Suzanne Winterflood: Breaking Down Barriers in STEM
From Humans, On Rights by Stuart Murray
April 2, 2026 · 45 min · Episode 128
About this episode
Suzanne Winterflood discusses the challenges and initiatives in promoting equitable access to STEM education for youth, particularly girls and Indigenous communities.
On this episode of Humans, On Rights, we sit down with Suzanne Winterflood, Program Manager of WISE Kinetic Energy — Manitoba's largest STEM outreach program. What started over 35 years ago as a small group of professors working to bring more girls into science and engineering has grown into a province-wide initiative reaching over 43,000 young people a year. And yet, Suzanne is the first to admit: the needle hasn't moved nearly as far as it should have. This conversation gets into what equitable access to STEM education actually looks like — and what keeps getting in the way. We're talking: Why early exposure to STEM matters most, and why grades 8 and 9 are such a critical turning point for girls The barriers specific to Black and Indigenous youth in accessing STEM education and careers Why WISE Kinetic Energy is building toward land-based, culturally specific programming for Indigenous youth The role of undergraduate students as near-peer role models — and why that model works How AI hype is pulling government funding away from the foundational, youth-focused work that actually builds the next generation of workers WISE Kinetic Energy website
People in this episode
Host: Stuart Murray
Guest: Suzanne Winterflood
Topics covered
- STEM education
- equitable access
- youth outreach
- cultural programming
- role models
- barriers in education
Keywords
- STEM
- education
- youth
- equity
- Indigenous
- Black youth
- role models
- WISE Kinetic Energy
- outreach
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: WISE Kinetic Energy
Places: Manitoba, Canada
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