Tricia Berry leads efforts to close the STEM gender gap by creating an inspired and diverse community of confident STEM leaders as the Executive Director of Women in STEM (WiSTEM) at The University of Texas at Austin.

Tricia serves in an advisory or leadership capacity for various STEM or equity-focused campus, community, and school organizations including the UT Austin Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials (CDCM: an NSF MRSEC), Texas Girls Collaborative Project, UT Austin K12 STEM Collaborative, Greater Austin STEM Ecosystem, STEMwise Connections, and the DiscoverE Messages Matter Advisory Group. Previously Tricia served for 20 years as Director for the Women in Engineering Program at The University of Texas at Austin, cofounded and led the career consulting company 825 Basics, and worked as a Product Development Engineer at The Dow Chemical Company.

In her “outside of STEM” work, Tricia is the co-author of You Can’t Eat Your Degree: Combine Your Passions and Philosophies to Create the Story of Your Future and Exceeds Expectations: Take Control of Your Performance Review. She is a hobbyist gardener, novice bird watcher, amateur nature photographer, and avid reader. Tricia holds a BS Chemical Engineering degree and an MBA, is the mom of 2 chemical engineering college students, and is the wife of another chemical engineer.

Ana Dison is the inaugural Program Director for Women in STEM (WiSTEM) a university wide initiative she founded in partnership with Tricia Berry in November of 2021.

Dison earned her bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from The University of Texas at Austin and her master’s degree in College Student Services Administration from Oregon State University. After working for two years at the University of Maryland in Recreation Services, Dison returned to UT Austin and served as Assistant Director in the Division of Recreational Sports, coordinating membership services and satellite facilities. After two more years in the College of Liberal Arts Economics Department as Advising Coordinator, Ana served for twenty-one years in the Cockrell School of Engineering in a variety of roles including as Assistant Director for the Women in Engineering Program for fifteen years.

Dison has served on numerous committees across campus and served for three years in the inaugural group of the UT Staff Council. Dison co-chaired the Provost’s Council on Student Advocacy for three years and has served two terms as President of the Academic Counselors Association. She continues to be active in the UT Austin community, working with peer and professional mentoring programs. She has presented to numerous groups on a variety of leadership, inclusion and career-focused topics. She received the university’s Outstanding Staff Award in 2012 and the Cockrell School of Engineering Staff Excellence Award and the Eyes of Texas Award in 2011. A member of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) since 2006, Dison completed a two-year appointment to the WEPAN Board of Directors as communications director in 2015.

In 2011 and after 20 seasons as a high school volleyball official in the central Texas area, Dison retired from the Texas Association of Sports Officials. Since 2003, she has been designing and creating custom jewelry and loves to golf in her spare time.

Robin is a passionate advocate for youth voice, community building, mental health literacy and equity in education. Robin brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and creativeideas to the WiSTEM program. Before joining UT’s Women in STEM program, Robin worked with youth in the Nonprofit sector for almost a decade as a Youth Activities Facilitator, Cultural Enrichment Director, Academic Success Specialist, and UTSA College Mentor. Robin graduated from UT Arlington with her Bachelors of Science in University Studies with a concentration in Social Sciences and plans to continue her education in the future to explore her many interests. Outside of WiSTEM Robin spends time nurturing her hobbies and other ventures such as writing, photography being in nature, blogging and herbal tea making. Robin is also published poet and creative.

Contact WiSTEM Staff by emailing wistem@utexas.edu