UNM’s Katie Stone, Angela Wandinger-Ness and Cheryl Willman are three of the nine award recipients in this year’s Women in Technology Awards. The New Mexico Technology Council gives the annual awards to outstanding women in technology, business and education. This year, 32 women from around the state were nominated by their peers and a panel of three judges—outstanding women in technology themselves—chose the nine winners.
Stone is the host and producer of “The Children’s Hour” on KUNM. Wandinger-Ness is a pathology professor, and the director of the Fluorescence Microscopy and Cell Imaging Shared Resource. She has contributed greatly to the understanding of GTPases, the chemical switches in a cell that control many cell behaviors. Wandinger-Ness is currently conducting studies to repurpose an FDA-approved drug for ovarian cancer. Willman is the director and CEO of the UNM Cancer Center. For more than 25 years, she has contributed several seminal research efforts that have advanced our understanding and treatment of blood cancers. Under Willman’s leadership, the UNM Cancer Center achieved National Cancer Institute Designation in 2005.
The Tech Council is an organization that works to promote a technology-friendly and business-friendly environment in the state. The organization began the awards five years ago to recognize the winners’ achievements not only in their fields but also in encouraging and supporting other women in technology. In addition to the awards, the NMTC also awards scholarships to New Mexico female high school seniors who intend to pursue a technology-focused education in the state. This year, 10 seniors received scholarships.
The WIT award and scholarship winners were honored by the Tech Council at a breakfast on Nov. 1 at the Albuquerque Marriott Pyramid.
