Local women’s leaders talk shop at STEAM panel in Huntington Beach

The Huntington Beach Central Library put together an impressive group of local women professionals for a panel discussion Wednesday night.

Five highly successful women — one each in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and math — graced the stage for the STEAM panel. Each spent several minutes telling the crowd about her job, before the event opened for a question-and-answer session at the end.

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Marr, a director at Willdan Group who was formerly an engineer in the U.S. Navy, said she enjoyed her time on the panel. Marr actually filled in for Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Arlis Reynolds, herself an engineer, and the fact that the city has two female clean energy engineers sitting on the dais is not lost on Marr.

“I was really excited and honored to participate tonight,” Marr said. “I think it’s really important for women, young girls especially, to see other women doing these jobs. The impact of … exposure is huge. And I think the coolest part is that we’re all excited about our jobs. It’s not just seeing someone go through the motions but seeing people who are really passionate about what they do. I loved that there was a boy in the audience, too.”

The other Women in STEAM panel members included Huntington Beach resident Dr. Jennifer Dietz Kumar, a veterinarian/partner at Baker Bristol Pet Hospital (science); Lisa Anderson, a technical artist at Riot Games (technology); Elizabeth Steele Basile, the development coordinator for the Huntington Beach Art Center (art); and Belinda Ho, a UC Irvine graduate and finance professional for Starbucks (math).

The event was moderated by Huntington Beach City Councilwoman Natalie Moser.

Costa Mesa Mayor Pro Tem Andrea Marr, a director at Willdan Group, speaks during the Women in STEAM event on Wednesday night.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Huntington Beach Public Library senior librarian for youth services Melissa Ronning said the panel was put together in recognition of Women’s History Month.

“We wanted to do something to celebrate women,” Ronning said. “This whole month we’ve actually been doing a lot of STEAM. We created some kits for kids to take home that highlighted women in the field of STEAM, and we thought we would culminate the month with a panel.”

The boy in the audience was Adam Bodnarova, 8, of Huntington Beach. Natalia Bodnarova brought her children Adam and Timea, a 6-year-old girl, to the event after seeing it advertised.

Natalia said her children both attend Lake View Elementary, a STEAM school in the Ocean View School District.

“I wanted them to see how education can result in a good career,” she said. “I wanted them to hear about it, especially from women. Usually it’s men who are engineers, right?”

City Councilwoman Natalie Moser speaks during a Women in STEAM panel event at the Huntington Beach Library Theater on Wednesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

The STEAM professionals were asked a wide array of questions about their jobs. Anderson drew a laugh when she was asked what video game she liked to play when she was a kid.

“My parents thought that video games would make you violent, so I had to sneak all of my video games,” she said. “The video game I snuck the most at my friends’ houses was Super Mario 64.”

Kumar, who volunteers as the medical director for Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center in Huntington Beach, is also an entrepreneur who owns four small animal vet hospitals and a dog daycare center.

“My goal was to take care of animals, not to own businesses,” she said. “But it’s been quite the adventure, something really fulfilling, especially during the COVID pandemic and thinking about how we restructured our business to protect our employees and our patients and our customers.”

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