Innovate+Educate + STEMconnector™: Collaborating to Promote #STEM

Innovate+Educate is a national nonprofit organization founded in 2009 to provide a bridge between industry and education with states to advance, accelerate and transform STEM education.  Innovate+Educate has also been an integral partner of  STEMconnector™, spearheading the compilation of the state STEM profiles that will go live today at 2:00PM.  Here are a few words from Innovate+Educate President and CEO Jamai Blivin.

 

Innovate+Educate was founded in 2009 on the belief that the only way to solve our

national need for science, technology, engineering and math competencies (STEM)

is through collaboration and alignment of efforts . To that end, STEMconnector™ has

done just that.

 

 

In June 2011, Innovate+Educate was asked to partner with STEMconnector™ to

develop “snapshot” profiles for all 50 states for the launch of STEMconnector™ in

November 2011. I agreed to take on this work for our organization because not

only did I know that Edie Fraser was an amazing connector and visionary, I knew

that with Edie’s leadership, STEMconnector™ was going to be an amazing resource. I

also believed that it would be a true asset that would provide industry a tool to for

determining how their investments could be maximized in the states in which they

have a footprint. In New Mexico (as an example), the NM STEM Network matched

corporate investments with a 100% match of state dollars to show true industry

and public/private partnership. The formal STEM networks that exist in some of

the more mature STEM states have experts that truly know their state, their STEM

portfolio, and their constituents in P-20 and state government.

 

 

It took six months and a lot of emails and phone calls. But, along with effort, came

success. November 30th will launch all 50 State STEM Snapshots and will include

key information on state umbrella efforts working to advance STEM. The results are

truly amazing and every state has something to be proud of. States like Texas, New

York, North Carolina, Arizona, and California “shine” with industry partnerships.

Arkansas highlights their new launch of STEM practices under Governor Beebe’s

leadership. Through our research in Oklahoma, the Governor’s office connected us

to Ben Robinson advancing STEM in Oklahoma by aligning the aerospace industry

with education across the state. The Oklahoma Aerospace Industry, comprised

of over 400 companies, employs over 140,000 people directly or indirectly and

contributes $12.5 billion to Oklahoma’s economy each year. Ben is a retired

Brigadier General in the US Air Force, with 29 years experience as a pilot and spent

6 years with Boeing managing over 300 aerospace engineers. General Ben, as

we like to call him, understands at a personal and professional level the critical

connection between education and industry and the need for industry to take

leadership in working with education to prepare the workforce of tomorrow.

 

 

Moving into 2012, Innovate+Educate will focus on working with top industry to

maximize their investment portfolio at the state level. STEMconnector™ will be

our resource and handbook to guide industry investments. And, because of Edie

Fraser’s vision and her incredible team’s efforts--states, industry, organizations

and government now have a one-stop resource for working together to build a

globally competitive STEM nation. We all know the famous quote “it will take a

village”…. Well, Edie and her team just built that village.

 

 

I congratulate everyone at STEMconnector™ on their extraordinary effort and look

forward to the launch of this ground-breaking database on Wednesday."

-Jamai Blivin, President and CEO of Innovate+ Educate