Title: Valerie Jarrett to Speak on STEM Education for Marginalized Girls

President Barack Obama’s senior advisor will speak at a Georgetown Law Center conference Thursday on increasing access to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for marginalized girls.

Valerie Jarrett, also chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls, will deliver opening remarks at the “Front and Center: Bringing Marginalized Girls into Focus in STEM and Career and Technical Education (CTE)” conference.

The conference, which will be webcast, is designed to unite federal, state and local agencies, service providers, researchers and youth to explore policies and programs aimed at increasing access to STEM and Career and Technical Education (CTW) for marginalized girls, low-income girls and girls of color.

The Center on Poverty and Inequality, The White House and the U.S. Department of Education are co-sponsoring the event.

Aprille Ericsson, an engineer at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will deliver the conference’s keynote address.

Ericsson notes that she is the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Howard University. She currently serves as the instrument manager at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for a proposed mission to bring dust from the Martian lower atmosphere back to Earth.

The New York native won the 1997 Women in Science and Engineering award for the best female engineer in the federal government.