SWE Magazine Callout
DECEMBER 2025
Features

Remembering Our Legacy

By
WeBuiltThis cover
In 2025 the Society published the keepsake book We Built This: A Look at the Society of Women Engineers’ First 75 Years, revised and updated from its first edition published for the Society’s 65th anniversary in 2015. The book is available on Amazon and the SWE Swag Store at swe.org/sweswag/#75th.

The Society of Women Engineers reflected on its history and the legacy of its members during its 75th anniversary celebrations throughout 2025. Through exhibits, articles and books, a digital timeline, videos, and special events, SWE invited members to explore the Society’s history and consider their own roles in SWE’s past and future. The celebration continues online at www.swe.org/75th.

th Website
In January, SWE launched its anniversary website, www.swe.org/75th, which includes a timeline of important milestones in SWE’s journey, a “Building a Legacy” web exhibit tracing themes in SWE’s history, and videos from longtime and more recent members about their experiences in SWE.
WELocal CherryHill Exhibit
From left, Alexandra Lee and Maria Legato consider themes from SWE’s history while reading SWE’s “Building a Legacy” exhibit at the WE Local Cherry Hill event on March 7, 2025. Unveiled at WE Local San Jose in February, the 12-panel exhibit was also displayed at WE Local events in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Prague, Czech Republic; and Bengaluru, India; and at the WE25 Annual Conference in October in New Orleans.
Cooper Union Exhibit
Executive coach Kathryn C. Mayer takes a selfie in front of the “Building a Legacy” exhibit on display at the Society’s Founders Day event on May 6, 2025, at The Cooper Union’s Great Hall.
WEYSK title
“Women Engineers You Should Know,” an annual feature published in SWE Magazine’s Spring issue, profiled 14 founding and early members of SWE in 2025. The magazine also introduced companion videos for its regular “Scrapbook” column highlighting topics in SWE’s history.

Learn more about how SWE celebrated its 75th anniversary throughout 2025, around the globe. SWE Archivist Troy Eller English brings SWE’s history to life in this compelling video.

Cooper Union Gerardi
Kellie Gerardi, a bioastronautics researcher and social media influencer, recalls greeting her daughter after returning from her first spaceflight mission in 2023 during the Society’s Founders Day event on May 6, 2025. The event was hosted by The Cooper Union in New York City, in recognition of its role in hosting the Society’s founding meeting on May 27-28, 1950.
Cooper Union Panel
Panelists discuss the past, present, and future of SWE at the Society’s May 6, 2025, Founders Day event celebrating the Society’s 75th anniversary. From left, Jill Tietjen, P.E., F.SWE, past president of SWE (1991-92); Inaas Darrat, SWE president-elect (2025-26); Troy Eller English, SWE archivist; and Lizelle Ocfemia, SWE Cooper Union Section president.
WELocal CherryHill
Members celebrate SWE’s 75th anniversary at the WE Local event in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on March 7, 2025.
Women Engineer cover
Members of SWE’s Late Career and Retirees affinity group turned a Wikipedia editing project into a 425-page book profiling the work and lives of the Society’s first 25 Achievement Award recipients. Women Engineering Legends 1952-1976: Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award Recipients was published in November 2025 by Springer Nature.
75th
From left, SWE Treasurer Silvia Karlsson, Kristin Zatwarnicki, and Sabrina Ridenour at the 75th anniversary cocktail reception held during WE25 at Sazerac House in New Orleans.
Archivists Podcast
In an episode of Diverse, a SWE podcast, SWE Archivist Troy Eller English and The Cooper Union Archivist Mary Mann discuss the evidence in their respective archival collections that helps to complete our understanding of SWE’s founding meeting at The Cooper Union’s Green Engineering Camp on May 27-28, 1950. Listen to episode 313 at podcast.swe.org, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

Author

  • Cropped Swe Favicon

    Troy Eller English (she/her) is the Society of Women Engineers archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library, Wayne State University in Detroit. She has written about the history of SWE and women in engineering for SWE Magazine since 2008 and contributes to Diverse: a SWE Podcast.

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