Apr 12, 2012 - Claremont, CA -

Harvey Mudd College President Maria Klawe shared her insights about how critical women are to the nation’s economic success at the White House Women and the Economy Forum on Friday, April 6, in Washington D.C.

The Forum addressed Administration accomplishments and included a panel discussion, in which Klawe participated, moderated by Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and included Senior Administration Officials, private sector and academic leaders. Following opening remarks by Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls Valerie Jarrett and the opening panel, President Barack Obama delivered remarks to an audience of entrepreneurs, academics, stakeholders, business leaders.

"Attending the White House Forum on Women in the Economy was a wonderful opportunity to raise the visibility of HMC and share some of our exciting educational innovations, especially around recruiting and retaining females in engineering, science and mathematics," explained Maria. "Participants were particularly interested in our CS department's success in increasing the number of female CS majors and how this was accomplished."

Other participants were Senior Administration Officials, including Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as the Director of the Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Munoz, Executive Director of the White House Council on Women and Girls Tina Tchen and Katharine Abraham, Member of the Council of Economic Advisors, who led a series of breakout sessions on a range of topics including: Women at Work, Education, Health, Women’s Entrepreneurship, and Violence Against Women and Girls.

Event video

Blog post from Chair of the Council on Women & Girls, Valerie Jarrett

President Klawe's White Paper on Computer Science and HMC (pdf).