Diversity Champions Receive Top Honors for Leading Inclusion in Science and Engineering Graduate Education

Notre Dame, IN June 7, 2004--The National GEM Consortium announces its industry and academic leaders recognized in 2004 for enhancing the value of the nation's human capital by increasing the participation of underrepresented groups at the master's and doctoral levels in engineering and science. Milton E. Fletcher, General Motors Corporation, has received its Presidential Award; Sterling Gatling, Ph.D., Dow Chemical Company, has received the Father Theodore Hesburgh Leadership Award; Nancy Knight, Iowa State University, has received the University Member of the Year Award; and Dianne M. Engram, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, has received the Employer Member of the Year Award. Each will accept their honor June 10 in Las Vegas, Nevada during GEM's annual conference.

Mr. Fletcher is General Motor's representative on GEM's Board of Directors and serves on the executive board as the Human Resources/Board Development Committee Chair and as interim Chair of the Marketing Committee. Under his leadership Board Development has proposed a complete restructuring of the executive board to create operating efficiencies. Marketing developed a new brand strategy and marketing platform for the recruitment and retention of members.

Dr. Gatling has three decades of experience with Dow company and its products and has been its representative on GEM's Board of Directors since 1990. He currently serves as the Vice President of Science Programs on GEM's executive board. Gatling's leadership has resulted in four fellows of GEM's technical graduate fellowship programs, two Master's of Engineering and two Ph.D. fellows, receiving funding support from Dow each year for more than a decade.

Ms. Knight is Manager of Engineering Graduate Programs in the College of Engineering at Iowa State University. She has served as GEM's representative for Iowa State since 1999 and is being recognized for her outstanding efforts to recruit African American, American Indian, and Hispanic American students to the university through GEM's graduate engineering fellowship programs.

Ms. Engram is currently the Manager of the Equal Opportunity Office and the Interim Manager of the Employment Office at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. She is the GEM representative for Fermi and has been successful most recently in increasing the numbers of GEM Fellows who are selected by the laboratory. Fermi, the national high energy physics facility funded by the Department of Energy; Engram; and three of those graduates currently on staff are featured in GEM's 2003 annual report.

Fletcher, Gatling, Knight,and Engram are exemplary models of how to fulfill GEM's mission to increase the numbers of African American, American Indian, and Hispanic American pursuing advanced degrees in technical disciplines and building leadership careers in industry and academia. For additional information on GEM, please contact Leigh Hayden, director of marketing, at (574) 631-7782.

The National GEM Consortium (www.gemfellowship.org) is a non-profit corporation with more than 2500 alumni of the organization's three technical graduate fellowship programs: M.S. Engineering, Ph.D. Engineering, and Ph.D. Science. Headquartered at the University of Notre Dame, GEM is a consortium of 139 universities, multi-national corporations, and government laboratories located throughout the U.S. and The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. GEM is a recognized leader in providing recruitment and retention strategies to universities and employers who seek diverse talent pursuing advanced degrees in engineering and science disciplines.

CONTACT: Leigh Hayden
The National GEM Consortium
P.O. Box 537
Notre Dame, IN 46556
http://www.gemfellowship.org
(574) 631-7782
(574) 287-1486 (fax)





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