Jill S. Tietjen, P.E., is an author (20+ books published to date), international speaker, and electrical engineer. She is the co-author of the best-selling and award-winning books Her Story: A Timeline of the Women Who Changed America, and Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies. Her 2024 award-winning book , was Duty Calls: Lessons Learned from an Unexpected Life of Service, the memoir of the 14th United States Surgeon General (and first woman) Dr. Antonia Novello (with whom she co-authored). A former blogger for the Huffington Post, she speaks around the country about women’s contributions to history.Ilene Busch-Vishniac is an acoustician, an advocate for women in STEM fields, an inventor, an author, and a C-suite business entrepreneur. She began her professional career at Bell Laboratories, where she was privileged to work with James E. West, a scientist awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation and a member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. While at Bell Labs, her work on acoustic sensors and actuators led to seven US patents, one of which was named outstanding patent of the year by the company. She left Bell Labs for an academic position at The University of Texas, where she rose through the ranks to become the holder of an endowed chair. Her research led to an additional four US patents and many awards for research, teaching, and communication. Ilene left the University of Texas to assume her first administrative position as the Dean of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. From there she moved to the Provost and Vice President, Academic office at McMaster University and then the President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of Saskatchewan. Upon retiring from academia, Ilene spent time as a higher education consultant, and then joined Sonavi Labs, Inc., a company spun out from research at Johns Hopkins University, as the Chief Innovation Officer. She later assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer as well. She retired from her positions at Sonavi Labs in December, 2022.Lauren Busch is an operations research analyst with a bachelor’s degree in systems science and engineering from Washington University in St. Louis and a master’s degree in operations research from George Washington University. She began her career at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab, where she analyzed the effectiveness of U.S. Naval ship defense systems. She did mathematical modeling and optimization for a chemical manufacturer. Busch also spent many years as a government contractor developing natural gas price forecasts for the U.S. Department of Energy for its Annual Energy Outlook. Additionally, she was a principal at a search engine optimization firm. Busch has spoken at the Operations Research Society of America’s annual conference.Busch has been active as a community volunteer. She has been an officer of the National Council of Jewish Women – Greater Dallas Section, an organization with over 1000 members. She has also served as the Parent Association president at Ann & Nate Levine Academy and has been active in fundraising and event planning for Congregation Anshai Torah. Busch also has close ties to the Galerstein Community Center at the University of Texas at Dallas. Currently, she serves as an advocate for young children in foster care through Dallas CASA.
