
ASTM International, global standards organisation, announced its slate of six new board of directors nominees for 2020, five of whom are women.
The organisation’s president, Katharine Morgan, also unveiled a new “Women in Standards” video highlighting the growing role of women in developing technical standards.
Bonnie McWade-Furtado, an associate research and development scientist at Cabot Corp., a specialty chemical and performance materials company is among the nominees.
The board nominees are experts representing perspectives of industry, governments, consumers, and more.
They also include:
- Francine Bovard, a senior technical specialist with Arconic, a company which engineers and manufactures lightweight metals;
- Carol Pollack-Nelson, Ph.D., owner of Independent Safety Consulting LLC, which specializes in consumer product safety;
- Casandra W. Robinson, a physical scientist at the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); and,
- Dalia Yarom, director of the standardization division at the Standards Institution of Israel (SII).
“I am thrilled that for the first time in ASTM International’s history, a majority of our incoming board members will likely be women,” said Morgan.
“We want to make sure women’s voices are both represented and heard at every table. I am confident that the women nominated will serve as role models for even more women to follow in their footsteps.”
In addition, current board member Vicky J. Taylor, senior research technologist at INVISTA (Canada) Co., has been nominated to serve as the board’s vice chair.
Nazli Yessiller, Ph.D., director of the Global Waste Research Institute at California Polytechnic State University has accepted the role as editor for ASTM International’s prestigious Geotechnical Testing Journal, becoming the first woman editor in the journal’s 41-year history. Yessiller’s term will begin in 2021.