BREMERTON – Join Washington STEM, West Sound STEM and the Women’s Funding Alliance for a “Women in STEM” town hall meeting Oct. 5.

The event will be moderated by Liz Vivian, executive director of the Women’s Funding Alliance, and will feature a panel of experts on women’s issues in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). All are welcome to attend this free event.

Washington ranks first in concentration of STEM jobs, but women are disproportionately missing out on the vast array of STEM opportunities available. This is an equity issue: STEM jobs pay consistently better than non-STEM jobs. It’s also an economic issue: By 2018, it’s predicted that there will be nearly 50,000 unfilled STEM jobs in Washington.

In a STEM economy, there is opportunity for women to take hold of the wide swath of unfilled STEM careers and create a foundation of leadership for decades to come. The first step toward this future is to raise STEM education awareness among women.

The meeting is Monday, Oct. 5 from 5-7 p.m. at Olympic College Bremer Student Center, 1600 Chester Ave., in Bremerton.

Speakers include Liz Vivian, executive director of the Women’s Funding Alliance, Phyllis Harvey-Buschel, director of K-12 programs for Washington MESA, Kylie Hurd, Miss Washington International and Microsoft Program Manager and Paula Boyum, associate dean at Northeastern University.

To RSVP sign up online at http://www.washingtonstem.org/Get-Involved/Events/Women-in-STEM . For more information contact Kareen Borders at  369-782-5090 or kborders@oesd.wednet.edu.