The SWE RMS Summit Awards are presented to RMS members, teams, or collegiates who have made an outstanding contribution to activities within RMS during the fiscal year. Nominees are judged based on the significance of the achievements cited on behalf of the nominee and on the contributions of the nominee to various RMS activities. RMS Summit Award recipients were recognized at the 2023 Spring Summit event held on April 15th, 2023, at the CU Boulder campus. This year RMS recognized the following members for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the section. 

The SWE RMS Section Awards are presented to SWE RMS members, teams, or collegiates who have made an outstanding contribution to activities within SWE RMS during the fiscal year. Nominees are judged based on the significance of the achievements cited on behalf of the nominee and on the contributions of the nominee to various SWE RMS activities. RMS Summit Awards were recognized at the 2022 Spring Summit event held on April 2, 2022, at the Colorado School of Mines campus. This year RMS recognized the following members for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the section. 
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The SWE RMS Section Awards are presented to SWE RMS members, teams, or collegiates who have made an outstanding contribution to activities within SWE RMS during the fiscal year. Nominees are judged based on the significance of the achievements cited on behalf of the nominee and on the contributions of the nominee to various SWE RMS activities. RMS Summit Awards were recognized at the 2021 Virtual Spring Summit event held on April 24, 2021. This year RMS recognized the following members for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the section. ​

The Society of Women Engineers awards members for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the society with our Summit Awards.

This year's winners include:

Outreach – Sara Ellis
*Presented to a SWE-RMS member who has made an outstanding contribution to Outreach programs and activities within the section for the current fiscal year.

Sara Ellis has been the Chair or Co-Chair for the SWE RMS Great Women in Engineering and Science Essay Contest for the last several years, keeping the tradition of this contest going - it is now in its 33rd year! Sara has provided consistent leadership to the contest, ensuring that 6th grade students throughout Colorado and Wyoming have the opportunity to participate, and that the finalists are recognized in a big way at the annual awards ceremony. In 2020 in particular, Sara had to adapt to the situation caused by the COVID-19 crisis, including figuring out how to ship the prize materials to the individual and school winners. She also recognized the 3 individual winners (along with their families and teachers) at our virtual awards ceremony in April. Sara's ability to adjust specific plans ensured that the Essay Contest was a success once again this year!

Professional Development – Tricia Lawler
*Presented to a SWE-RMS member who has made an outstanding contribution to Professional Development programs within the section for the current fiscal year.

This SWE Rocky Mountain Summit Award nomination is for Tricia Lawler, for her outstanding contribution to Professional Development. Tricia represented both SWE-RMS and Merrick & Company to strengthen a long-standing corporate partnership and support two unique professional development events for SWE members. For both the Conflict Management event with career coach Amy McMaster and the Art of Delegation event with business unit leader Tammy Johnson, Tricia solicited and negotiated with the speakers, set up the venue, oversaw catering, and kicked off the events with a warm welcome and speaker introductions. Tricia maintained a level of constant contact to have the speakers deliver high quality talks to our SWE members, and she navigated a last minute reschedule.

Tricia’s efforts not only provided professional development and networking opportunities to SWE member and Merrick employees, they allowed for an inclusive environment with both men and women attendees, promoted mutual support, and were focused on being convenient for SWE members to attend. Tricia continues her efforts in connecting SWE members with unique learning experiences and networking opportunities by leading the upcoming tech talk with career coach Cheryl Benedict on the very timely topic, Managing Change & Transition during COVID-19.

Fund Development – Amy Tank
*Presented to a SWE-RMS member who has made an outstanding contribution to the finances of SWE-RMS during the fiscal year through creative fundraising. This is not intended for recognizing the person who designated the most money, but the person who put the most creativity and effort into raising funds for our section.

Amy Tank is Chair of the Girls Exploring STEM (GESTEM) fundraising committee. Amy's dedication to the GESTEM event has been made apparent by her leadership coordinating fund development for the 2020 GESTEM event. Amy took over the reins of fundraising for GESTEM which is no easy task. She organized a dedicated team to strategically reach out to past sponsors to secure funding to reach the budgeted target. This was especially noteworthy since she was volunteering her time while expanding her family. She also showed unyielding support of the sponsors and volunteers needs during the COVID-19 crisis, which cancelled our event. Her empathy has led to deeper relationships with donors leading to secured funding for future events.

Communicator – Madalene Fetsch
*Presented to a SWE-RMS member who has made an outstanding contribution to communication activities within SWE-RMS during the current fiscal year. 

Madalene Fetsch as Chair of the SWE President Celebration Committee, faced a difficult situation when coronavirus threatened not only the date of the SWE FY21 President Celebration, but also the contract terms for the venue. In order to ensure the financial health of the section and flexibility for the event, she researched the contract terms and came up with two major changes the contract needed to provide flexibility for the event. Given that the venue was not proactive in updating the terms, she reached out to the general manager and negotiated new terms for the contract. This included not only tweaking details on the resulting drafts of the new contract, but also vetting these changes with the SWE National Office, who had specific tips about the wording around coronavirus that will protect the section from additional financial responsibility should the situation change dramatically as the event grows closer. After multiple drafts, she completed the new contract and stayed on good terms with the venue such that the SWE FY21 President's Celebration has multiple options for celebrating in a safe manner at some point in the future. She brought the rest of the committee on board with the changes, and prepared them for expected next steps with navigating planning this celebration in an uncertain time.

Newcomer – Emily Durie
*Presented to a SWE-RMS member who is new to the section and has made an outstanding contribution to the section during the current fiscal year. Note: This can include a person who has taken on a committee chair other similar responsibility within 2 years of joining the section.

Emily cultivated from an idea at the SWE-RMS strategic planning meeting, Emily established a new membership benefit – a book club As a new member of our section Emily has done a fantastic job of jumping in SWE and getting involved by serving as the lead for our SWE RMS Book Club. She has shown her leadership skills by effectively organizing meetings, being well prepared for discussions including having a clear agenda, and clearly communicating expectations. She created a format that was not overwhelming, allowing members to read the books in portions, and her choice in virtual format made the discussions open to all members in our geographically dispersed section. In addition Emily has been incredibly inclusive, ensuring that even through video chat, everyone had a chance for introductions especially as we had new members at each meeting. Given the current circumstances this has been a great way to connect and due to Emily’s leadership this has been a highlight of my year in participation.

The Rocky Mountain Summit Awards are presented each year to SWE-RMS members, teams, or collegiates who have made an outstanding contribution to activities within SWE-RMS during the fiscal year. We received many nominations in FY19, and are honored to recognize several individuals or groups with Rocky Mountain Summit Awards this year. Our recipients include:

​Jennifer Buechler
Jennifer wears multiple hats this year in SWE RMS, including as the chair for local socials in the Boulder area, and the college scholarships chair. She also presented an engaging session at WE Local Denver titled “Dude, where’s my female engineer?” that focused on opportunities to reduce gendered language in job postings. Her contributions over the past several years were highlighted in her nomination, which states “Jennifer has shown dedication to her roles, and in particular to fostering an inclusive environment for SWE members.” 

Manisha Ghorai
Manisha wasn’t able to attend the SWE Celebration to receive her award in person, but we recognized her for going above and beyond in her support of fund development efforts for SWE RMS. The screen-printing activity and sales of items at WE Local Denver were a creative idea that greatly benefited our section. Her nomination states that “it’s the dedication and commitment of members like Manisha that truly demonstrate the value of SWE to aspire, advance, and achieve.”

​Molly Kuettel
As Section President, Molly is leading the effort to officially re-charter the University of Denver SWE section. This year, she has coordinated several impactful events including the recent Girls with Gadgets outreach day, a joint event last fall with DU SWE, SWE-RMS, and IEEE Women in Engineering, and today’s SWE Celebration. Her nomination states that “Molly’s engagement and partnership with SWE-RMS has established a foundation that will allow our two sections to continue to stay connected and support each other going forward”.

Laura Murphy
Laura’s nomination states that “as a new section member in the last two years, Laura has jumped in to make significant contributions”. Along with her role as communications co-chair this year, Laura volunteers in several other capacities to support women in STEM and the overall SWE Mission, including as a mentor and affinity group leader at her employer, IBM.

Megan Schulze
Megan served as the Local Host Committee Chair for WE Local Denver, and was responsible for leading the team of SWE volunteers while also staying connected with SWE Headquarters and the WE Local Advisory Board. Her nomination summed up Megan’s attitude perfectly: “Megan takes the time to make sure people feel valued and welcome no matter what role she accepts”. For these reasons, Megan received the Rocky Mountain Summit Award with an emphasis on the SWE core value of Trust.

WE Local Denver Host Committee
The entire Local Host Committee for WE Local Denver was nominated for exemplifying SWE standards in professional excellence. They volunteered countless hours to solicit sponsorships, organize volunteers for the event, plan outreach events, coordinate networking activities, and much more. Their nomination states “the conference would not have been such a success without the dedication and passion that they brought in making this one of the best WE Locals yet.” The Local Host Committee members include Kaitlin Chapman, Madalene Fetsch, Sarah Gilmore, Kiera Kaufman , Ashley Kreuder, Sarita Kuppili, Heather Munoz, Dian Nyugen , Theresa O’Donnell Sloan, Megan Schulze , Caroline Short, Brenna Svoboda, Sara Trout, Steven Ulrich, Christi Wisleder, and Lisa Woodward.
 
Congratulations to all of our FY19 Rocky Mountain Summit Award recipients!