Celebrating Our Scientists For Women’s History Month

We’ve just come back from the 31st Vertebrate Pest Conference in Monterey, California, where our presentations were extremely well-received and generated a substantial amount of interest in our fertility-control technology and methodology. We’ll be sharing the details about new pilot programs and partnerships that result from this conference as they emerge.

In the meantime, I didn’t want to let Women’s History Month pass without taking some time to celebrate women scientists.

As you may know, WISDOM Good Works is the nonprofit extension of WISDOM (Women in Science Doing Outreach and Mentoring). WISDOM promotes women scientists to share their insights, hard-earned wisdom, and support to other women working in the sciences and other male-dominated industries.

We are fortunate to have many women scientists associated with WISDOM Good Works:

The career of our co-founder, Dr. Cheryl Dyer, has spanned from being an investigator for the American Heart Association to a pioneering university researcher to overseeing start-ups in both the commercial and nonprofit sectors.

Dr. Dyer served as a NIH-funded Principal Investigator at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA, where she was part of a nationally recognized plasma lipoprotein research group. She maintained an independently funded research program and laboratory at Northern Arizona University, and was the first Research Professor in the Department of Biology at NAU.

Dr. Joan Vrtis, a member of our Board of Directors, made her mark in the 1990s by developing technology solutions for Intel Corp.’s Pentium product line.

Her extensive education and experience is an incredible asset to WISDOM Good Works, as we perfect our fertility-control technology. In addition to a Ph.D. in Polymer Science and Engineering, Dr. Vrtis also has a B.S. in Chemistry and holds several patents in materials, circuit structures, and processes.

Although she is no longer with us, the legacy of Virginia Joy Vorous is long with WISDOM. A clinical chemistry technologist at the University of California, San Diego, Virginia trained countless people on how to report critical chemistry results for the the best possible patient care.

When we first began working on fertility-control technology, Virginia was an enthusiastic supporter. Ever the teacher, she had us “show her the science,” drawing out our plans on scraps of paper and cocktail napkins. She became one of our first investors and, as a final act of kindness and support, remembered WISDOM Good Works in her will with a bequest.

These are just three examples of the women who are making WISDOM Good Works a scientifically innovative and dynamic nonprofit looking to change the narrative on how we cope with animal overpopulation. To learn more about all the team members at WISDOM Good Works (including me), check out our “About Us” page on our website.

I wish you all a wonderful Women’s History Month and hope that the stories of the women behind WISDOM Good Works inspires you as much as they inspire me.