SAE Foundation Recognizes Ford Motor Company's Alison Bazil for Advancing STEM Education and Career Opportunities for Women and Girls

WARRENDALE, Pa., Aug. 27, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- To raise the profile of women working in the engineering field, the SAE Foundation is pleased to recognize Alison Bazil, manager of global variable suspension in chassis engineering at Ford Motor Company, for her contributions to the industry and her volunteer efforts to advance science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) opportunities for women and girls.

"According the Society of Women Engineers only 13 percent of the engineers in the U.S. workforce are women and 38 percent of bachelor's degrees are awarded to women in the fields of engineering and computer science," said Lori Gatmaitan, SAE Foundation Director. "We are grateful to have role models like Alison representing our foundation through initiatives that advance STEM education and engineering career opportunism for women and girls."

For more than three decades, Bazil has worked to ensure that young girls are exposed to the field of engineering and that they see experienced practicing engineers who are women. Understanding the importance of role models, she said that doctors, lawyers and scientists are frequently featured on television, but engineers are rarely highlighted.

Bazil currently works for Ford Motor Company and serves as a Trustee for the SAE Foundation. A trailblazer in the field of engineering, she is the global variable suspension manager at Ford. In this role, she is responsible for the performance growth of the Product Development and Quality workforce, including strategy, technology, funding and learning solution creation. Bazil is a lead advisor for Ford's STEM Initiative and works with Ford's STEM manager to establish strategy and oversee funding decisions to reinforce the STEM pipeline.

In addition to these roles, Bazil is the lead recruiter for the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) recruiting team as well as a leader of the Women in Product Development employee resource group. Active in the SWE-Detroit professional section, Bazil has also been a national officer of the organization.

As a volunteer with SAE's programs for six years, Bazil is passionate about the A World In Motion® (AWIM) program, specifically the JetToy challenge, where students get the opportunity to learn about propulsion and gravity through an exercise of powering a jet toy by a balloon.

"SAE does a really good job with their curriculum," said Bazil. "It's engaging, well-rounded and provides opportunities for girls with all different skillsets." For her, however, the most rewarding part of the experience was knowing she made a difference in shaping the future of her beloved field with young girls.

SAE's STEM programs have served more than six million students worldwide, of which 47% are female participants, thereby shifting the balance of tomorrow's engineering workforce. In addition, the programs offer hands-on learning opportunities and have engaged more than 30,000 STEM industry professionals as volunteers. SAE is inspiring the next generation of women engineers by encouraging and increasing student achievement and participation in STEM in order to build a STEM-fluent workforce. SAE's STEM education programs enable students to develop the 21st century skills needed to succeed in real-world work environments and connect classroom learning with real-life application.

SAE is the only U.S.-based organization with a full continuum of STEM education programs from preschool through college, including the award-winning AWIM and Collegiate Design Series (CDS). In addition, the SAE Foundation supports more than 60 awards and recognitions, as well as a dozen undergraduate and graduate scholarships.

Support the SAE Foundation at http://saefoundation.org/donate.

About SAE International
SAE International is a global association committed to advancing mobility knowledge and solutions for the benefit of humanity. By engaging nearly 200,000 engineers, technical experts and volunteers, we connect and educate mobility professionals to enable safe, clean, and accessible mobility solutions. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including programs award-winning programs like A World in Motion® and the Collegiate Design Series™. More at http://www.sae.org.

SOURCE SAE International