STEM It Up!
STEM It Up! showcases amazing women leading the way through awesome careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Check out these short stories by women of all backgrounds highlighting STEM fields to help your students discover their own STEM path.
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STEM It Up! Presentations View All
Welcome to STEM It Up!
Looking for other ways to explore careers of interest? Learn about Kirkwood Workplace Learning Connection’s Job Shadow and Internship Programs.
Starlet "Star" Smith
Lead Agile Coach, Alliant Energy
As a Lead Agile Coach, Starlet Smith helps tech teams support and build technology solutions that actually make a difference. She’s all about problem‑solving, teamwork, and helping people grow. Continuous improvement, learning new things, and helping others work better together are her passions. Starlet’s superpower is taking big, complicated challenges and breaking them down into simple, doable steps - while teaching others how to do the same. She works where technology and people come together, helping individuals, leaders, and teams adopt Agile ways of working, communicate better, and create a culture where trying new things are all part of the experience. Her mission? To be a light! Her Passion: Encouraging young women that STEM is a place where you can lead, invent, collaborate, dream big, and shape the future.
Kristie McKibben
CAD/MET Professor, Kirkwood Community College
Kristie McKibben is a faculty member in the CAD/MET (Computer Aided Design / Mechanical Engineering Technology) program at Kirkwood Community College. She teaches courses in SolidWorks, engineering design, and technical drawing, with a strong emphasis on real-world problem solving. Prior to teaching, Kristie spent 10 years working in industry as a Design Engineer, gaining hands-on experience designing products, collaborating closely with manufacturing and solving practical engineering challenges. This industry background allows her to bring authentic, real-world expectations and experiences into the classroom. Kristie also serves as the Cedar Rapids SolidWorks User Group leader, where she helps connect students, educators, and industry professionals through shared learning and professional engagement. While women remain underrepresented in many engineering and manufacturing programs, Kristie is deeply passionate about supporting and advocating for Women in STEM.
Jenny Valliere
Jenny Valliere, Assistant Program Director, WTMX 101.9 The Mix FM Radio
Jenny Valliere is the Midday On-Air Personality and Assistant Program Director for WTMX 101.9 The Mix, a commercial FM radio station serving the Chicago metropolitan area. As a right hand to the station's Program Director, she assists in running the station's sound, strategy and day-to-day operations. Jenny uses STEM skills daily on the technology, data and systems side to influence human behavior.
Jessica Carlson
Head of Engineering, Pharma, Tonix Pharmaceuticals
Jessica Carlson is a Cedar Rapids native and a graduate of the University of Iowa with a degree in Chemical Engineering. She has over 12 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, working across both large global organizations and fast-paced start-up environments. Her work focuses on designing and scaling processes for medications and vaccines, including monoclonal antibodies, small molecules, and live virus vaccine production.
Throughout her career, Jessica has helped build and start up manufacturing sites around the world, collaborating with international teams to bring new facilities online safely, efficiently, and in compliance with regulatory standards. She has served as the engineering lead from early concept and design through construction, equipment procurement, commissioning, and production support.
She is passionate about solving complex problems, building global manufacturing infrastructure that turns science into life-saving medicines, and continuously learning. Jessica thrives on challenges and enjoys work that combines creativity, technical rigor, and real-world impact.
Jo Mackiewicz
Welder/Fabricator, Howe’s Welding and Metal Fabrication
Jo Mackiewicz is a welder and fabricator at Howe’s Welding and Metal Fabrication in Ames, Iowa, where she works in a shop doing custom fabrication and metal repair. She builds one-of-a-kind projects and repairs everything from farm equipment to everyday metal items, helping keep useful things out of landfills. Jo also brings strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills to her work, since no two projects are ever the same. In addition to welding, she is a professor at Iowa State University and enjoys connecting hands-on trades work with learning and writing.
Educators, feel free to use these speaker engagement questions with your students as they view presentations.
STEM Resources
Here are some additional fun and engaging resources you can use to help your students explore STEM fields: