On Tuesday, October 23, Barbara Humpton, CEO of Siemens Foundation gave the keynote address at the Advance CTE 2018 Fall Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. Humpton’s many responsibilities include managing the company’s strategy and engagement 
and leading more than 50,000 employees. Humpton began her remarks by emphasizing the importance Siemens places on investing in their employees. The Siemens Foundation has invested more than $100 million in the United States to advance workforce development and education initiatives in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Humpton also shared her personal connection to Career Technical Education (CTE). She developed her passion for STEM early in her education and the opportunity to gain experience working directly with IBM inspired her to continue in this area. Humpton’s passion grew as she saw the impact of her work. “What matters to me is the mission, what matters to me is purpose, doing things because they are making a big change in the world,” she said.
Her search for meaning in her career mirrors the aspiration of learners and their parent’s across the country. She cited The Value and Promise of Career Technical Education: Results from a National Survey of Parents and Students to emphasize this key finding – discovering a career passion is the most important critical goal for both learners and parents– even surpassing having a career that pays well.
Humpton challenged the attendees to work to reach more people and help them see CTE’s true potential. How we talk about CTE is important and continuing to create platforms that share learner success stories and high-quality programs can contribute to changing outdated perceptions.
She closed by stating that this is an important moment for CTE. She encouraged all of us to be bold, to reach out to employers, to discover and utilize the talent in each community and thanked the CTE leaders for their commitment to students and public service.
Nicole Howard, Communications Associate