Nancy Holliday, general manager, US Services Sales for Microsoft Corp., will be the keynote speaker for the first GRITS Collaborative Project Conference, which will be held Saturday, Nov. 5, in the James Union Building at MTSU, program director Dr. Judith Iriarte-Gross said.

The conference will be held from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. Participants will meet in the JUB lobby. Events will be in the JUB Tennessee Room and Hazlewood Dining Room.

The conference is open to girl-serving organizations (Girl Scout troop leaders, Girls Inc. leaders, etc.), educators, community and business leaders, parents and others from across Tennessee.

Holliday has more than 29 years of in-depth management, technical and sales experience, Iriarte-Gross said, adding that in her Microsoft career, Holliday has held roles as business developer, partner account manager, account team unit manager, general manager public sector services sales and GM of North America national sales and strategy. She now runs sales for US Services, a $.3 billion business.

Also during the conference, Tanya Foreman, education manager at Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport, Tenn., will discuss the need for diversity in the areas of STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — Iriarte-Gross said.

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.

GRITS, or Girls Raised in Tennessee Science, helps raise awareness in STEM fields and piques girls’ interests to pursue as a career.

Online registration will continue until noon on Friday, Oct. 28. The $25 registration fee will include lunch. High school and college students can register for free.

To register for the conference, go online to http://www.ngcproject.org/events/events.cfm?eventid=216. You also can register for a Nov. 4 mixer.