Our Lake Erie Professional Chapter (LEPC) is just one of many chapters that serves AISES. Read more about AISES National and our chapter below:
American Indian Science and Engineering Society
As defined by its Wiki Page, AISES is “a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional association with the goal of substantially increasing American Indian and Alaskan Native representation in the fields of engineering, science and other related technology disciplines. Its headquarters is located in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As of May 1, 2013, Sarah EchoHawk is the Chief Executive Officer.
“AISES was founded in 1977, by Manhattan Project scientist and Mohawk, Arnold Anderson, together with six other American Indian scientists: Al Qöyawayma, Carol Gardipe, George Thomas, Jerry Elliot and Jim Shorty. Since its founding, the society has held the annual, three-day AISES National Conference, which includes the largest job fair in Indian country.”
“The AISES mission is to increase substantially the representation of American Indian and Alaskan Natives in engineering, science and other related technology disciplines.”
AISES has chartered hundreds of chapters in recent years. These chapters are professional chapters, college chapters, and pre-college chapters. Some chapters serve Native youth as young as Elementary School. Winds of Change is a quarterly Native American magazine published by AISES that often highlights the success stories of its various members, AISES events, colleges, and important issues and current events of concern to Natives in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math). AISES is divided into 7 regions across the United States and Canada. Besides the annual National Conference, there are also Regional Conferences, Math Bowls, Professional Summits, and other annual events that display student research, host career fairs and social events, and otherwise encourage Native participation in STEM.
For more information, visit aises.org – the AISES National website.
Lake Erie Professional Chapter
The LEPC was formed to serve Region 6 of AISES. This chapter began as a very small group of individuals determined to promote AISES’s mission in this Region. Our chapter membership is currently concentrated in the Cleveland, OH; Detroit/Ann Arbor, MI; and Buffalo, NY areas. However, LEPC continues to be the only Professional Chapter serving the entire Region 6. For this reason, we have included professionals from all across the Region who also wish to serve AISES and provide valuable resources as professionals to our Native youth.
The kinds of professionals recruited by LEPC are diverse in their professions, tribal affiliations, and experiences. The chapter counts among its members several engineers who specialize in various disciplines, educators, doctors and nurses, government and non-government employees, and others who add to the balance of the chapter. We strive as a chapter to be as inclusive as possible since the intent is to encourage involvement from as much of the Native community as possible.
Apart from having members that annually participate in the National Conference, our chapter also supports a Regional Conference each Spring in Region 6, sponsors students to attend AISES events, joins with other Native organizations in the Cleveland community for Urban Indian cultural events, posts job opportunities and announcements to this website, and otherwise works to fulfill AISES’s mission to its fullest potential. Check out our other tabs and most recent updates to see what we’re up to and feel free to contact us with questions.
We are headquartered out of Cleveland:
NASA Glenn Research Center
21000 Brookpark Road
Cleveland, OH 44135