OUR STORY
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The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Toronto connects and supports women engineers and engineering graduates in Toronto, Canada, enabling them to rise together as a community. We encourage meaningful and engaging conversations through a series of meet-ups, speaker series and workshops.
Globally, The Society of Women Engineers has given women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering industry for more than six decades. In January 2017, SWE Toronto became an official international affiliate. SWE Toronto envisions a world where women engineers and engineering graduates are successful and thriving by getting the support they need to become leaders in solving tough problems for our world. |
OUR MISSION
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Our mission is to contribute to the continual professional growth of women in engineering by:
To read more on how our governance accomplishes our mission, please find our bylaws here. |
OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS
ELAINE SAMUELPRESIDENT |
Elaine works as an environmental engineering consultant at GM BluePlan Engineering where she combines engineering planning, asset management and her love of data to solve how cities will continue to grow and adapt with aging infrastructure and climate change pressures. She is a passionate advocate for women in engineering. In 2018, she co-founded EngGirlProblems, a website dedicated to starting difficult conversations about challenges women in engineering may face throughout their careers. Working to improve the workplace for women in engineering has obvious parallels to the SWE Toronto mission. While continuing the presence of EGP online, Elaine joined SWE Toronto to connect and grow with her local community of engineers in Toronto. She is excited to develop a mentorship program over the course of this year. |
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Holding a PhD degree in Chemical Engineering, May Marefat is currently working in the Integrity Management team at Enbridge. May has 10+ years of volunteer experience through executive and leadership positions, such as Director and Board member at Society of Women Engineers Toronto; and Chair, Toronto Chapter at YPAC - Young Pipeliners Association of Canada. These diverse experiences have given her a strong insight into non-for-profit organizational structure as well as a robust understanding of the team's dynamic and workflows.
May acted as Programs Director at SWE Toronto in 2020-21. She led a team of 20+ passionate volunteers to implement SWE Speaks monthly seminar and panel events at which inspiring women from academia and industry were invited to discuss their career paths and showcase their stories. May and her team hosted 25+ speakers holding different roles in various companies and industry sectors: From VPs and CEOs to EITs, Engineers to Scientists and Entrepreneurs, from Energy sector to Biomedical Engineering and Digital Design. These SWE Speaks events were attended by 500+ professionals. After a very exciting year in the Programs Director role, May looks forward to contributing further to the SWE Toronto mission through a new leadership role as VP and future President. May will be supporting the president and board by focusing on organizational success, inter-committee relationships and support, and continuing to work towards SWE TO efforts in leading an example of fostering Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the organization as well as promoting EDI efforts at workplaces. |
MAY MAREFATPRESIDENT-ELECT |
AKHILA SRINIVASANPAST - PRESIDENT
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Akhila Srinivasan studied Civil Engineering at the University of British Columbia (UBC), specializing in the Geotechnical field. She's been in the industry for 7 years, having gained experience in a multitude of areas such as mining, construction, consulting, government institution, and labs. She first joined SWE Toronto in 2017 as a way to meet like-minded women who experienced similar hardships in her field. She is passionate about increasing retention and improving the gap for women in STEM. In her spare time, she loves to focus on improving other areas of her life such as health & wellness, running her side hustles, growing her social group, attending industry events, and keeping up knowledge through podcasts and reading. |
JANELLE SOMERVILLEDIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS |
Janelle is a Project Manager with a control system engineering background. She has worked in airport automation and automotive manufacturing. In her role she combines her interests in problem solving and connecting people.
She is passionate about women succeeding in engineering, science and leadership roles, which motivates her to try and reshape the field through work with a variety of age groups. As a student, she never felt there was a space for her within engineering, driving her to try and show that the title of engineer can be held by a variety of people. She volunteers as a mentor for university students at multiple institutions in Canada and works with the Microsoft TEALs program, operating as a teaching assistant in local high school computer science classrooms. Through her work with SWE she aims to support women in her field and help them to feel successful in their careers. |
PREYKSHA RAJANDIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS |
Preyksha Rajan is an Electrical Engineer and a technical sales professional in the semiconductor industry. She currently works as a Field Applications Engineer with Analog Devices. In this role, she is responsible for growing ADI’s share in the broad market in the Southern Ontario region. She works with the extended Analog Devices sales team, distributors, and business units to create value for our customers by understanding and proposing solutions for their technical challenges.
She started her career with Analog Devices in 2018. Prior to joining the sales team in Canada, she worked as an application engineer with Analog Devices in Massachusetts, USA, where she worked with different units with products in power, medical and instrumentation markets. She holds a Master's in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas. At the Society of Women Engineers, Toronto, Ms. Rajan leads the programs committee. Her goal is to bring thought-provoking discussions and actionable strategies to the 2200 and growing SWE TO members to empower them with resources to grow professionally. She leads a team of 10+ volunteers and supports the communication and membership committees with marketing and volunteer recruitment/retention efforts. |
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Zohra holds a MASc degree in Biomedical engineering from University of Ottawa and is currently working for a medical device company in Toronto in the Quality department. She has immense enthusiasm in medical devices and is dedicated to improving lives and solving problems in the medical field. She has a wide range of experience in the Biomedical engineering field and intends to become a Professional Engineer in Canada by learning and acquiring experience in research, design, development, and manufacturing. She has a passion to contribute to SWE's goal to help support, advance and retain women in the STEM field. Through her work at SWE Toronto, she aims to support, guide, motivate, and recruit women in the STEM field in order to help them achieve their goals and success in their careers. By doing so, she intends to help build a strong community of women in STEM. |
ZOHRA KHATOONMEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR |
MAHSA EBRAHIMIANDIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
KATE GAFFNEYDIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS |
Mahsa is a data scientist. She works closely with computer engineers, data engineers and Machine learning engineers. She graduated from Ryerson university with a degree in the master of computer engineering and before that she graduated from Sharif university of Technology with a master degree in Industrial engineering. She currently works as a Datascientist in a money transfer company. She has 3 years of experience as a data scientist in the Telecom industry as well. Every day she brings her engineering knowledge and analytical skills to find hidden patterns in big data to facilitate decision making in the business. Mahsa is passionate about empowering women especially in engineering. As a director of the marketing and communication committee, Mahsa coordinates monthly events such as coffee clubs or speaks. She aims to contribute to the growth of this community. Kate is a senior associate at a business consulting firm. She works with a team to provide independent engineering expert witness services in construction disputes. She graduated from the University of Windsor with a degree in Civil Engineering and has over 3 years’ of experience in the water/wastewater design and construction space.
Kate is passionate about empowering women in engineering and is eager to pave the way for many young women to come. She enjoys networking and discussing hot-button topics that affect women every day. She has a history of involvement with women in STEM organizations, including co-founding the women in engineering group at her university and leading the Ontario region of women at her previous employer. Through her work with SWE she aims to strengthen the support network women have in Toronto and encourage women to feel empowered at work. |
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