Jill I. Gostin, principal research scientist in the Software Engineering and Architecture Division of Georgia Tech Research Institute’s (GTRI) Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Lab (SEAL), was recently selected as IEEE Vice President-Elect. She will serve as one of four VP-Elects in 2022 and be a VP in 2023.

Get to Know Jill Gostin

Gostin has been an active member of IEEE for decades. Upon her graduation from Greenville College in 1985, she promptly joined GTRI and IEEE during the same year. Gostin became an active volunteer in the Atlanta Section in 2007 and has extended her volunteer work since then.

At GTRI, Gostin’s work has focused on systems engineering, algorithm assessment, and software testing and evaluation for sensor systems. In addition to her current role in SEAL, she previously served as GTRI’s deputy director of ICL, overseeing operations of the approximately 200-member unit.

She has won technical and service awards, has successfully managed large technical programs, has written and contributed to winning proposals, has written reports and published papers on her technical work, was instrumental in creating an acoustic target and environment simulation, and has successfully developed fractal geometry applications for target detection. In November 2016, Gostin was named the Georgia Women in Technology Woman of the Year for mid-size businesses.

Being Selected as VP-Elect

As VP-Elect in 2022, she will serve as the Vice-Chair of one of the significant Boards under the IEEE Board of Directors (BoD)—the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Board. Furthermore, Gostin will operate as the Chair of the MGA Operations Committee, as the Vice-Chair of the MGA Board, and serve on several committees of the IEEE Board of Directors (BoD) and the Strategic Planning Committee of MGA.

As VP in 2023, she will be an officer of IEEE, a member of the IEEE BoD, and the Chair of the MGA Board. 

MGA has two main focuses:

• Supporting and meeting current members’ needs.
• Developing IEEE membership recruitment and retention strategies and implementation.

MGA also provides training, tools, and resources to support volunteers in IEEE local geographic organizational units (Sections, Chapters, affinity groups, and Student Branches). These local units are vital in providing opportunities for members to attend technical presentations, create strong peer-to-peer connections, and participate in leadership opportunities that can positively impact their jobs and careers.

Gostin has several goals she hopes to accomplish during her term.

“First, I want to make sure that our local volunteers around the world have all of the resources they need,” envisioned Gostin. “IEEE has over 400,000 members worldwide and tens of thousands of local units working to meet the needs of members. Those local units are run entirely by volunteers, so we need to ensure they are trained and empowered for success. I will also be focusing on re-engaging those volunteers and members who have stepped away during the pandemic and on rebuilding local activities that were changed, reduced, or eliminated during the pandemic.”

If you’re interested in learning more about IEEE and how you can get involved, Gostin invites you to contact her at jgostin@ieee.org.