Endowments Supporting WiSTEM Programs

Ana M. Dison Excellence Fund for Women in STEM (WiSTEM)

Established by Ana’s husband, Tom Dison, in honor of Ana’s UT Austin legacy as the founding WiSTEM Director, the Ana M. Dison Excellence Fund for Women in STEM (WiSTEM) will provide programmatic support for WiSTEM well into the future. WiSTEM is thrilled to honor Ana with the endowment supporting students and programs she founded, expanded, and led.

Ana’s Student Success Impact

Ana was instrumental in developing and expanding numerous WEP and WiSTEM programs to support and retain women in the fields of engineering and STEM. Throughout her career, she consistently met individually with students to provide guidance and support, helping them navigate academic challenges and plan their careers. Over 6,000 women in engineering graduated during her WEP tenure, and she directly served over 3,700 students in semester or year-long mentoring and student success WEP and WiSTEM programs.

She has led initiatives such as:

• First-Year Interest Groups (FIGs): Ana coordinated and enhanced FIGs within the Women in Engineering Program for over 15 years, providing over 1,300 first-year students with a supportive community and essential resources, and providing over 50 FIG mentors with leadership and skills development opportunities.
• Living Learning Community (LLC): Ana expanded the WEP LLC to serve two whole floors with the WiSTEM LLC, providing a supportive residential community for first-year women in engineering. WEP and WiSTEM LLCs have served over 1,200 students through Ana’s leadership.
• Peer Assistance Leaders (PALs): Under her leadership, the PAL program grew from 8 to 162 mentors, supporting thousands of first-year engineering women during her tenure. Over 1,200 PALs grew as leaders through Ana’s mentorship and support.
• WEP Leadership Seminar: Ana co-created the semester-long leadership skills-building class for undergraduate engineering students. Through Ana’s leadership, over 650 students gained life skills to help advance their careers through the seminar.
• Graduates Linked with Undergraduates in Engineering (GLUE): Ana expanded GLUE to serve up to 50 undergraduate students annually. GLUE paired undergraduates with graduate mentors for research experiences, significantly boosting participants’ confidence and retention rates. Over 500 undergraduate students and over 350 graduate students expanded their skills and gained confidence in research, mentoring, and leadership under Ana’s guidance.

In 2021, Ana co-founded Women in STEM (WiSTEM) with her long-time Women in Engineering Program (WEP) colleague Tricia Berry to expand student success programs campus-wide, serving over 12,000 undergraduate STEM students across the university each year. Ana retired from WiSTEM and The University of Texas at Austin in January 2025. Through this endowment, her student support and incredible legacy continue.

Chuchu Ma Memorial Endowed Excellence Fund

Those who met Chuchu can tell you that she accomplished more in her 23 years than most people manage in an entire lifetime. Chuchu was born in China on February 28, 1994, the daughter of Li Chen and Hengguo Ma. She came to live in the US at the age of three. Chuchu had a great relationship with her parents and loved them deeply. Family was a priority for her, which made 1900 miles of geographical distance feel like next to none. She was the perfect daughter any parents could hope for. Her parents are so proud of her.

Chuchu consistently excelled at her work through both her performance and the heart and soul with which she approached everything. She was the 2012 Valedictorian of Klein Collins High School in Spring, Texas. She was a talented musician, playing both violin and piano, and brought her love of music to the University, where she was involved in the Engineering Chamber Orchestra as a performer and a leader.

Chuchu loved coding and Computer Science for the sense of endless possibilities that the field brings, and that was how she lived her life: fully embracing the countless possibilities. Her passion for her chosen field didn’t start until she had already begun her studies at UT. She was introduced to CS by a friend and took such a liking to it that she changed her major.

Chuchu often expressed her desire to reach out to similarly academically successful women, introduce them to CS, and provide them with an opportunity to pursue a career. It would be her wish to encourage and support other high-achieving and community-conscious students, especially women, to work towards a degree in Computer Science at UT.

Chuchu felt as much pride in others’ accomplishments as she felt about her own.  She frequently volunteered to mentor and teach in her free time.  She reached out to help fellow software engineers begin their new jobs and careers.  She was a person who built up and strengthened those around her.  She encouraged fellow technical women to take leadership development classes.  She advised students in a UT CS course for which she was the TA, and she would informally tutor anyone. Generous to a fault, she wanted to share every experience she had in life.

Chuchu was well-known for her infectious enthusiasm and willingness to step outside her comfort zone to help others. As a full-time employee at Google, despite her short tenure, she had received personal thanks and awards from folks up and down the ladder. Her technical accomplishments racked up quickly at the same time that she worked hard to build a fun and inclusive team. Through her leadership, coordination, and hands-on work, she got task teams to collaborate on common goals. 

Chuchu was the type of friend who could be called any time, whether you needed someone to explore the city with or a shoulder to cry on without judgment. She was always bringing people together.  Somehow, she would throw together team hot-pot evenings with 20 people in a small apartment and 6 different utensils, meet everyone’s separate dietary needs, do it well, and do it with a smile. She organized groups to encourage reluctant exercisers, led hiking trips all over the Bay Area, and brought her friends to all sorts of orchestral performances, including her own.

Chuchu was adventurous and loved trying new things, from rock-climbing to making glass pumpkins to knitting, and was also a huge fan of anime, Pokémon, Avatar, RWBY, Hayao Miyazaki movies, and Nintendo games. She relished hosting game nights and wielded her red Nintendo 2DS the way her favorite characters wielded their blades. Pokémonever picked a Pokémon fight with her in Pokémon Sun/Moon; you had to prepare to lose.

And of course, Chuchu would disapprove if no one highlighted the fact that she was an absolute cat lover. She was a walking encyclopedia of the best cat forums on the internet; her Facebook page was decorated with cat photos; she spoiled her cat Twinkie; and any friends with cats would have to worry about impending cat-nappings. She had a goal to make everyone she met meow at least once.

Chuchu taught others to say “I am remarkable.”