Since 2014, Girls STEAM Institute™ empowers young women to become entrepreneurial leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). Through in-person, online, and virtual reality workshops, classes, and business hack-a-thon challenges, we’ve inspired hundreds of girls to ideate, innovate, and implement solutions to real-world problems.
In our collaboration with our Board, partners, alumni, mentors, and volunteers, and our strong vision, our programs foster personal and professional development, honing skills in leadership, critical and design thinking, team-building, self-care, finance, and budgeting. GSI uses Project-Based Learning (PBL) and Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to teach girls how to formulate and execute solutions in team settings.
We are working with the United Nations on three Sustainable Development Goals through 2030 to introduce our STEAMers to the important issues through our innovative annual GSI Business Challenge events exploring:
- Climate Change
- Civic Duty
- Mental Health
GSI supports the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on Climate Change, Mental and Physical Health and Civic Duty. We use these UN goals as part of our thematic programs for our Annual Global Girls VR Team Business Challenges. The GEN Z girls, aged 14-24, represent 85% of a survey of 1200 youth who are concerned about the earth and the impact of climate change, according to Blue Shield of California research project (2021).
Girls STEAM Institute™ History
Girls STEAM Institute™ (GSI) is a culmination of 40 years of developing access to capital and market opportunities for women business owners leading to mentoring young girls and women in STEAM as entrepreneurs using immersive technologies.
The original founders of GSI are twin sisters, Diane McClelland and Suzanne Lackman, who learned at 14 when there was an obstacle of not having a high school girls tennis team, like the boys, and yet, here was always an answer to get the results they wanted. Through persistence, the high school administration changed their decision and allowed girls to have a tennis team including twins. Fifteen years before Title IX, the Girls Tennis Team brought the first State Championship to the school in spite of the fact that the boys had 16 teams and the first had one. The experience of fighting for equality for girls led to 4 decades of working to Inspire, Empower and Innovate change for women and girls to reach their fullest potential.
- 1960s: Diane McClelland and Suzanne Lackman (age 14) successfully advocate for a girls’ tennis team at their high school.
- 1970s: Title IX is enacted (15 years after the twins’ high school experience).
- 2014: ASTRA STEAM is founded, the precursor to Girls STEAM Institute™.
- 2018: Girls STEAM Institute™ is officially established as an international nonprofit.
- 2020: GSI produced a 5 day international STEAM conference for girls, parents, and mentors.
- 2021: GSI expands globally in virtual reality (VR) with the Annual Girls Team Business Challenge.
- 2024: Launched first annual GSI Gala to celebrate GSI 10th Anniversary.
- 2024: Produced the first GSI Business Challenge for Parents, Mentors, and Teachers.
- 2024: GSI continues to welcome girls from Africa, UK, Canada, and other countries.
STEM Versus STEAM
Girls STEAM Institute™ from its start in 2014, chose to use STEAM instead of STEM, because of the importance to include the “A” for arts and athletics and the personal and professional development skills they both add to the individual growth experience add to the life experiences and overall knowledge of the student and life-long learner.
We are STEAMers
Girls and young women who become part of GSI are affectionately referred to as “STEAMers” and are part of the organization for as long as they choose to be part of the GSI extended family.
Through the years, we increased and expanded our programs from an event-centric model to personal and professional development in order to address the changes technology brings that allows a national and global reach to girls who seek community with future career and business opportunities that might not be readily available where they live.
VISION & MISSION
The vision of Girls STEAM Institute™ is to enlighten and inspire girls globally to pursue S.T.E.A.M. entrepreneurship and leadership.
Our mission is to build a sustainable global pathway for inspiring and empowering girls to pursue innovation as STEAM entrepreneurs.
Our values are:
- Bold: Courage drives success. We empower STEAMers to push through obstacles.
- Collaboration: True leaders unite. We cultivate leadership by empowering teamwork.
- Community: Service is our priority.
- Diversity: Differences enrich us. GSI breaks barriers, giving every girl a chance to shine.
- Innovation: Fresh solutions for old problems. Our STEAMers think outside the box to improve the world.
- Integrity: Our core value. We compete with ourselves, not others, always staying true to our principles.
Our Leadership
We are the leading organization globally empowering girls to advance in STEAM entrepreneurship and leadership. We make that happen with a world-class leadership team. We bring a wealth of skills and experience from global backgrounds. Girls STEAM Institute™ is proud to have a team of Board of Directors who bring diversity of race, gender, age, industry and geography with experience to mentor young girls from various perspectives.
Diane McClelland, President and CEO, Girls STEAM Institute™. Diane uses her 40-plus years in business entrepreneurship and nonprofit leadership as guideposts for mentoring women business owners and young girl STEAM entrepreneurs using global collaborative innovation and tools from immersive technologies. Diane McClelland, author of Walk Your Talk, has co-founded three nonprofits serving women business owners that assist women gain access to capital, access to global markets, and mentoring young girls to form STEAM businesses using immersive technology. This pioneering leader learned, at 14, to fight for equality for girls to be part of high school interscholastic sports, 15 years before Title IX. This served as a catalyst for increasing awareness of other areas to assist and create change in perceptions for women by advocating for women businesses and young girls and women to see the value of their contributions to the greater good through their innovation and collaboration. Diane has served on multiple nonprofit boards and was a Presidential Appointee under the Clinton Administration to serve as the Vice Chair of the SBA National Advisory Council and served on the Oregon Governor’s Small Business Council. She has won numerous awards for her innovation and leadership. Future plans include writing nonfiction books and creating a women’s documentary about the importance of self-love.
Kate Edwards, Board Chair of Girls STEAM Institute™, is a unique hybrid of an applied geographer, writer, and content culturalization strategist with a passion for global cultures and media technologies. With broad experience in the fields of geography, cartography, geopolitics and cross-cultural issues, she is a recognized thought leader in the information industry as related to inclusive representation, content management, and cross-cultural impacts of information and globalization. She is an award-winning Advocate, Forbes’ Women 50 Over 50 List, Speaker, Advisor, Geographer and Culturalization Innovator at Geogrify, CXO/Co-Founder at SetJetters, Former Executive Director of the Global Game Jam and IGDA, and former Microsoft geopolitical strategist and now independent consultant for her company.
Kerri Norris is a global professional specializing in international strategy development, strategic alliance building, and communications. Fluent in French and Spanish, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurs, and non-profit organizations. During her tenure at Staples, Inc., Kerri built and led a strategic alliance valued at over 240 Million U.S. Dollars annually in the United States and which spanned fifty-one countries. In this role, she represented Staples at the U.S. Department of Commerce, United Nations, World Bank, Fortune 500 customers, embassies, and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, where she served on the Global Business Committee.
Jeff McClelland, CEO, HUMANITEA Company Inc., Kids Healthy Foods LLC, and Balance Beverages, Inc., is the Founder of numerous companies in the food and beverage industries. His customers include Costco, Albertson’s, Walmart, and smaller regional grocery stores who have purchased organic juice boxes, organic teas and electrolyte water products from his combined companies. He is a long-time advocate and supporter of Girls STEAM Institute, helping to mentor young women in STEAM industries.
Billie Bryant Schultz is the President and CEO of CESCO, Inc., a leading provider of printing equipment and software solutions based in Dallas, Texas. With over 25 years of experience at the helm, Billie transformed CESCO from a coin and office equipment repair shop into a successful woman-owned business, establishing strong partnerships with top manufacturers like Xerox, HP, and Ricoh. A graduate of the Federal Institute in Tyler, Texas, she is also an alumna of the WBENC Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program. Beyond her corporate achievements, Billie is a dedicated advocate for women entrepreneurs, having served on various boards including the Women’s Business Council Southwest and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). Her contributions to the business community have been recognized with numerous awards, including induction into the Women’s Business Enterprise Hall of Fame. Billie’s leadership and commitment to empowering women continue to inspire future generations in the business world.
Tom Furness is an amalgam of Professor, Inventor and Entrepreneur in a professional career that spans 54 years. In addition to his contributions in photonics, electro-optics, and human interface technology, he is an original pioneer of virtual and augmented reality technology and widely known as the ‘grandfather’ of virtual reality. He is the founder and chairman of the Virtual World Society, a non-profit for extending virtual reality as a learning system for families and other humanitarian applications. Tom and his students/colleagues have spun off 27 companies with an aggregate market capitalization of ~$10B. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.
Dr. Angelina Dayton, known as “The VR Lady,” is the Executive Director of the Virtual World Society and an Aspen Institute Tech Policy Fellow. She spent the 2023-2024 year monitoring one of the first AI-only taught classes in primary education. She will share her unique insights on the impact of AI on education and careers as it becomes more embedded into our lives and work. Dr. Dayton’s work exemplifies the transformative potential of AI and VR in shaping future careers and educational experiences.
Emeritus Board
Rachel Bernstein, Executive Producer at Google, is a video game designer and developer based in San Fransisco. Bernstein graduated from Princeton University with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science in 1987. After founding and running successful video game companies herself, Bernstein joined Electronic Arts and became an executive producer for Maxis, overseeing the development of the Wii version of MySims Agents and The Sims Medieval. Since 2013, Bernstein has served as an executive producer at Google for the Android Play Studio. She has been a speaker at many prestigious events and an author of two books.
Deborah Todd is an accomplished writer, game designer, and producer with over 30 years of experience in the entertainment industry. She’s the founder and CEO of the Girls STEAM Institute, dedicated to empowering young women in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. As an award-winning author of 25 books and numerous articles, Deborah has contributed significantly to game design education. Her expertise spans across various media, including video games, virtual reality, and transmedia storytelling. Deborah holds leadership roles in prestigious organizations like Women in Games International and the Producers Guild of America. She is committed to mentorship and continues to inspire and guide the next generation of STEAM professionals.