Since 2013, Missouri Cures Education Foundation has brought WISER events to St. Joe, Springfield, Kansas City, Columbia, and St. Louis. WISER events highlight women excelling in science, technology, research, business, and innovation and provide women an opportunity to network and learn from one another.

Our WISER events are designed to showcase Missouri’s leading women in science, business, and technology. The Missouri Cures WISER team partners with innovation centers and chambers of commerce around the state to host events throughout the year so we can bring a special focus on women leaders in our field.

With a program centered on thought leadership, medical innovation and research, and entrepreneurial vision, our WISER events highlight influential researchers, WISER women, and community leaders who are actively promoting women in STEM, and who are sponsoring women entrepreneurs that are uplifting the Missouri economy.

2020 WISER Events

Cape Girardeau, MO - POSTPONED TBA

WISER Logo

Accomplished women in the fields of science, technology and business share their experiences and challenges.

We are excited to bring WISER to Cape Girardeau.

Please save the date! The event is open to the public but space is limited. Register here!

Date:
Thursday, March 26, 2020

Time:
8:00 AM – 11:30 AM CDT

Location:
River Campus at Southeast Missouri State University
518 South Fountain Street
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

WISER SEMO Presenters

Springfield, MO - June 16th 2020

Save the date! The 2020 WISER Springfield Networking Breakfast will be held on April 29th from 7:30 am to 9:00 am at the efactory. Panelists TBA. The event is free but space is limited so please RSVP today.

Kansas City, MO - June 24th, 2020

Save the Date! 2020 WISER KC Networking Breakfast to be held June 24th, 2020 from 7:30 am to 9:00 am at the Kauffman Foundation. Panelists TBA. RSVP to reserve your space today.

Columbia, MO - Summer 2020

We’re locking in dates for 2020. Please check back soon.

St. Joseph, MO - Fall 2020

We’re locking in dates for 2020. Please check back soon.

St. Louis, MO - November 6th, 2020

Save the Date! Our 2020 WISER Conference will be held at Union Station on November 6th, 2020. Panels and format TBA.

Register here! 

This Month’s Featured WISER Woman

Sarah George, M.D., Saint Louis University

May 2020 – WISER Women Fighting COVID-19

Sarah George, M.D., Saint Louis University

Sarah George, M.D., is an associate professor of infectious diseases at Saint Louis University and Saint Louis University’s principal investigator of the trial for a possible treatment for COVID-19 in St. Louis. There are no known treatments for the novel coronavirus, and SLU is testing what could be one of the first. The trial, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), may be conducted in up to approximately 75 sites across the country and worldwide. You can learn more about her groundbreaking work here.
Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox, Washington University School of Medicine

May 2020 – WISER Women Fighting COVID-19

Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox, Washington University School of Medicine

Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox is an Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine, and Co-Director, Center for Health Economics and Policy (CHEP). She is a member of the St. Louis area hospital task force for COVID-19, which combines the experiences and knowledge of the area’s three major health systems to produce a more coordinated response. She recently was featured in the presentation: Through the Looking Glass: COVID-19 and What’s Next. You can learn more about her work here.
Dr. Abigail Barker, Center Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health

May 2020 – WISER Women Fighting COVID-19

Dr. Abigail Barker, Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health

Dr. Abigail Barker is affiliated with the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health and is serving on the State of Missouri’s COVID-19 Response Team. She’s using data and analytics to inform potential policy responses to pandemic and has recently published an article touting the virtues of high levels of social distancing to lower the COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death rates over the next six months across all counties in Missouri. Learn more about her work here.

Previous Featured WISER Woman

Lashana Lewis

April 2020

LaShana Lewis as our WISER Woman. LaShana is currently serving as the Director of the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective (STLEEC)

This month, we are proud to introduce LaShana Lewis as our WISER Woman. LaShana is currently serving as the Director of the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective (STLEEC) where she works to make sure an entrepreneur’s success will not be pre-determined by their race or gender. She is also the CEO of L. M. Lewis Consulting and an entrepreneur in the tech and diversity fields. She was selected as a Fulbright Specialist in February 2019 and has lent her knowledge as a tech director and consultant for nonprofits and startups around the country. Learn more about LaShana here.
Dr. Patricia Dickson

March 2020

Dr. Patricia Dickson, Chief of the Division of Medical Genetics and Genomics at Washington University

This month we are excited to introduce you to Dr. Patricia Dickson. Dr. Dickson is the chief of the division of medical genetics and genomics at Washington University. She oversees a team that provides care for children and adults with a variety of medical problems, including birth defects, inborn metabolic diseases, genetic syndromes, familial cancer syndromes, chromosomal abnormalities, and many other genetic disorders. She is a leader in the field of precision medicine in both her research and her patient care. To learn more about her work click here.
Dr. Paula Monaghan-Nichols

February 2020

Dr. Paula Monaghan-Nichols, Associate Dean of Research Administration at UMKC

We are thrilled to be featuring Dr. Paula Monaghan-Nichols as this month’s WISER Woman. Dr. Monaghan-Nichols is the Associate Dean of Research Administration at UMKC. Her research focus is on the prenatal basis of neurological and behavioral abnormalities. Since 1999, she has maintained continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for her research, which currently involves studying environmental and genetic factors’ influence on cell behavior. She also promotes others’ research in her role as associate dean. Learn more about her here.
Dr. Rachel Owen

January 2020

Rachel Owen, PhD, Co-Founder of MOST the Missouri Science and Technology Policy Institute

We are proud to feature Dr. Rachel Owen! Dr. Owen has a PhD from the University of Missouri School of Natural Resources and is the Co-Founder of MOST the Missouri Science and Technology Policy Institute, a non-profit organization that places scientifically-trained fellows in the Missouri State Capitol to provide scientific resources for our policymakers. Dr. Owen has been a driving force in launching MOST, securing funding and recruiting fellows. She will be at the capitol all spring to help provide nonpartisan, objective scientific info on bills to the 100th General Assembly! Learn more about her and the great work MOST is doing here!
Dr. Tamela Randolph

December 2019

Dr. Tamela Randolph, Dean of College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Southeast Missouri State University

Dr. Tamela Randolph is the first woman to be named Dean of College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics at Southeast Missouri State University. In addition to shattering the glass ceiling, Dr. Randolph researches Mathematics Anxiety, Historical Computational Algorithms, Conceptual Understanding of Mathematics Idea and she is committed to promoting women in STEM. We are excited to work with Dr. Randolph to bring our first WISER program to Cape Girardeau in 2020. If you’d like to attend, you can save the date here!
WISER Logo

November 2019

WISER Women

November always marks the end of our WISER events across the state and allows us the opportunity to reflect on all the incredible women we’ve had the opportunity to meet, learn from, share with, and honor. Since last November, we highlighted the work of 11 WISER Women, brought our programs to 4 cities across Missouri, featured 33 different outstanding panelists and speakers, and hosted over 700 attendees at our WISER events. Next year we hope to expand our WISER programs, bringing them to new cities and revisiting some old favorites.
Dr. Supriya Shivakumar

October 2019

Dr. Supriya Shivakumar, Head of Strategy, Gene Editing and Novel Modalities at MillaporeSigma

Dr. Supriya Shivakumar is Head of Strategy, Gene Editing and Novel Modalities at MillaporeSigma. She started in academic science with a PhD in oncology in the lab of nobel Laureate Harold Varmus at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by a translational research postdoc. Her focus is our innovation, marketing and business development strategies driving gene editing to cell and gene therapy. She states, “I found that my greatest passion is for the intersection of business and cutting edge science.”
You can learn more about Supriya and her work at 2019 WISER Conference in St. Louis.

September 2019

Anne Miller, Director of Research Commercialization, Saint Louis University

Anne Miller is the Director of Research Commercialization for the Office of the Vice President for Research at Saint Louis University. She oversees the University’s intellectual property portfolio and industry contracting activities. In addition, Anne and her team work to promote innovation and entrepreneurship through programs such as SLUStartI-Corps. We are proud to feature Anne as a panelist at our 2019 St. Louis WISER Conference.

Learn more about her work here. 

Rachael Bradshaw

August, 2019

Rachael Bradshaw, Senior Genetic Counselor and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine.

Rachael Bradshaw is a Senior Genetic Counselor and an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine as well as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine. She is a prenatal genetic counselor who focuses on working with families who’ve received prenatal diagnoses of fetal anomalies. She will be the Program Director of the still-in-development Graduate Program in Genetic Counseling at Washington University School of Medicine. Outside of work, she volunteers as the Co-Leader of the Fetal & Infant Mortality Case Review Team in St. Louis and is the Co-Founder and Executive Co-Director of the St. Louis Pod of 500 Women Scientists. We are excited to feature Rachael on one of our WISER STL panels this fall. Learn more about her work here. 

July, 2019

Dr. Randi Foraker, Director of the Center for Population Health Informatics at the Institute for Informatics and Associate Professor of General Medical Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Dr. Randi Foraker is the Director of the Center for Population Health Informatics at the Institute for Informatics and an Associate Professor of General Medical Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Dr. Foraker also serves as Director of the Public Health Data and Training Center for the Institute for Public Health where she is focused on applying epidemiology and informatics techniques to solve problems in the population health domain. Dr. Foraker specializes in the design of population-based studies and the integration of electronic health record data with socioeconomic indicators and is well recognized in the field of cardiovascular disease epidemiology. Her recent research has focused on the application of clinical decision support to complement risk scoring in primary care, cardiology, and oncology. Learn more about her work. 

June 2019

Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor of Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in the Division of Public Health Sciences.

Bettina Drake, PhD, MPH, is an associate professor of surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in the Division of Public Health Sciences. Dr. Drake is focused on researching risk factors and identifying strategies to promote health equity. Her community-based work has focused on promoting cancer education and screening among high-risk and underserved populations in the St. Louis region. In addition, her work has focused on educating community members on the strengths and weaknesses of health research participation and the importance of a diverse study population to provide the move effective interventions and treatments. Learn more about her work here.

2019 WISER Recap

In 2019, Missouri Cures Education Foundation was excited to announce that WISE (Women in Science and Entrepreneurship) was becoming WISER (Women in Science, Entrepreneurship, and Research). We excitedly debuted newly branded WISER events to 4 cities across Missouri.

We were proud to partner with ROSIE to bring a WISER networking breakfast to Springfield, MO. Panelists Kathryn Bergmann, Staci Neimoth, and Elaine Strope shared their experiences working in engineering, medicine, science, and entrepreneurship.

Our Kansas City WISER KC Conference featured 2 panels. On Panel I —Women in Science & Research: The Opportunities & Challenges in the Field, we heard from Laura Treml, Dean Carolyn Henry, Julie Christianson, and Jennifer Schofield. Panel II —Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Kansas City Women Leading the Way featured panelists Melissa Roberts, Tammy Wauhaus, Frumi Barr, and Liliana Younger. Thank you to our partners Central Exchange and WiSTEMM for making the event a success. BioNexus offered their 8 Key Takeaways from WISER KC.

The Missouri Innovation Center hosted us for Columbia’s WISER Networking Breakfast. Panelists Susan Hart, Mindy McCubbin, Kellie Ann Coats, and Jaya Gosh talked to us about the importance of making space for imperfection, mentors, and their unplanned career paths.

Our WISER St. Louis Conference, hosted by Union Station featured 3 incredible panels. Panel I- Leaders in St. Louis; Women Breaking the Glass Ceiling featured Amy Berg, Ann Marr, Ruth Wagner, and Sita Kedia. On our second panel, Women Leading the Way in Science and Research, we heard from Supriya Shivakumar, Rochelle Henderson, Bettina Drake, Rachael Bradshaw, and Nadia Shakoor. And for our final panel Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Women Making Their Mark,  panelists Nichole Mercier, Kathleen Cook, Elise Miller Hoffman, Anne Miller, and Karen Mullis shared their insights and wisdom with our audience.

We are grateful to all of our sponsors, partners, panelists, moderators, volunteers, and attendees that helped make our 2019 WISER events so meaningful and successful.

2019 WISER Around Missouri

2018 WISE Recap

2018 WISE Conference Fox2Now news story
October 26, 2018 – Featuring Dr. Jennifer Silva, Washington University Pediatric Cardiologist

ST. LOUIS, MO – Five years ago, organizers weren’t sure how many people to expect for the first WISE Conference: Women in Science and Entrepreneurship. With just a few days before this year’s event, the response has been excellent. The popular event brings together women of vision committed to helping other women find success. Business, science, and technology, just a sampling of the expertise available for those attending an ambitious networking event.

2018 WISER Around Missouri