2024

Sep 22: Fall Membership Meeting, 4-8 pm, home of Amy Mykityshyn, RSVP here

Oct 17: SAR, 6:30 pm, National Academy of Sciences, RSVP here

Oct 23: Joint ARCS MWC/Business Women's Giving Circle (Virtual), RSVP here

Dec 5: Holiday Party, 6-9 pm, home of Holly Coyne

2025

Feb 9: Winter Membership Meeting Luncheon, Ruth's Chris Steakouse, Fairfax

Feb 27: Senior Members High Tea, home of Julie Hohl

Apr 4: Eagle Award Gala, Army Navy Club

May 15: Annual Membership Potluck Luncheon Meeting, Location TBD

Jun 8: Picnic/Barbeque, home of Patty Sparrell

Our Fall Membership Meeting and Social is Sun, Sept 22 from 4-8 pm at the beautiful home of Amy and Mark Mykityshyn.

It's an “End of Summer” potluck dinner that begins with appetizers and social at 4 pm. Significant others and guests can enjoy the Mykityshyn's lovely patio and surrounds while ARCS members conduct the business meeting from 5-5:45 pm. After the business meeting, enjoy catching up with old and new friends and stay for the announcement of the new ARCS Light.

Click here to be taken to the “Sign Up Genius” site to let us know the names of your guests and what dish you will be bring to share.

Questions? Contact Mary Jo Ruane at mwcvpactivities@arcsfoundation.org or Patty Sparrell and Julie Hohl at mwcpresident@arcsfoundation.org.

Our Scholar Awards Reception is Oct 17 at 6:30 pm at the National Academy of Sciences. Invitations were sent Aug 28. Click here for more information and to RSVP.

Join us on Wed, Oct 23, from 12-1 pm, for a free, virtual fireside session with two impressive scientists who help lead the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). In a session moderated by Elli Nesbitt (ARCS MWC), Stacey Adam, PhD, and Courtney Silverthorn, PhD, will discuss their career journeys and their perspectives as women leaders in STEM fields. Click here to learn more and register!

Did you pay your dues for the 2024-25 year yet? Your dues are based on your membership status:

• Active: $500
• Active Emeritus: $300
• Non-resident: $150
• Honorary: $0

The Membership Council is making it easy for you. You can pay via check payable to ARCS-MWC or Zelle, a free and electronic payment means. Check with your bank if Zelle is available, then send payment to: 

Recipient email: mwctreasurer@arcsfoundation.org

Purpose: Membership Renewal (and donation)

Membership Council will email you separately for any updates to the Blue Book directory and/or changes to which committees and councils you are on.

Questions? Contact Neela Babu, Membership Council Chair, at neela.babu@gmail.com.

Please welcome the 2024-25 ARCS MWC Board Members. The new leadership team has an exciting calendar of activities for 2024-25 building on last year’s successes. Look for details in the Blue Book, which will be distributed at the September Membership meeting. View the 2024-25 ARCS MWC Board.

Five ARCS MWC members rekindled old friendships, forged new connections, and renewed their enthusiasm for the ARCS mission at the 2024 All ARCS Conference.

As ARCS President Beth Wainwright stated, “This conference is like no other for ARCS! In addition to engaging speakers, experiential leadership, and educational networking, don your party best to celebrate both the 45th Anniversary Illinois Chapter event and ARCS Foundation’s 65th Anniversary event, “Night of Toasts”. Watch the video for AAC highlights.

The proposed updates to the Bylaws and Standing Rules were approved. Thank you to Sarah Doverspike and the Administration Council for bringing this multi-year effort to closure! Highlights of the new rules which will be included in the 2024-25 Blue Book are as follows:

Membership

• Creating the Emeritus Membership category and revising the Life, Honorary, and Recent Graduate Membership categories to better describe their roles and responsibilities.  
• Adding a provision to the Bylaws for the removal of Members.

Board of Directors

• Clarifying the role of Directors (voting), Advisory Directors (non-voting), and Members-at-Large (non-voting).  
• Revising the term limits and staffing to reflect our current practices.  
• Adding a reference to our Policies in the Bylaws to ensure they remain on our radar.

Shall to Will - Changing the term "shall" to "will," which is the more modern term.

Beth Parker became an ARCS MWC member in 1979 and was sponsored by Hazel Coulter. We thank Beth for her active commitment to the chapter over the past 45 years, particularly her important role in creating and distributing Heartline notices.

Beth learned about ARCS MWC from Hazel Coulter. Hazel Coulter was Beth’s next-door neighbor (Hazel and her husband built their home a few years after Beth and her husband did) and both Hazel and her husband thought Beth would be a good member. She stayed a chapter member because of the important ARCS mission and the wonderful members. Beth says that ARCS is a unique family, adding that science and engineering are the foundations of everything we do. She also says that university visits have always been a highlight!

Beth has served in many roles over the years, including Chair of Hospitality, Chair of Activities, and Assistant to the President, to name a few. Beth and her husband Ron also had the Holiday Party in their home in 1980 and 88 people attended! President Peggy Adams asked Beth in 1990 if she would Chair the then-called “Telephone Line.” Beth renamed the role (with agreement from Peggy) to “Heartline,” a name suggested by Ron, and continues to Chair Heartline. Heartline offers sympathetic support to a member's family upon the passing of a member or a member's spouse and informs the membership of the passing and Service Arrangement details.

Beth’s proudest achievements were the multiple committees she chaired, as well as her continuing role with Heartline. She particularly remembers the Gala she chaired in the hotel owned by another ARCS MWC member, Naoma Wheeler, and her husband Al. The Galas held prior to the establishment of the chapter’s pre-eminent Eagle Award in 1985 featured a silent auction, a wonderful dinner, and a live orchestra and dancing. Beth was also selected as an ARCS Light and, in 2001, was named an ARCS Angel!

Beth says to current members that they should stay involved and get to know their fellow members because ARCS members are “treasures.” She also wants members to keep ARCS’ mission in the forefront!

ARCS MWC welcomes new member Gina Kim-Ahn, MD! Gina is sponsored by Jane Riddle. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise to her role as an Attending Radiologist at MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center (MSMHC) since 2015. During that time, she participated in numerous MSMHC programs, including the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers, the Commission on Cancer, and the Tumor Board. Before joining MedStar Health, she served in the U.S. Army for over a decade, where she led teams at Fort Belvoir Army Community Hospital and as the Department Chair in the 47th Combat Support Hospital during her deployment in Iraq. She began her career with the U.S. Army as a Clinical Investigator at USAMRIID in Fort Detrick, MD.

Gina earned a Bachelor of Science with Departmental Honors in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and her M.D. from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, MD. Following this rigorous academic foundation, she embarked on a Transitional Internship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, followed by a Diagnostic Radiology Residency at Madigan Army Medical Center and other post-graduate training.

Gina and her husband have two children, and she's enjoyed being a Girl Scout leader with the Girl Scout Council of Nation’s Capital, among other activities with her family. Professionally, she served on the Board of the DC/MD/VA Korean American Medical Association, including as President from 2022 to 2023, and since 2020, on the Board of the Brem Foundation to Defeat Breast Cancer.

Rebecca Baxter – Sparrell Family Scholar

Undergraduate Scholar, Senior, Biomedical Engineering

Johns Hopkins University

Research: Research involves the development and evaluation of a novel device designed to improve percutaneous drainage procedures in patient care. This innovated device prevents clogging of drainage catheters used to remove unwanted fluids like abscesses, thus decreasing drainage times and reducing the rate of repeat procedures for catheters used in these procedures.

How will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research? 

An ARCS award would provide me with financial support to offset tuition and living expenses. This would allow me to devote more time to my research work as opposed to having to set aside extra hours for student employment. The funds would allow me to contribute more to my design project and help the team make more progress with testing and evaluating the device. This will allow us to get it to a point where we can move towards publishing a paper and sharing our findings with the interventional radiology community so that our device might be used to help patients one day. 

Additionally, I would like to note that I am currently in the process of reaching out to various immunoengineering labs at Johns Hopkins with the hope of doing research on using immunoengineering techniques to treat cancer and/or autoimmune disorders. If accepted into one of these labs, this award would help me ensure that I have enough time to also take on another research project and would help me be able to complete a project that would generate publishable data for my lab.

Career objectives: I find the human immune system to be incredibly fascinating. My aim is to become a research scientist who does research focused on the immune system and immunoengineering, possibly working on cancer treatments. I hope to be able to do work on diseases or conditions that are major public health challenges, as I am also interested in public health and how scientific research can be used to improve public health outcomes. Regardless, I hope to complete projects that will increase our understanding of the immune system and how it can be harnessed to improve human health.

Zachary Gold – Danaher Corporation Scholar

Undergraduate Scholar, Senior, Biomedical Engineering

Johns Hopkins University

Research: Research involves development of novel technologies for those with neurological disorders, including a controls-theory based biomarker for characterizing treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients based on EEG data, and the development of a rectal catheter accessory device for those with neurogenic bowel disorder.

How will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research? 

Both the financial and network aspects of an ARCS Award would be greatly beneficial to my career and the success of my research. As an ARCS Scholar, I would have access to a vast network of current and past scholars, to broaden the focus of my research and allow me to fine-tune my work based on expert advice from fellow scholars. The ARCS Scholar network will also offer me long-term opportunities to continue my work in the field of neuro-engineering, potentially working with alumni scholars.

Additionally, an ARCS scholarship would alleviate some of the heavy financial burden of Hopkins' tuition, allowing me to reallocate time spent weekly on on-campus employment towards my research work. My medical device startup, RectaNav, will be spending the next year commercializing our novel rectal catheter accessory device. Simultaneously, I plan to devote significant time to pursuing a research project in the Neuromedical Control Systems Lab at Hopkins under Dr. Sri Sarma, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Associate Director of the Institute for Computational Medicine. The ARCS scholarship will enable me to work fewer hours of on-campus employment and instead devote maximal time to both of these impactful research endeavors.

Career objectives: I hope to pursue a role in the medical device industry after college that builds on my experiences collaborating directly with patients and users to ensure maximum impact. I also aspire to be a leader throughout my career, serving as a role model for my colleagues and helping to determine the strategic direction of my organization. I envision a career where I can drastically improve the standard of care, benefiting both clinicians and patients. Finally, I firmly believe that entrepreneurship is an invaluable tool for fostering creativity and actualizing impact. I aim to operate in an entrepreneurial role for much of my career.

Submit articles, pictures, pdfs, and website links by the 20th of each month for publication the following month to mwccommunications@arcsfoundation.org.