Apr 8, 2010 – MWCC: The Gift of Mentoring

By Sarah Carberry (MWCC Public Relations Representative)

The NJACS Metro Women’s Chemist Committee held a joint meeting with the Central Jersey AWIS chapter on April 8th at Fairleigh-Dickinson Campus in Madison, NJ. Approximately 40 women attended the meeting which revolved around the” Gift of Mentoring” and began with dinner and networking. The guest speaker was Dr. Sherrie Pietranico-Cole who is currently a Research Leader and Chemistry Project Leader in Discovery Chemistry at Roche. She spoke about the many mentors that had changed her lives and how she has mentored others during her career. She spoke about growing up in Harlem and the journey she took from her humble roots to the Douglass College then to the University of Pennsylvania where she became the first African-American women to complete a Ph.D. in chemistry. A panel of four successful mentors then spoke of their experiences and took questions from the group. The panel included the guest speaker Dr. Sherrie Pietranico-Cole along with Dr. Molly E. Hoke, Dr. Catherine M. Duckett, and Mrs. Maureen Chan. The panel shared their views and strategies for mentoring students and peers as well as how to seek out a mentor during the different stages of life.

The evening concluded with the ACS MWCC presenting the first annual MWCC Mentoring Award to Ms. Jeannette Brown. Ms. Brown has been a mentor to countless men and women throughout her life, including the guest speaker of the evening Dr. Pietranico-Cole. She is a 50-year member of the ACS and has won numerous awards and grants; the most recent was a Heritage Foundation grant for the initial research for the book she is writing about the history of African American Women Chemists. She is truly a wonderful role model and certainly deserving of the inaugural MWCC Mentoring Award.

Photos from the Apr 8 2010 Meeting