Below is the article published in the Daily News Journal on November 6, written by Randy Weiler, MTSU News and Media Relations.   He has truly captured the spirit of  the first GRITS Collaborative Project annual conference. Thanks Randy from GRITS! 

MURFREESBORO - Microsoft Corp. General Manager Nancy Holliday provided inspiring remarks to nearly 50 people from across Tennessee attending the first GRITS Collaborative Project Conference Saturday at MTSU. GRITS, or Girls Raised in Tennessee Science, brings awareness to the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas and fosters career awareness for young women. Holliday, a Kentucky native who has risen to the role of GM for US Services Sales with Microsoft while being a mother to 17-year-old twin sons Connor and Ransom and 19-year-old daughter, Retsy, a student at Elon University, spoke of her "journey" and "how I think anybody can do what I have done." "I have a huge responsibility. I run a $1.6 billion team," Holliday said of her Microsoft work. "I have walked the halls of the Pentagon, traveled internationally, and met with governors and CEOs."  In talking about the GRITS Collaborative Project - a statewide network of people influencing young girls to enter STEM fields - Holliday said efforts to reach girls in grades K-12 are "huge." "A third-grade math teacher, a 10th grade math teacher and a college professor ... those people got me to where I am. They have no idea the impact they had on me," she said. Her father, Harry Bohannan, retired dean who started the University of Kentucky dental school, also has had a major influence in her life and career. "Health, family and career" are Holliday's order of importance in balancing her life, Holliday said. Ruth Woodall, director of Tennessee Scholars, has heard Holliday speak at the Kentucky GRITS Collaborative. "Nancy has become a national manager; she's a mother and a woman executive, and it's all attributed to STEM," Woodall said.

Tanya Foreman, education manager at Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport, offered encouraging words to the students attending the workshop and to the adult leaders, who can share the information with young people. "Be encouraged. You can do it," Foreman said. "Keep on. You're going to be an inventor. You'll have the ability to take it to the next level. ... You will make it. All of us are dealing with something (in life). Your true character is overcoming adversity." For Eastman, Foreman manages the Putting Children First program, which is a business/education partnership between Eastman and eight area school systems (104-plus schools) in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia.

Lena Morris of Union City, a student at Obion County High School, received special recognition from the GRITS Collaborative Project conference and an award presented by Jo Armes of Texas Instruments. Judges chose Morris's essay as the best one submitted by high-school students.

Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross, chemistry professor and director of both the WISTEM (Women in Science, Technology and Math) Center and GRITS and Expanding Your Horizons in Math and Science programs, said reaching girls for STEM "essentially is critical." "We need to do this," she added. "If we are not getting girls involved, who is going to do it? Eastman Chemical needs workers. Schneider Electric and Nissan (North America), Oak Ridge and the universities all need people who are in STEM."