The SIAM team is thrilled to announce our newest addition, Paula White, the Membership Manager!
Paula has a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and French from Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania and has served as an association professional working to facilitate their growth for over 20 years. She worked for Produce Marketing Association for 18 years to help them grow their international membership and events by recruiting and retaining members and managing volunteer groups. Paula then worked for the American Association of Port Authorities for two and a half years, focusing on bringing in new members and serving as the Facilities Engineering Committee staff liaison, before joining SIAM.
Paula’s main responsibilities as SIAM's Membership Manager are to lead and work with the membership department to drive membership recruitment, retention, and engagement across all member segments; analyze and report on membership data; collaborate with SIAM’s marketing department to develop and implement marketing campaigns to communicate member value to current and potential members; and promote the formation of new sections and student chapters.
Get to Know Paula
Q: Why are you excited to be working at SIAM?
A: I am very excited to be working for an organization that is looking to grow and that is welcoming of new ideas. I appreciate the opportunity to work in an environment that allows me to be creative, encourages innovation, and values my contributions.
Q: What part of SIAM’s mission statement do you connect with?
A: The fact that applied mathematics, in partnership with computational science, is essential in solving many real-world problems speaks to me. And knowing that we are helping the people who solve real-world problems is why I enjoy working for SIAM.
Q: Why do you think STEM is important?
A: I think STEM is important because it helps us understand what makes the world go around, how our bodies function, how we can be more efficient, improve communications, etc. It’s crazy to think that even in our modern world, that there’s so much that we still don’t know. Advancing the STEM professions is vital to solving real-world problems like curing health and medical ailments, making our environment better for future generations, improving efficiencies, and more.
Q: What is one thing that most people do not know about you?
A: I’m a very active person with diverse interests, but one thing most people probably don’t know about me is that I enjoy playing video games and logic puzzles. I like to challenge my brain and find that they’re a good way to teach yourself to find several different ways of solving the same puzzle, which I think is helpful in the real world.
Q: How does the membership department aim to further serve the SIAM community?
A: There has been a lot of change over the last few years due to many factors, including the well-known disruptor COVID-19. I would like to understand how our members’ needs have changed, so that we are able to better provide and communicate value and improve service to our members.