“She Can STEM” public service campaign hopes to destroy stereotypes and promote inclusion
By Jon Reisfeld for All Together, the blog of the Society of Women Engineers.
Recently, the Ad Council took a big step toward making middle schools the future breeding ground for new generations of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). It launched “She Can STEM” — an ambitious, new public service campaign to make STEM cool and inspiring to girls.
In the process, the Ad Council abandoned the single-client business model that it had used for nearly three-quarters of a century to produce and distribute such iconic, game-changing campaigns as Smokey Bear, which helped the National Park Service reduce annual acres lost to wildfires from 22 million in 1944, to 8.5 million in 2000. Its famous “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste” campaign for the United Negro College Fund is another example. That effort helped raise $2.2 billion dollars to pay for more than 400,000 minority student college educations.
For “She Can STEM,” the Ad Council replaced that tried-and-true model with something completely new: a broad-based coalition of partners led, in this instance, by such top global tech brands as GE, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Verizon.
About the Author
Alexis GajewskiAlexis Gajewski
Senior Content Strategist
Alexis Gajewski is a manufacturing writer and editor with nearly 20 years of experience covering the people, practices, and technologies that keep industrial facilities running. For more than a decade, she served as Senior Content Strategist for Plant Services, creating content for plant managers, engineers, and maintenance professionals on a variety of industrial topics.
During her tenure, Alexis worked to develop the brand’s digital strategy and helped launch and produce Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast. She also created The Lighter Side of Manufacturing, a weekly blog that explored the inventive and sometimes humorous side of the industry.
Alexis co-founded Influential Women in Manufacturing, a recognition program that honored 49 women in its first two years, earned an industry award for Best Product Launch, and received a proclamation from Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and a commendation from U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth.
She also led newsroom operations and development at a large media company where she set editorial standards, developed training curriculum, and helped support AI adoption for more than 150 editors across 80+ brands spanning manufacturing, industrial processing, automation, and more.
Additionally, Alexis works as a freelance writer and editor, and her areas of interest include continuous improvement, the skilled workforce, and the role of emerging technology on the plant floor.
Connect with Alexis on LinkedIn
