Seeking a new Director of Educational Outreach!

We’re excited to share an opportunity to get more involved with SBWiSTEM. We are currently seeking a new Director of Educational Outreach to join our Board! This volunteer role is ideal for someone who enjoys working with schools and organizations. This role is perfect for someone who enjoys supporting our local educational community. As Director of Educational Outreach, you will work with local schools and organizations on events and outreach efforts that expose students to STEM career paths and opportunities. These efforts may include coordinating and supporting panel discussions, hands-on workshops, career fairs, and more. 

You’ll be the main point of contact for local schools (K-12 and college/university) and organizations (for example, Partners in Education and Girls Inc.). You will be responsible for how SBWiSTEM engages with these organizations to support their events and efforts - for example, by providing feedback, volunteers, or speakers. 

We’re looking for someone who’s comfortable using Google Drive tools and communicating through text, email, Slack, phone, and in-person. Teamwork is key, so enjoying collaborative work is a plus! Like all SBWiSTEM Board positions, this is a volunteer role—great for someone who wants to get more involved in our STEM community. Time commitment is about 4-6 hours per month.

If you are organized and passionate about inspiring the next generation of STEM leaders, this position could be a great fit for you! If you are interested in filling the Educational Outreach role, please complete this expression of interest form by September 26, 2025. We will evaluate submissions and be in touch. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you! 

Seeking a new Volunteer Liaison!

Hello from Santa Barbara Women in STEM (SBWiSTEM)!

As we continue to be dynamic and shape our events and group to fit the needs of our community, we are seeking a Volunteer Liaison to support the SBWiSTEM Board! This role is perfect for someone who enjoys building connections and supporting community events. As Volunteer Liaison, you’ll help identify and communicate with volunteers who are excited about supporting the SBWiSTEM mission. You’ll be the main point of contact for volunteers, keeping their contact information organized and helping coordinate their roles at events. You’ll also stay in touch with some of our local partner organizations and schools.

We’re looking for someone who’s comfortable using Google Drive tools and communicating through text, email, Slack, phone, and in-person. Teamwork is key, so enjoying collaborative work is a plus! Like all SBWiSTEM Board positions, this is a volunteer role—great for someone who wants to get more involved in our STEM community. Time commitment is about 4 hours per month.

Volunteers you support will help at professional development and community events in a variety of ways—whether that’s speaking on panels, sharing photography skills, or assisting with event logistics like greeting guests, managing name tags, or setting up food and signage.

If you’re organized, enjoy meeting new people, and want to support fun, engaging events—this could be a great fit for you!

If you are interested in filling the Volunteer Liaison role, please complete this expression of interest form by August 22, 2025. We will evaluate submissions and be in touch. Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you! 

Meet our Panelists! To Pivot or Not to Pivot

Meet our panelists! we are hosting a “To Pivot or Not to Pivot” panel discussion, with speakers from a variety of industries and with diverse experiences. Panelists will share lessons learned and insights from navigating their pivots (or decisions not to pivot) and recommendations on how to create a solid support system to achieve your goals.

- Michelle Carlen -

Panelist

Michelle leverages over 25 years of expertise in hospitality, tourism, and property management to produce value-added results for her clients, including impactful and sustainable strategies, improvements in organizational development, executive presence and communication skills, robust growth cycles and bottom line, and positive growth mindsets. 

Michelle is an energetic professional business and career coach, trainer, and facilitator who has worked with hundreds of clients including organization executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, employees, and job seekers. Before joining WEV as an instructor, Michelle had been familiar with the organization and admired its work.

- Julia StewarT Lowndes -

Panelist

Julia Stewart Lowndes, PhD is a marine ecologist working at the intersection of actionable environmental science, data science, and open science. Julia’s main focus is mentoring teams to develop technical and leadership mindsets and skills for data-intensive research, grounded in climate solutions, inclusion, and kindness. She founded Openscapes in 2018 as a Mozilla Fellow and Senior Fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at UCSB, having earned her PhD from Stanford University in 2012 studying drivers and impacts of Humboldt squid in a changing climate.  

- Christina Hamilton -

Panelist

Christina Hamilton is a software engineer at Invoca. After 6 years as a content marketing professional, she enrolled in UCLA's Full Stack Web Development Bootcamp and entered the computer science industry as a quality assurance engineer, before transitioning to software development. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from UC Santa Barbara.

- DEBRA COOK -

Panelist

Debra Cook has a BS in Physics from Humboldt State University and an MS in Physics from University of Washington. She worked in nanotechnology for 20 years (scanning probe microscopy and nanoscale infrared spectroscopy) as an applications scientist and R&D applications manager. Her first career pivot was changing from full time to part-time/contract work when she had children. Her second career pivot four years ago was changing to a new role in a new field, design verification engineering in the medical device industry.

- ROWSHAN RIMA -

Panelist

Hi, I’m Rowshan Rima. I have a master’s in mechanical engineering from University of South Carolina-Columbia, and currently working as a Design Verification Engineer in Karl-Storz. My professional passion lies in conducting research and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. My pivotal moment was when I made the decision to become the primary caregiver for my daughter, and I’ve had the privilege of staying with her for the first 5 years of her life.

In my free time, you can often find me travelling, and taking photographs. I am excited about personal and professional growth, both within the company and as a parent to my daughter.

- RASHI BAHRI -

Panelist

Bio coming soon!

SBWiSTEM SPOTLIGHT: Katie Castillo & Carey Caulfield from Crossnokaye

For those of you who don’t already know, Santa Barbara Women in STEM in partnership with CrossnoKaye is hosting a Speed Networking event on Wednesday, June 22, 2022 at 6:00pm PST at CrossnoKaye in the Granada Building.

We will have food, drinks, and - for the first time - a headshot photobooth to refresh your LinkedIn profile (if, like us, it's been a few years...)!

After hearing from CrossnoKaye, we'll start our Speed Networking session - a fun, low-stress facilitated networking activity where you can meet others, share experiences, and learn effective networking skills! These skills will help you make a great impression, whether you're looking for work, hiring, or just like connecting with others.

Speed Networking is SB Women in STEM's most popular kind of event, so we will cap RSVPs when we reach our limit.

This past week, we connected with Katie Castillo and Carey Caulfield, both from CrossnoKaye, an actively growing tech start-up here in Santa Barbara, CA. They shared what they love about working at CrossnoKaye, what they’re looking for in applicants, and what makes CrossnoKaye unique. We even got to learn some fun facts about these STEM gals! Check out their interviews below, and be sure to attend on June 22!

Q: What do you love about CrossnoKaye?

Katie: I love the people! Everyone who works here is not only someone I enjoy working with on a day-to-day basis, but I want to hang out with after work.

Katie Castillo, CrossnoKaye

Carey Caulfield, CrossnoKaye

Carey: Supportive leadership, Flexible work schedule, great teammates, a place right here in Santa Barbara where I can have a huge impact.

Q: What are key things (skills, experience, interests) that you look for in applicants?

Katie: We love to see driven and innovative applicants with wide variety of both tangible and intangible skills who are looking to make a difference and create meaningful impacts in the world. We are a close-knit team who empower and inspire each other everyday, and we have a lot of fun along the way. Every new team member brings a refreshing perspective and energy and we’re excited to keep expanding and diversifying our CrossnoKaye family. Joining this company is a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Q: Are you able to tell us about CrossnoKaye's sense of work culture, community, and collaboration?

Carey: We have diversity. 25% women and growing. My favorite is our CK Women in Tech group. A place for women to support each other. We truly believe the saying "empowered women, empower women.”

CrossnoKaye celebrating their first customer going “live”.

Q: What is unique about CrossnoKaye?

Carey: CK is unique because we are a small company of 45 people, but we are solving a BIG problem that many people don't even know about yet affects them daily. We are a part of keeping America's food supply fresh, safe and healthy before it hits the grocery stores. That takes a lot of power to keep everything refrigerated and frozen! But because of smart technologies like ML, AI, we are able to save food storage warehouses millions of dollars on their monthly energy bill, not to mention, reduce pollution and greenhouse gases. Another unique thing is that our team, including our development team, is all located in the US.

 

Q: What’s your go-to work snack?

Katie: Snacking is a true weakness of mine and the endless amount of snacks available is not helping my lack of self-control. I think I’ve had every snack available in the kitchen, but you will most commonly see me eating some popcorn, pita chips, and almonds, but always ending the day with a little dark chocolate (because it’s good for my health).

Carey: Cheetos (guilty pleasure!)

Q: What was the last song or Podcast you listened to?

Katie: Fleetwood Mac-Dreams

Carey: My First Million! Love podcasts!

Q: Favorite hobby/activity to do outside of work?

Carey: Pickleball!!! (plus we have a Pickleball Club at CK!)

 

Q: Is there anything else you’re thinking about or would like to share?

Katie: Feel free to reach out! CrossnoKaye loves Santa Barbara and investing in the community. If you want to learn more about us, see what positions are coming down the pipeline, or apply for a position you see available. I am always willing to chat and I look forward to hearing from you soon!

 

CrossnoKaye is an actively growing tech start-up here in Santa Barbara, CA with a mission to make a measurable impact on climate change. We are a B2B SaaS company building a cloud-connected operating system that will revolutionize the heavy industrial sector and bring them into the digital age.

Santa Barbara Women in STEM

president@sbwomeninstem.org