Women @ Wentworth Event Honoring University's First Woman Graduate

The 2023 Women @ Wentworth event promises to be an informative and inspirational event celebrating the achievements of women in various fields, including the first to ever graduate from the Institute. 

Students, faculty, staff, alumni/ae, corporate partners, and friends are invited to gather on Friday, March 31 from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. in Watson Auditorium for the 16th annual event. Attendees must register by March 24. 

Breakfast and a hosted networking session will be followed by an exciting program including the presentation of the Wentworth Woman of the Year award to this year’s recipient, Susan Hardt ’74, the first woman to receive her degree from Wentworth. 

Noelle Benavides, Mechanical Engineering ’19, will emcee the event. Currently a senior project manager at Foundation Medicine, Benavides will discuss her work with the molecular insights company, which specializes in genomic mutations that drive cancer. She will also speak about her experience as a student at Wentworth Institute of Technology and her involvement with the university as a newly elected member of the Board of Trustees. 

President Mark A. Thompson and Teradyne Manager Andy Blanchard will also speak at the event, while current student Catherine Roden will be awarded the Women @ Wentworth Scholarship. Associate Provost for Transformational Learning and Partnerships Susan Duffy will moderate a panel including Shylee Ezroni, Applied Mathematics ’15; Casey Galante, Master of Architecture ’13, Bachelor of Architecture ’14; Amanda Forde, BAET ’04; and Desiree Patrice, BSET ’98. 

Thompson will speak about his vision for the future of Wentworth and how women can contribute to the university’s growth. The panel, meanwhile, will answer questions about their career journeys, sharing lessons learned, challenges faced, and successes achieved. 

Ezroni is an accomplished senior product manager at Newsela and the award-winning nonprofit organization, The WIT Project. Galante is the marketing manager in Pursuit Marketing at Suffolk in Boston, and serves as the vice president of student engagement for the Wentworth Alumni Association. 

Hardt, who was also the first woman to hold the position of Wentworth Alumni Association president, is expected to share how her education at Wentworth prepared her for her career, and talk about her work with Fifield Building Restoration and Relocation, for whom she came out of retirement. 

Roden, a senior majoring in Construction Management with a concentration in Facilities Management, will receive the Women @ Wentworth Scholarship. She is a member of Sigma Lambda Chi International Construction Honor Society and Construction Management Club.  

Patrice is deputy chief of Capital Transformation for the MBTA, while Forde is a principal for Taitt Gittens, LLC. 

Teradyne, which supports the celebration of women in various fields, will be the premier sponsor at the event. 

Find a recap of last year’s Women at Wentworth event at this link.