AIChE Elects New Leadership Team
May 31, 2017
By: Andrew Weaver
Mississippi State’s local AIChE chapter recently held elections for its officer positions. Eleven chemical engineering students ran for the six key positions. Three ran for Co-President, one ran for External Vice-President, three for Internal Vice-President, one for Secretary and two for Treasurer. Each of the candidates wrote a short bio introducing themselves and detailing their previous involvement with AIChE.
Members voted in late March for who they thought would best fill the positions based on these bios and the candidates’ previous leadership experience. On April 3, the results were announced. The newly elected officers for the 2017-2018 academic year are listed below:
Co-Presidents – Priscilla Symmes and John Suedel
Internal VP – Amber Jackson
External VP – Ravi Patel
Secretary – Kassidy Adams (Southern Conference Chair)
Treasurer – Madeline Walley
John Suedel, one of the new Co-Presidents, spoke briefly on why he ran for office and what goals he had for AIChE for the coming fall. John had previously served as Vice President of Omega Chi Epsilon and has said, “there was a lot of overlap between what OXE and AIChE wanted to accomplish.” In his bio, John explained his goals to continue to work closer with OXE to “set up mentorship programs, give back to the community, and bring in some of the biggest and best companies to work for so that we can put our newly acquired skills to the test. ” He went on to talk about one of the bigger projects the new leadership team will be working on, the 2019 AIChE Southern Regional Conference, saying, “We have a lot of work ahead of us to prepare for this.” Finally, John gave a few words on why he ran for office, “I wanted to give back to the program in my final year here, and I figured there would be no better way than to run for Co-President.”
In addition to the “Big Six” positions, AIChE appointed eight other students to lead the organization’s different functions. These positions for the fall semester are listed below:
Chem-E Car Captain – Kathryn Wojtanik
Community Service Director – Victoria McCaffrey
Honduras Sister Chapter Liaison – Laihmen Quan
Intramural Coordinator – Kinsey Naas
Newsletter Advisor – Amy Schemitsch
Newsletter Senior Editor – Dalton Pruitt
Newsletter Junior Editor- Andrew Weaver
Public Relations – Germaine Cooley
All the newly selected AIChE officers have a lot to accomplish next semester. Whether it’s preparing for the 2019 conference, organizing AIChE events, or helping AIChE grow by working with the incoming freshmen, there are many goals for the new leadership team to work towards in the fall.