008. In her position, she maintains SWE’s historical records at Wayne State University’s Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit, answers questions from SWE and outside researchers about the history of the Society, and shares that history in SWE Magazine and elsewhere. She received a Master in Library and Information Science from WSU and an undergraduate degree in English from Michigan State University. 

Lizelle Ocfemia is a senior in The Cooper Union Albert Nerken School of Engineering, pursuing both a Bachelor's and Master's degree in electrical engineering along with a minor in computer science. She is the current president of Cooper Union's SWE Chapter and has been on the board since her freshman year. Ocfemia also serves as the EE'25 Representative on the Engineering Student Council and is an active board member of the IEEE Chapter. 

Karen Roth is the FY25 president of SWE. She has almost 20 years of experience in engineering leading innovative research teams, as well as the strategy and execution of large portfolio projects. Her education includes a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in systems engineering from Cornell University. She also has an executive M.B.A. from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. She is currently completing an executive certificate in public leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.