STEM and politics aren’t usually associated together but this week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM Series features a newly elected politician who believes her STEM background is just was Washington needs. Chrissy Houlahan has held many STEM jobs and is now ready to see how she can use her experience to shape Congress.
Houlahan graduated from Stanford University with an undergraduate degree in engineering and a masters in Technology and Policy from MIT. She served in the US Air Force as a project manager for air and space defense technologies. After leaving active duty, she served as Chief Operating Officer for a sportswear company where she also volunteered for programs that encouraged girls and women in STEM. She joined the Teach For America program and spent a year teaching high school chemistry in Philadelphia.
Houlahan was motivated to run for Congress after attending the Women’s March in 2017. She won a seat in in the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s 6th Congressional District. She feels her background in STEM provides a unique lens to some of the issues facing our nation today.
“Anything from cybersecurity, biosecurity, information technology and privacy issues are all things the government now has the responsibility to be worried about. Those are all things that scientific and technical backgrounds can be used for.”
Houlahan is one of nine STEM-related professionals voted into Congress during the latest mid-term elections. According to the latest congressional profile, released before Election Day, only about seven percent of the 115th Congress reported they have some kind of STEM background.
“Somebody with a technical background might think in a little bit different than the way, for instance, that a lawyer would think.”
In both traditional STEM positions and now in politics, Chrissy Houlahan shows how a background in STEM helps in a broad range of jobs and that thinking like an engineer can help solve even non-STEM issues.