Innovations
A conference keynote speaker questions why some remarkable women were ignored by history.
Keynote speaker Michelle Millben shared stories of some remarkable women in a rousing address at the first OKWISE conference at the Embassy Suites Medical Center on the campus of the University of Oklahoma Health Center.
Clara Luper. Katherine Johnson. Ida B. Wells. Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Each woman pursued radical changes in society or groundbreaking science that contributed to advances in how we live and what we know.
But all shared a common thread. They were largely ignored by history.
For instance, Clara Luper organized nonviolent lunch counter protests in downtown Oklahoma City in 1958 that are credited with ending policies of segregation. We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of her heroic, society-changing action.
Yet, four men in North Carolina are credited with igniting the lunch counter protests a full two years after Luper’s Oklahoma action. In fact, when you conduct a Google search of “lunch counter protests,” the top returns are about the North Carolina protests.
“Now how did a woman in 1958 get the boot in history, and how did our algorithms also knock her out of the ranks of history?” Millben asked her audience of about 350 mostly women at Friday’s conference officially known as Oklahoma Women Impacting STEM and Entrepreneurship.
“That’s why we have to tell our stories,” Millben said. “Women have always been awesome, can’t you see?”
Organized by the Tom Love Innovation Hub at the University of Oklahoma, the OK-WISE conference highlighted the work and achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as female entrepreneurs.
I was there at the invitation of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, which was one of the sponsors of the conference along with the U.S. Small Business Administration, Citizens Bank of Edmond, Devon Energy, the University of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Catalyst Programs, TOAST Design Studio and Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation.
Millben checked a lot of the right boxes with the OK-WISE audience. She is an Oklahoma native and graduate of Putnam City High School, Oklahoma City University and the OU School of Law. She was a youth pastor.
She worked as a congressional adviser, for the Justice Department and in the Obama Administration. Today she lives in Alexandria, Virginia, where she is co-founder of MGMC Enterprises LLC, a woman/minorityowned consulting firm in the areas of government relations and communications.
And she is a woman who champions women as catalysts for changing society by promoting diversity, inclusion and valuing everyone’s story.
“This conference is a testament to the continued progress that Oklahoma is making, to advance opportunities for women to lead in science, entrepreneurship and innovative technologies, and lead the way for our state’s economic progress,” she said. “Women are very collaborative, super innovative and have the skills that it takes.”
The OK-WISE conference also featured two other keynote speakers, along with panel discussions with women who are impacting areas of society, health care, technology, public policy, startups and environmental science.
Panelists shared their personal stories of how they built their business or carved out their personal niche.
Erica Mitchell, a program manager at Oklahoma City-based Cytovance Biologics, told how she progressed from her first job as an analyst by doing the “little things.”
“When I started low on the totem pole as an analyst, I thought nobody cares, nobody is going to watch what I do,” she said. “But they are all watching. I remember that I am good enough, and I remember that they are always watching, and that no act is too small.”
Laura Fleet, founder and CEO of Oklahoma City’s SendaRide, discovered that female founders are in demand as she was building her company and seeking investment capital.
“(Investors) recognize that women as CEOs produce much more valuable companies,” Fleet said. “And I found time and again people were saying ‘we’re looking for female founders, we’re looking for females as CEOs of the company.’ So, we’re on the right track.”
Stacey Bolin, Ph.D., assistant professor of business at East Central University, said she welcomed the message that Millben brought in her keynote, which received an enthusiastic ovation at its conclusion.
“What she said needs to be shared with more young women, that women are making a difference,” Bolin said. “It just hasn’t been highlighted as much as other stories that we’ve heard.”
Jim Stafford writes about Oklahoma innovation and research and development topics on behalf of the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science & Technology (OCAST).