Thank you for that introduction and I also want to specifically thank Tai-Danae for inviting me and the opportunity to speak to all of you. It's truly an honor. So my talk today is going to be a little bit different than maybe than some of the others you've heard thus far at this symposium in that I am going to share more of a personal testimony.

When I was asked to speak at this symposium on a topic of my choosing, I felt compelled to share a testimony relating to my own career in STEM, which for me specifically has been in the field of chemical engineering. I believe I felt compelled to share this testimony for a couple of reasons.

First I am nearing the end of my work career, I'm 63 now. My research activities are winding down, I have a few PhD students left who I'm advising in my own research group and the most junior one will graduate in about three years. So I've been doing a lot of reflection on my life more generally and on my STEM career journey which has certainly been a significant part of my life.

I've been reflecting on what I did right, what I did wrong, what went well, what I would have changed. And as I reflect on my career, the dominant theme in these reflections has been how was such a career journey even possible? Definitely not of my own doing. My personal circumstances or even in some cases my own abilities would have never resulted in such a career.

That is the reason why I've entitled the talk "God's Faithfulness in an Unlikely STEM Journey" because this unlikely journey was clearly God ordained. For me, my path has been a miracle. Not a miracle in that natural laws were violated, but a miracle in the sense that reflecting on the path brings amazement and wonder to me and more holistically a confirmation of the Lord's sovereignty and that the Lord's purposes will be accomplished for each of us who are servants of our risen Lord.

As Ephesians 2.10 says, "For we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." So I share my story to encourage you in your own career journey, confident that God's plan for you is always the best, for your good and his glory, even during periods of turmoil and doubt, and to remain faithful witness to him and his truth in whatever job or career he has placed you.

So to start off with, even my STEM career journey began in an unlikely way. A high school guidance counselor advised me to study chemical engineering based on my interest in math and chemistry. I knew very little about the field and my parents didn't either. My parents were not STEM people.

My father was an accountant and my mother did not go to college, so none of us had much idea about what chemical engineering entailed. Now in retrospect, I'm also pretty surprised that the counselor gave me such career advice back in 1978, given that there were so few women in the engineering field at that time.

However, my parents and I didn't even know that. We viewed my counselor as an authority figure, and from the information that we had access to in his guidance, chemical engineering looked to be associated with a potentially stable and in-demand job, so we followed his advice. I should also add that my father was very keen on me getting a college degree.

That is a degree that could result in a good job. He was quite adamant that I should be prepared to support myself and my children, and in case something ever happened to my future husband, which as I will get to did in fact happen. I applied to and was accepted at a few schools across the country, but ended up deciding to attend Purdue University in Indiana, a decision solely based on its proximity to my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.

I was extremely reluctant to venture far from home. I very rarely traveled outside of Ohio at that point in my life, and I did not really even know Purdue was a terrific engineering school. I just knew it offered engineering as a major, so I started attending Purdue and enjoyed my engineering classes.

The high school counselor was absolutely right. However, I did have one major hiccup in my studies during my freshman year in physics. I flunked the first test on statics and dynamics, a subject that is now pretty integral to my current research area of fluid and particle dynamics. I just didn't understand the concepts in the class, or I wasn't thinking about them in the right way.

In any case, I made the decision to drop out of engineering, firmly believing that my lack of understanding was a clear indication that engineering was not for me. Also part of my logic was that I had never failed any tests in school previously, so this major must have been wrong for me to get my first failing grade.

So I made an appointment with my academic advisor, changed my major, and called to tell my parents. I reached my mother. My mother listened to me amidst my tears and told me in no uncertain terms that I was being ridiculous, that I needed to get back in there and keep trying.

She said that it made absolutely no sense to give up on my major after one failure. And while I really was not convinced, I did what she said and canceled the appointment to change my major, mostly because this counsel was coming from a person who I knew unconditionally loved me and who I also knew mostly just wanted me to be safe and happy and foremost in Christ.

Anyway, shortly after that disastrous test, physics started to click for me, and somehow I ended up getting an A in that class. And clearly I am not the only one who has ever felt like dropping out or changing majors because of a setback, because whenever I share my career journey with students or young professionals, this story is always the one that resonates the most with the audience.

So at this point, even though I've somewhat stumbled into engineering and then almost dropped out of engineering, I'm enjoying college and my classes, but with no thoughts or ideas about a career. I was clueless in that regard. But the Lord provided in abundance. The Purdue Chemical Engineering Department had recently instituted a new advising process whereby every student was assigned a faculty member who had to approve the student's course plan each semester.

My assigned advisor was Professor Nicholas Peppis. I was not thrilled with this process. I didn't want to bother a professor, plus I was intimidated by them. I remember at my first meeting with Professor Peppis and not even wanting to step in his office. I just extended my hand and announced, "Here's my form, please sign it." To my incredible surprise, he invited me into his office and spent almost an hour talking with me.

He asked me about my family, my educational background and interests, and my career goals, of which I had none at that point. He then graciously invited me to do undergraduate research in his group, to try out research as a possible career. So I did and found out I loved research.

I came to find out after my undergraduate days that Professor Peppis is a fellow believer. He's also been an incredible mentor and blessing to me throughout my entire career, providing advice when I didn't even know what questions to ask, helping me to apply for graduate school and faculty positions, teaching me how to write research proposals, and nominating me for many professional awards.

During my freshman year of college, I also met fellow chemical engineering student, Gavin Sinclair. Gavin was a Christian and we were both pretty motivated to do well in school. We started by doing homework together, later fell in love, and we were married after our sophomore year in college at 20 years of age.

After we both graduated with our bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering in 1983, Gavin went to work in the chemical industry for Air Products in Allentown, Pennsylvania, while I started graduate school in chemical engineering at Princeton. We later bought a house in Flemington, New Jersey. All was going well for several years.

Gavin was on the fast track in his career at Air Products and I was into my third year of PhD, having passed the qualifying exams, and I was four months pregnant with our first child. But things drastically changed a few weeks after that, when Gavin, at 24 years of age, was diagnosed with a football-sized tumor in his chest, after having flu-like symptoms for a few weeks.

He was given four months to live, based on the type of cancer he had, malignant fibrous histiocytoma, a cancer that grows and spreads rapidly. Needless to say, Gavin took a leave of absence from work and I also paused my graduate studies. We moved in with my parents in Cincinnati and Gavin had aggressive chemotherapy and radiation over the next three months.

These treatments left him extremely weak and thin. The treatments appeared to be halting the spread of the cancer, but nothing more. Gavin's prognosis was still not good. Fortunately, his oncologist in Cincinnati was able to get the attention of physicians at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City, as well as a surgeon willing to perform a very risky operation to potentially remove the massive tumor.

By God's grace, Gavin survived the surgery and the tumor was completely removed. However, the surgery was extremely extensive. Most of one of his lungs was removed, the sac around his heart was removed, he had radioactive seeds placed in his chest, and the nerve that went to one of his vocal cords was cut.

This surgery was only 10 days before our daughter was born. On the day of her birth, somehow Gavin was able to sit in the corner of the delivery room, but since he was deemed radioactive due to the implanted seeds, he had to wear a lead vest. Gavin often joked that most of the doctors who came into the delivery room were much more interested in the guy wearing the lead vest rather than the pregnant woman.

Gavin's surgery also left him in chronic pain, and the months following his surgery were very dark days. He laid in bed pretty much all day, could only whisper because of his non-functioning vocal cord, and was totally unable to deal with our daughter Jeanette's arrival. He was so weak that he could not even pick her up.

On my side, after several months of taking care of a sick husband, a new baby, and numerous failed attempts to restart computational research for my Ph.D., the whole situation became beyond my ability to handle. Even though I was a Christian up until that time, I used to think God won't give me any more than I can handle.

A very bad take on 1 Corinthians 10.13, which says, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear." I needed to learn that saying, "God won't give you any more than you can handle," is a man-centered statement, which focuses on my abilities, my resourcefulness, or even my own self-imposed limits.

But in 2 Corinthians 1.8-9, Paul says, "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.

But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead." No one wants to go through times that are beyond their ability to endure. But sometimes the Lord, in his sovereign purpose, breaks us so that he can remake us. The Word of God tells us in many places that we need to be refined.

Isaiah 48.10 says, "Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction." And in Proverbs 17.3, "The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart." And finally in Psalm 66.10, "For you, God, have tested us.

You refined us like silver." Well that process was certainly happening to both Gavin and me during that time. Before Gavin's illness, we thought we were doing pretty well, and we felt arrogantly rather self-sufficient. But there were so many spiritual lessons that we needed to learn, as well as a lot of other important truths about life and priorities.

God put us through what we needed so he could teach us these lessons. I won't go through all the lessons here, but Gavin wrote a book about his experiences, and those around him also shared their experiences. The book is entitled All Things Work for Good, based on Romans 8.28.

Gavin wrote the book to be an encouragement to people with cancer or other serious illnesses, as well as an encouragement to their family and friends. In the book, he outlines 14 spiritual, physical, mental, and family lessons that can be helpful to others. He also starts off the book by making the statement that he was actually glad he went through all his medical problems, so that he could learn these lessons, and hopefully help others learn these lessons without traveling the same road he did.

He often said, "If one person comes to know Christ because of what I went through, it was all worth it." One lesson in Gavin's book that I do want to share here that has impacted my career specifically is related to the support I received from Christian family and friends.

They consistently prayed and helped out in innumerable practical ways over the long haul of Gavin's illness. I'll never forget the lady who was not in good health herself, who sent me a card almost every day in the mail for several years, telling me she was praying for us. That was such an encouragement to me.

The lesson I need to learn was to ask for help. I will also never forget when one of my lady friends from church admonished me regarding a child care situation in which I clearly need to help and did not ask for it. She told me in no uncertain terms that I was being prideful.

Once again, I was relying on my own self-sufficiency, still an area of weakness for me, as well as I was denying someone else the blessing of service, and she was absolutely right. So Gavin had a Teflon injection into his vocal cord to help his voice, and he took doctor-prescribed narcotic drugs to manage his pain.

His strength slowly improved so that within one year after his initial diagnosis, he was able to return to work. I was also able to fully resume my Ph.D. studies. Fortunately, my Ph.D. research was computational, so I could do most of it at home by logging into the Princeton computers via modem.

Now I'm really dating myself. So I continued working on my degree until my funding and NSF Graduate Fellowship ended, at which point I had completed the necessary simulations and analysis but had not yet written my thesis. A chemical engineering teaching position opened up at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania.

While Lafayette College is an accredited engineering college, it does not offer any graduate degrees in engineering, so there were no research opportunities there to speak of. But I applied for this position without finishing my Ph.D. degree because there were limited faculty job opportunities in the area and we could not move.

Gavin could not change jobs due to his pre-existing medical condition which created medical insurance eligibility constraints. So I told Lafayette College I would finish up my degree soon because all I had to do was write up my thesis and I foolishly thought, again probably relying on my own abilities, "How hard can that be?" Well it turned out to be extremely difficult to write a thesis while teaching full-time, taking care of a young child, and Gavin had spinal surgery for a nerve block to mitigate his chronic pain during that period of time.

Gavin was also often sick, sometimes involving hospital stays, as his immune system was very weak after his intensive chemotherapy. A year went by with no thesis. Frankly, I had not even started it. So my parents graciously offered for me to return to Cincinnati, yet again, to help with Jeanette so I could write my thesis.

My mother and father took care of Jeanette for 8 weeks straight while I pretty much stayed in a bedroom with a table, chair, and a Commodore 64 computer that I used to type my thesis. My father-in-law was also a professional typesetter for a publishing company and he volunteered to typeset all of the over 200 equations in my thesis.

So getting my PhD thesis finished was certainly an all-family project. I then successfully defended at Princeton. After 6 years, 2 years longer than the average time to finish a PhD at that time, incredibly, I had a PhD in chemical engineering. Again, this would have never happened without God putting others in my path who provided support and expertise when it was most needed.

As Proverbs 19.21 says, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." About this time, Gavin's 3-year pre-existing condition for his medical insurance eligibility was no longer applicable. His cancer had not returned so we could move. I enjoyed teaching chemical engineering at Lafayette College, but really missed the innovation and new knowledge aspect associated with research.

So Gavin started looking for new job opportunities and I applied to a number of research intensive universities. In my job search, I got asked a lot of questions about why it took so long to get a PhD, why I was teaching at Lafayette College if I wanted a research intensive faculty position, and why I had not written any new journal manuscripts for the prior 2 years.

I answered these questions frankly and received a lot of rejections, but Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh expressed interest. Gavin also had secured a job offer from PPG Industries in Pittsburgh. So I had an on-site interview at Carnegie Mellon and received a faculty offer, along with the feedback that if I would have stayed at Lafayette College one more year without any research activity, I would have not been hired.

That said, I joined the faculty and my colleagues treated me very well. And at this point, Gavin and I are 30 years of age and Jeanette is 3 years old. But when I began at Carnegie Mellon, I started feeling pretty apprehensive, worrying about if I would be able to receive tenure while raising a small child or if I would be able to secure sufficient research funding to support all my graduate students.

But this apprehension only reared its ugly head when my thoughts were focused once again on my own abilities or perceived problems. Although I had thought I had learned some important lessons through Gavin's illness, I kept slipping back into pride and self-reliance. I should have spent more time in prayer, both humbling myself in my constant need for God and praising him for his clearly abundant provision in my life.

When I actually did focus each day on being a faithful steward of the gifts God had given me and in the position in which he had placed me, my worries about the future dissipated. I then had peace that surpasses all understanding, the same peace that Gavin came to possess through his medical trials.

I also knew with full confidence that even if this position didn't work out, God would show me a new and better path. God commands us not to worry, but he will help us fulfill this command if we keep our eyes focused on him and not ourselves. Matthew 6.34 says, "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Philippians 4.6-7 says, "Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Things at Carnegie Mellon turned out to go extremely well.

I received a lot of grants, had great PhD students, wrote research papers, and was promoted to associate professor. Teaching was also a breeze because I had taught almost every chemical engineering course during my time at Lafayette College. Because I had teaching down and lecture notes for all the courses, I was able to use my more limited time, work time, compared to my colleagues to focus on research.

Gavin was also doing well in his job at PPG and managed to complete a PhD in economics at Carnegie Mellon at the same time while working full-time. He was an amazing person, incredibly productive and creative. However, Gavin was also diagnosed at the time with congestive heart failure during our time in Pittsburgh and after having a mild stroke.

The stroke was associated with blood clot formation due to his heart not pumping very efficiently. Fortunately, he did not suffer any permanent physical effects from the stroke, only minor damage to brain tissue which temporarily affected his speech for a few weeks. Gavin also continued to suffer with chronic pain which was significantly exacerbated by the changes in weather and barometric pressure in Pittsburgh.

Because of this, Gavin wanted to move to a warmer, more temperate climate and he picked Tucson, Arizona. He asked and received permission from his company to work remotely and I resigned my position at Carnegie Mellon and accepted position at the University of Arizona. To the academic community, this career move of mine made absolutely no sense.

Many questioned me on why I would leave a top 10 engineering program for one ranked at least 50 spots lower. So this move provided plenty of opportunities to have discussions of life priorities with others. While giving up such an excellent position was difficult and certainly disruptive to a young career, there was no question in my mind that it was the right thing to do.

During our time in Tucson, Gavin and I were blessed with the birth of our second child, Derek, who is here with me today. We ended up only staying in Tucson two years. Gavin got a new manager at PPG and this manager decided to eliminate his position. So we contacted Professor Peppis at Purdue University and he and the chemical engineering department chair very quickly facilitated faculty positions at Purdue for both of us.

Gavin's position was in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Supervision and mine was in chemical engineering. Gavin also thrived as a faculty member, winning best teacher awards and he also wrote a book, an economics textbook entitled Life, Love and Economics, a textbook that undergraduate students actually read. This book was also featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal and in Newsweek magazine.

By this point in my career, I was viewed as a job hopper. I was now on my third tenure track faculty position in seven years. Although I was well aware of how this perception might negatively impact a career, when it came down to it, I was really not that concerned because there were compelling family reasons for each move.

And being back at Purdue in Indiana was wonderful in a number of ways. It put us closer to our families. I was back at a top engineering school with great graduate students, was promoted to full professor and was given the opportunity to try out academic administration by leading a small freshman engineering education department with seven tenure track faculty and 20 staff.

It was at Purdue where I discovered that academic leadership was something I enjoyed and a career path I wanted to pursue. After a few years at Purdue, Gavin's congestive heart failure became acute, such that he was basically suffocating and his lungs were not getting sufficient oxygen. Another risky operation was undertaken, one in which a battery-operated left ventricle assist device would be installed to help his heart pump blood.

A couple of days before the surgery, Gavin wrote to those praying for him, "My wife and parents support having this surgery, and I am also guided by my favorite Bible verse, Romans 8:28, 'For we know that in all things God works for the good for those who love him and have been called according to his purpose.' I realize that I just need to love God and do his will, and everything else will be taken care of.

If I don't make it through this surgery, that means I am in a better place, so don't feel bad for me." And I also know that since I have loved God and done his will, my wife and kids will be taken care of. Gavin did not make it through the surgery, and he died on December 19, 2000, at 39 years of age.

I wrote to those same prayer warriors later that day, "We have had and have confidence no matter the outcome, Gavin is in a much better place now. I rejoice when I think of that. I trust, as Gavin said in his email, that God will take care of the rest." And even though I love Gavin and miss him greatly, God has taken care of the rest, as I will now share.

He is faithful. After Gavin died, my mother came to live with us in Indiana for about ten months. Going back to her home, she was going back to her home in Cincinnati every other weekend. Eric was four years of age, and Jeanette was 14 at the time. This selfless gift she gave to me was an incredible support, both emotionally and in many practical ways, as you can imagine, with me now being a single mother with two young children trying to get into a completely new rhythm of life.

Not long after the ten months passed and my mother moved permanently back to Cincinnati, I met my then future husband, Barry Curtis, at a Purdue chemical engineering alumni event. He then volunteered to lead a strategic planning exercise for the freshman engineering department I led. Barry had grown up going to church.

His parents mostly sent him to church, though, and they stayed home. But he had stopped going by the time he was in college. It was shortly before September of 2001 when Barry and I started working together on this strategic plan for that department. 9/11 occurred, and this event shook Barry, as it did all of us.

Discussing this event opened the door for me to have some deep conversations with him about various events in both his and my life, and his views on the meaning of life more generally. And as he would say, I had no good answers for Jennifer's probing questions. I also mailed Barry a copy of Gavin's book.

I have to say that I am not the type of evangelist who, by nature, is comfortable or has much experience with witnessing to complete strangers, unlike Gavin's father, who was such a gift for this. I could tell so many amazing stories. He was truly gifted in that regard. But as I am getting to know someone better, I am very interested in learning about that person's worldview.

I'm into apologetics, so it is natural for me to engage in those types of discussions, sharing my own thoughts and beliefs also. Then I pray that those discussions lead future fruit in the lives of the people I speak with. After many such conversations with Barry, he was open to going to church, and I checked out potential churches online for him to attend near where he lived in Houston and suggested one.

He started regularly attending, was convicted to repentance, and was saved in that church. He also says that Gavin's faith and story, as related in his book, was a key factor in his conversion. So going back to Gavin's frequent statement, "If one person comes to know Christ because of what I went through, it was all worth it," well, at least one of those people is my husband, Barry.

Incredible. Gavin's parents embraced Barry into the family, and Gavin's dad even walked me down the aisle at my and Barry's wedding as my own father had passed away by that time. Barry also formally adopted Jeanette and Derek. As I mentioned earlier, my career was flourishing at Purdue University. I was also receiving more invited lecture invitations, and there were more travel associated with my administrative duties.

To accommodate my schedule, Barry had already switched to a part-time role in his company. Later about a year into our marriage, Barry lost that job and suggested to me that he stay home full-time. That idea was a surprise to me, and frankly, took me a lot of time to get used to, as I had never seen that family model lived out in practice.

But it did make sense, and Barry was convinced that pausing his own career was the best thing for our family. So Barry ended up taking such a career pause for about 10 years. Since he has returned to work, he has leveraged his background in industry by serving in several university positions related to various facets of industry-university engagement.

Given my desire to continue in academic administration, I then started applying for chemical engineering department chair positions. An opportunity at the University of Florida opened up, and I served in that role for five years, followed then by a role as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering for three years.

In between, we had the opportunity to spend two longer-term separate sabbaticals in Australia, which would have been more difficult to manage if Barry had still been working. While serving in these administrative positions, I did not teach classes, but did continue my research activities while supervising master's and PhD graduate students.

I then started looking for opportunities to lead an engineering college, and an opportunity arose at the University of California, Davis, to serve as Dean of Engineering. And this is the position that brought me here to California. I served as Dean of Engineering for five years, and have since returned to faculty activities, teaching, research, and professional service for the past three years.

And last year, I was elected to the National Academy of Engineering with a nomination package led by none other than Professor Pappas, my lifetime mentor, who I met as an undergraduate 45 years ago. Last year, I was also awarded by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers the Margaret Rousseau Lifetime Achievement Award for a Woman Chemical Engineer.

This award is named in honor of Dr. Rousseau, the first woman to receive a PhD in chemical engineering for her design of the first commercial penicillin production plant to mass-produce penicillin, which saved countless lives during World War II. So this is a short synopsis of my life story and my career story, which as you can see are inextricably linked.

As my mother often says, "Jennifer, you have not lived a boring life. You have had massive highs and massive lows, but it certainly hasn't been boring." And I would say that God's hand of faithfulness is clearly evident throughout all of it, both in my life and my career. And why do I say God's hand of faithfulness is evident in my career?

First of all, because of the people He has placed in my life, who have prayed, helped and encouraged me, and shared needed truths at critical times. But most importantly, because of my Christian parents and Gavin's Christian parents, who modeled being a follower of Jesus in their own lives and who surrounded us with unconditional love and support through good times and bad.

I cannot imagine Gavin and me persevering through the trials we did starting at 24 years of age without them. Also I cannot imagine how I would have finished my PhD without my parents' help or navigated the new normal for my life after Gavin's death without the help of my mother.

And in my career I had supportive manners. I talked about Professor Peppis, but there is also Professor Roy Jackson, my PhD advisor, who was very supportive, patient and encouraged to me as a pregnant female graduate student. I was his first female graduate student with a sick husband. There is also John Anderson, who was the department chair in chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon when I was assistant professor.

John was a straight shooter, and he gave me frank feedback on what I was doing well and on areas I was not doing so well as a young faculty member. The "not so well" part was hard to receive, but it was feedback I really needed to hear and respond to.

Dr. Anderson is currently serving as president of the National Academy of Engineering, and it was he who inducted me into the academy last year, so my interactions with him certainly came full circle. Other Christian faculty and Christian campus organizations were a source of encouragement to me in my career.

While I was at Carnegie Mellon, the director of faculty ministries at InterVarsity, Terry Morrison, visited me frequently and prayed for me. At Purdue and the University of Florida, there were many Christian faculty, and the crew faculty ministries there are pretty active on those campuses. At these universities, there are also full-page inserts into the student newspaper at Easter and Christmas each year with a biblical message and a listing of Christian faculty by department.

Howie and Nancy Coffin, with crew at the University of Florida, were particularly supportive. Nancy led five women faculty in a weekly Bible study in my office during lunch. During my time as department chair, Howie, and an elder from my church, came to my office every week to pray for me.

In my own field of chemical engineering, at the annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers National Meeting, there is a Christian fellowship breakfast that includes one faculty, Christian faculty, sharing a testimony as it relates to their career. I organized that breakfast for over 20 years, and the breakfast still continues.

It's definitely a time of encouragement. First of all, God's faithfulness is evident in the numerous doors that were opened just at the right time and the right place. For example, Gav and I were always able to secure jobs in the same location, even under short time frame constraints as the situation when Gav lost his job in Arizona.

God's faithfulness in my career is also evident in the provision of two Christian husbands who have fully supported God's calling on my life as an engineering faculty member, even at their own personal sacrifice. Having lived in New Jersey, Gav and I drove an hour and 15 minutes each way for over four years to and from our products in Allentown so I could attend Princeton.

Barry paused his own career for 10 years. Gav and Barry have reviewed and edited numerous papers, proposals, and talks, and have given me great ideas and input on a wide variety of matters in my work. This faithfulness of Lord throughout my unlikely career has provided me many opportunities to model Christ and share my faith.

I was encouraged early on in my career by the directory of faculty ministries at a university to include a statement or two about my Christian faith when I introduced myself orally to students at the beginning of any course I am teaching. I have done this my entire career. I start off these introductions with my technical background, where I went to school, my research expertise, sabbaticals in Australia and Germany, and my teaching expertise.

Then I talk about personal things, like where I grew up, my family, my hobbies and interests, and I close with mentioning that the foundation of my life is my Christian faith, sometimes also mentioning involvement in church or Bible study groups. Recently I found saying this in my self-introduction to class as an encouragement to Christian students at secular universities, who may have few or no interactions with Christian faculty during their college years.

This past quarter, for example, a Christian student emailed me midway through the course asking to meet. He was having concerns about how he's going to integrate his faith with his work after graduation and also have a healthy family. I shared some of my experiences and advice, as well as Pat Gelsinger's book.

Pat is the current CEO of Intel and a Christian. The book is entitled The Juggling Act, Bringing Balance to Your Faith, Family, and Work, and one I highly recommend. Also mentoring is an integral aspect of everything I do as a professor. I engage with undergraduate and graduate students in the classroom and advising students and research activities, as well as K-12 students in outreach activities.

At my current career stage, I also serve as a mentor to junior faculty members. In all of these situations, students, postdocs, and other faculty are observing you at all times. This is a wonderful opportunity to model Christ. How I act in every situation during office hours, interacting with staff and faculty meetings conveys how I value other people who are made in the image of God.

By projecting an other-focused mindset that is genuinely interested in their educational or career progress, you are sought out for advice and counsel. Frankly, I'm energized by helping others, mentoring others. It is a privilege. It's also a reminder to me how much others have poured into my own life over the years, shaping my career in so many ways.

Because of both my career progression and being a female chemical engineering professor, I am frequently asked to speak to engineering students and faculty on topics relating to career advice and my own career journey. It is very natural in these settings, when I share my somewhat unusual career path, that I discuss my personal life, including my Christian faith.

While I don't explicitly share the gospel message in these talks, I discuss Gavin's book, bring copies to pass out to those who want to pick up a book, and the gospel messages in there. I also have had many opportunities one-on-one to share my faith in my office or on Zoom.

The Lord has certainly been patient with my many lapses back to self-reliance, forgetting that I am his and made for him. It is he who provided my passion for teaching, research, and administration, along with the talents and energy necessary to fulfill my professional responsibilities. When I use these talents to glorify him, I please him, and his faithfulness becomes even more abundantly evident.

There is no doubt that my unlikely STEM career journey has been God's calling on my life. As I was preparing this talk, the hymn "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" kept coming to my mind. I would like to recite the lyrics to this hymn as a close to my talk.

Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after thy will, while I am waiting, yielded and still. Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Teach me and try me, master today. Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now, as in thy presence humbly I bow.

Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Hold over my being absolute sway, filled with thy spirit till all can see, Christ only always living in me. I am so very thankful for this opportunity to speak with you all and share my story. I'd be happy to answer any questions if time allows.

Thank you so much for that. I loved the encouragement to be faithful, knowing that God has the outcome in mind already. And just your reminder that the Lord is faithful. That is so helpful. Also, I cannot imagine having a new baby, first baby, and taking care of a sick husband and doing research.

And I think we can all relate. The Lord has brought us into situations where we are weak, where we have to rely on him. And I encourage you all to share those during lunch as well. If anyone has any questions, please ask now. We can take some questions. Thank you for being so vulnerable and open about your career journey and also certain things like the self-reliance, I can definitely relate to that.

What's some advice that you would give? I think as women in science and math, we often have young women looking up to us or asking us advice. What's some advice that you would give to mentoring young women that may not be walking in the faith, that might be prioritizing the career to a point that you might want to give some guidance to, but you can't necessarily talk about it from a Christian perspective, if that makes sense?

Yeah, certainly mentors have helped me. I mean, looking for role models and seeking their advice. Obviously I think advice from a Christian would be the best advice. But also getting a wide variety of input and ultimately you get a lot of input, and I did early on in my career too about, oh, you should move your research in this direction or that.

But ultimately you have to do what fits your passion and what fits your skills. So I think matching what you do with your own gifts is really the best advice that I can give. Thank you. Thank you so much for your talk today. Kind of along those lines of mentorship as well, but as women, there's a lot of pressure.

The only real example is feminism and diversity inclusion. So I'm curious, especially as so many of us Christian women are asked to mentor other young Christian women in the faith who are starting this journey, aside from the one book you had shared, what other resources have helped you think through this topic of biblical femininity in a secular workplace?

I'm trying to think of specific examples I have. In terms of your family life and combining family and work or? I think it can be both. I think some of, definitely combining family and work is part of that from a biblical perspective as well as even just, the world says that as women to act like men in the secular workplace.

And so aside from the Bible, not aside, but with that, I'm often asked for resources and I've struggled to find things to point people to of things like this testimony, which is really encouraging. And so I'm curious if you've come across anything. So the family and work, I mean, the key element is your husband.

Discussion with him on how the priorities of how things are going to get done in the family and just making sure you both are in one accord. And I also have got a lot of wonderful advice from successful people in my church, how they manage it. And I do highly recommend that book that I mentioned.

It's full of lots of practical tips. In terms of femininity at work, I mean, I never felt like I needed to act like a man. I mean, I acted like myself. I always dressed feminine and I never felt called to act anything like what I was. And I felt confident, like I said, about the Lord.

If this didn't work out, something else would. So I always felt like I should be myself, who I am. And I went with that. And I always had the confidence if my, if myself was not a fit, the Lord would provide something else. Excuse me. Hello, while you were getting your doctorate completed, I under nowhere near as trying circumstances but was very much empathizing with trying to finish a doctoral program while being married and children and full-time work.

As you did that and you accomplished that, what might be one bit of advice that you found useful towards meeting your deadlines and getting things done? The biggest advice I would have is taking one little step at a time and not looking at the massive, what's got to be done, just each day, what am I going to accomplish?

That inch by inch, that is the best advice. And when you take that approach, things get accomplished. Hello. Thank you for your talk. As a member who's in like UC faculty administration, we increasingly see, you know, the world getting more politicized, especially university environment. Do you have any thoughts about the future of Christians in these very secular politicized environments?

Yeah. There is a, yeah, there's a worldview that pervades the university. And as a faculty member thus far, I don't, there's not much pressure to adhere. I mean, you can conduct your own business pretty much the way you want. I felt like I, and I've had opportunities to share my faith.

Even when I was dean, I was interviewing, I told the provost I was a Christian and I still got hired. That said, it is becoming, especially since the pandemic, very, very politicized. And in part, that was part of the reason I stepped down as dean. Because when you get into these senior administrative positions, there is certainly more pressure for you to be one of the spokesperson for these kind of worldviews, which I'm just not comfortable with doing.

So my prayer though, is that some of these positions, I mean, the administration takes some of these positions because they think, but these people are lost. They think that this is what will help students. And my prayer is that they see that this is not helping the students and they rethink some of these views.

That is my prayer. Thank you. I have a question. You mentioned some of these ways, but what are ways where that us maybe more senior faculty or can encourage mentorship, can encourage other people to come to us and making ourselves available for this kind of selfless service to these younger professionals?

Yeah. So my department just instituted that every student had to have a, just like when I was a freshman at Purdue, every student needs to meet with a faculty advisor, you know, with such frequency. So students, I think a lot of students don't want to approach a faculty member.

So a lot of times I think we as the mentor have to reach out and set appointments with, Hey, I'd just like to touch base. Hey, I see that you did poorly on this test. Certainly for me, I would have never reached out. I mean, so I think the onus is a lot on us to do the reaching out, especially for undergraduate students and, you know, people in high school or middle school that may be considering STEM as a career because most of them are not comfortable to send emails to a faculty member to try to meet or talk.

So I think we have to do be, be very proactive about reaching out to them. That's been my experience. I mean, graduate students are much more comfortable, but for college age students and younger, I think most, even unless they're very confident students, they don't tend to do that. Dr.

Curtis, your testimony is truly inspirational and you've clearly demonstrated that God's grace is all sufficient in any circumstance that you find yourself and you truly have been a light shining in the darkness of this world. And people saw the good works that you did through our Lord and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and I believe gave the glory to God.

Thank you. I can't, I can't quarrel with somebody's testimony because that's a fact of what God did in your life for many, many years, demonstrates the goodness of the Lord. I'm really so encouraged. I'm so happy to be here today because kind of amazing how the Holy Spirit of God works.

I'm a professor of Surgical Oncology in Atlanta, but recently God has truly been speaking to me. I was just looking at the devotion that I share with my children. It's interesting that the scripture verses that were apparent in that song you cited, "Have thy own way, Lord, have thy own way, thou art the porter and I am the clay.

Make me and mold me after your way," which are so, so moving. I have really been meditating on that and especially the third stanza that says, "Have thy own way, Lord, have thy own way." And then goes on to say that, "Fill me with your spirit, you all shall see Christ only, Christ only." Just so moving.

So thank you for what you're doing. That is what I strive to do where I am, and when you are transparent, when you are honest, and when you are really, really doing what the Holy Spirit ministers you to do, it's just amazing how, what a great impact that you can have around the people that surround you.

So I have no question, but just to tell you, but just to tell you that you are truly an inspiration. Thank you. He will be exalted. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much for... Let's do one more question. Hello. My friend and I, we drove up here. We both work at Cal State San Marcos and we met in the social work program.

We both provide administrative support to faculty in that department. It's a master's program. And until Debbie started working with me about a year ago, I was silent in my views in meetings, department meetings, which were very different from my own. And since Debbie came to work at the university, the first day I met her, she prayed with us at lunch and there was a faculty member there and I was just shocked, you know, like, and also very convicted because I hadn't been sharing my faith.

And so we have walked around the campus and prayed together for students and we see these students struggling with mental health issues while in a mental health program, right? Learning to counsel other people and it's pervasive. And we see that the views that they're being taught and modeled and we're concerned.

So since you've been department chair and faculty, what would you say to your staff members who want to share their faith in a university that's very liberal? How would you, what are your thoughts on that? I mean, I think there are many opportunities. I have to say like in a department meeting or larger groups, these meetings for some other purpose, I don't tend to share my faith in that.

But certainly on one and one, I mean, there are many opportunities for one-on-one. And as I was thinking, you know, people see you as someone that they can trust or maybe they might look up to, they will come to you one-on-one and these are perfect opportunities to share. And that's the key way, but there are also little things that happen.

I remember one time we were reviewing graduate applications and one of the students in their statement of purpose said that they want to go to graduate school to share their, this is God's calling. They want to share their faith. And I did not say this actually, there was another Christian faculty in my department said, and they were saying, oh, you know, the other faculty, well, we don't like this.

And I said, well, he said something to the effect that I think there's certainly other things that we can be concerned about in this application. And he got accepted. So just sometimes one person to speak up about a specific topic, I think can be very effective. And I've seen many little examples like that, but certainly one-on-one.

And like I say, I share my faith to large groups when asked to speak about my career journey, because I cannot share, it's impossible for me to share a career journey without sharing my personal and faith journey, it's impossible. So it's a natural setting, I've never had any issue.

The only time I ever had an issue in my career was these faculty ads I mentioned. And when I was at the University of Florida, every faculty member had a bulletin board outside their office door, and people put all manners of things on there. So I posted the ad, and I had one faculty complain about the ad not being there.

And I called up, I think it was Heritage Foundation or something to see if I was legally fine to do that, and I certainly was. And my department chair, who was not even a Christian, supported me to have that there. But I prayed about it, and after a while, I decided to take it down, even though I didn't legally need to do that.

But that was the only time that I've ever had any issues with sharing in different contexts. So I think there are opportunities in a secular environment to do it.