Meet the presenters of DMMM3 who will provide rich ideas, outcomes, and perspectives to illuminate discussions on the summit’s key themes of engaging participants, measuring progress, and transforming the professional community.
The list of confirmed presenters for DMMM3 is still growing; check back frequently to see which new speakers have been added.
Jodi Banta recently joined the mineral resources industry after spending nearly 15 years in financial services with insurance giant American International Group (AIG), and its former foreign subsidiary AIA Group. With AIG world headquarters, she managed project teams around the globe to implement CRM technology and customer-centric business strategies. Subsequently with AIA Singapore as Assistant Vice President of Business Intelligence, she established the company’s first Business Intelligence Unit, focusing on customer-centric data science and market research. In this, and her later role as AVP of Product and Customer Communications, she managed diverse teams to address emerging risks and opportunities across the organization. She recently returned to her alma mater, the University of Arizona, where she is Senior Program Coordinator for the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources.
Roberta Beal received a B.A. in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of New Mexico where she studied meteorite impact craters and the effects of the size to energy ratio. She served in the United States Navy as a Quartermaster Second Class Petty Officer (surface warfare) and completed two deployments to the Middle East. She currently works at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a research technician in the Materials Science and Technology division where she works on characterization of additively manufactured metals.
She was a member of GetEqual New Mexico where she helped organize and participated in marches and actions to win marriage equality in New Mexico. She currently serves as the Co-chair of Prism, Los Alamos National Laboratory’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, and is also a board member of Friends of Los Alamos Pride where she is helping to plan the town’s first pride week.
Kaila Bertsch is currently a postdoctoral researcher working at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Materials Science and Engineering Department, in collaboration with the Grainger Institute for Engineering and Dan Thoma. Her research focuses on investigating mechanical properties and microstructure of additively manufactured metals for the UW 2020 initiative, as well as solidification processes, advanced manufacturing techniques, and alloy design. Kaila obtained her Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in December 2017. Her previous research areas focused on utilizing microstructural analysis of metals across length scales, particularly electron microscopy, to study mechanical properties and hydrogen embrittlement, with a focus on grain boundaries, dislocation interactions, and the evolution of plastic deformation. She was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in 2013 and the NSF Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW) scholarship in 2014 in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark at Risø. She graduated magna cum laude with her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in May 2012.
Chris is a data engineer for Citrine Informatics. His projects focus on educating young materials scientists on how to integrate materials informatics and machine learning into their workflows. The NextGen Fellowship program, a ten-week program for undergraduates, was founded last summer with just four fellows. This year, NextGen has 30 fellows across 5 universities.
Recently, Chris has co-directed a new collaboration between Citrine and the Colorado School of Mines. The Mines Initiative for Data-Driven Materials Innovation (MIDDMI) is a program dedicated to educating Mines students on the fundamentals of materials informatics.
Before Citrine, Chris studied at the University of California, Santa Barbara as an undergraduate and worked with Ram Seshadri in the Materials Research Lab (MRL). In graduate school, Chris studied with Efrain Rodriguez at the University of Maryland.
Keith J. Bowman is Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology (COEIT) and Constellation Professor at UMBC, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. COEIT offers six bachelor's degrees, fifteen master’s degrees and eight doctoral degrees.
Bowman received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from the University of Michigan. He served as a visiting professor for research at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany in 1996 and 2002 and he served as a visiting professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia in 2003.
He is a Fellow of the American Ceramic Society. Awards at Purdue University include receiving Purdue’s highest teaching award, the Charles Murphy Undergraduate Teaching Award. In 2007, he received the Purdue College of Engineering Mentoring Award and he became the first Professor of Engineering Education (by courtesy) from MSE. In 2012 he was invested as the first Duchossois Leadership Professor in the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Armour College of Engineering soon after joining as chair of Mechanical (ME), Materials and Aerospace (AE) Engineering. Prior to UMBC he served two years as dean of the College of Science & Engineering at San Francisco State University wherein he led more than four hundred faculty and staff and about six thousand majors across nine departments.
In 2007, Dr. Bowman testified in the Indiana statehouse, as a private citizen, on the potential impacts of a marriage amendment on education and research at major universities as part of a successful effort to prevent the amendment from appearing on the ballot in 2008. He is author of “Queer Identities in Materials Science and Engineering” (to appear in the MRS Bulletin, April, 2018).
Megan Brewster is the Vice President of Advanced Manufacturing for Launch Forth, a leading crowd-powered product development platform that connects big engineering challenge from category leaders like GE, Airbus, USMC, and Allianz with a worldwide community of more than 180,000 solvers. At Launch Forth, Brewster brings the community's ideas to life through rapid prototyping with advanced making technologies, with a focus on additive manufacturing, and leads initiatives to define the future of work through the organic formation of teams in a distributed online community.
Prior to her current role, Brewster served as the Senior Policy Analyst for Advanced Manufacturing at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she led the advanced manufacturing and semiconductors portfolio areas. During her time in the Federal Government, Brewster also served as a fellow at the Department of Energy Advanced Manufacturing Office and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, handling portfolio areas such as critical minerals, methane emissions, and the energy-water nexus.
Brewster is a materials scientist and engineer and previously worked for Applied Materials defining metrology processes for in-line detection of surface imperfections for next-generation lithium ion battery anodes, and at GE Global Research investigating performance degradation mechanisms and developing next-generation chemistries for the new sodium metal halide battery business. Brewster earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and her B.S from the University of Washington, both in Materials Science and Engineering, as well as a Ph.D. minor in Technology and Public Policy from MIT. Brewster is a member of the Leadership Council of Manufacturing Foresight, an independent, nonprofit, expert-driven organization focused on the future of manufacturing technology, policy, and the workforce.
Joe Carella has over 20 years of experience in helping executives and corporations with talent development, inclusive workplaces, managing change, strategy formulation, and execution.
His academic and research engagements have seen him focus on corporate strategy and business performance with a variety of corporate clients including Hershey's, Chevron, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Intel, Essilor, BBVA, Produce Marketing Association, Xenel Industries, P.F. Chang’s, Raytheon, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, DP World, and Discover Financial Services. He is also responsible for designing, developing, and delivering successful executive education programs for global corporations.
Joe has also been keynote speaker on the state of the industry at the annual congress of the FITCE—the Forum of European Technology Professionals, the Society for the Plastics Industry, the Association for Talent Development, and Disrupt HR. Joe has been a contributor to the Harvard Business Review focusing on the challenges of leadership.
His specialties include organizational change, talent development, diversity, business strategy, innovation, business intelligence, facilitation, coaching, leadership development, executive education, and global business.
Erin Cech is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan. Before coming to Michigan in 2016, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University and was on faculty at Rice University. She earned her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2011 from the University of California, San Diego and undergraduate degrees in Electrical Engineering and Sociology from Montana State University.
Cech's research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction—specifically, how inequality is reproduced through processes that are not overtly discriminatory or coercive, but rather those that are built into seemingly innocuous cultural beliefs and practices.
Her work on inequality in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) professions focuses on the recruitment and retention of women, LGBTQ, and racial/ethnic minority persons in STEM degree programs and STEM jobs. Cech’s research is funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including the first grant ever awarded by NSF to study LGBTQ inclusion in STEM.
She is a member of the editorial board of the American Sociological Review and her research has been cited in The New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, and the news sections of Science and Nature.
Paul T. Charles has over 27 years of experience as a Research Chemist in the Center for Bio/Molecular Science and Engineering at the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). He has a Master’s degree from the University of Maryland, University College (emphasis in Administration and Health Care) and a Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Charles has conducted research in the design of novel fluorescence-based biomolecular sensors for the detection of explosives, toxins, and other environmental pollutants. His current research has focused on the development of a prototype underwater autonomous vehicle (UAV) biosensor for use in the marine environment. Charles’s expertise spans in the design, synthesis and characterization of 3-dimensional (3D) polymeric material and nanomaterials for protein immobilization. Skill set includes synthesis and characterization of molecular products via HPLC, UV-Vis, DSC, FT-IR or GC-MS.
In addition, Charles serves as the Director of the NRL Historically Black Colleges and Universities/ Minority Institutions (HBCU/MI) internship program. This program encourages underrepresented talented minority students (undergraduate and graduate) to pursue graduate degrees in the STEM disciplines and careers in research by providing a 10-week “hands-on” research and mentoring experience with NRL scientists. Students are provided opportunities that include professional development workshops (such as resume writing/interviewing skills, careers in science panel discussions, and educational visits to graduate schools) and team-building events to enhance their NRL summer experience. As a result of his direction, Charles was awarded the 2011 VADM Samuel L. Gravely, Jr Award for STEM outreach.
Charles has 50 publications (with over 1600 citations), 6 patents, and has delivered numerous presentations at national and international conferences. In addition, he has been recognized and awarded the following: ARPAD Research Publication Award, Tech Transfer Award, Commanding Officers Award for Achievements in EEO and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Alan Berman Publication Award. Mr. Charles is a current member of the American Chemical Society.
Blythe G. Clark is an R&D Department Manager at Sandia National Laboratories, currently managing the department of Materials Characterization & Performance. Clark received a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL in 2001, and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2006. She followed her thesis work with an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship position at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany before joining the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in December 2008. Her research has primarily focused on applying advanced electron microscope techniques to understand nanomechanical behavior of metals, stability of nanocrystalline alloys, and characterize fundamental physical mechanisms for predictive simulation development. Clark was promoted to manager in September 2015, where she brought her love of materials science and of materials forensics to a department that applies and pursues a breadth of cutting-edge materials characterization techniques.
While at Sandia, Clark has been engaged in multiple initiatives to improve the research environment and nurture an inclusive culture at Sandia. She initiated and continues to engage with the PI Workshop initiative at SNL-NM, which has been successful in providing a peer-to-peer learning opportunity to those either seeking to become a Principal Investigator or currently in that role. In addition, she is the co-chair of the Sandia Women’s Action Network (SWAN) where she is engaged on activities to mitigate implicit bias, improve diversity in hiring and promotions, and support a more inclusive culture at work. She is also lead of the Division 1000 Workplace Enhancement Council for Managers, a group that facilitates communication between managers and executive leadership and partners across Sandia to build stronger ties between mission and support functions.
Judi Brown Clarke is the Diversity Director for the National Science Foundation’s Bio-Computational Evolution in Action Consortium (BEACON Center) housed at Michigan State University. She is a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Joint Institute of Nuclear Astrophysics’ Center for the Evolution of the Elements; Nevada’s EPSCoR Grant for the Study of Solar, Wind and Water Power; W.K. Kellogg’s Biological Research Station; the Director's Research Scholars Program at MSU's National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory; MSU’s College of Human Medicine’s Research Education Program to Increase Diversity in Health Research; and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for Minorities in Engineering at MSU.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in clinical Audiology & Speech Sciences, a master’s in Education, and a doctorate in Public Policy and Administration. Judi has ventured into local politics and was voted onto Lansing City Council in an At-Large seat (citywide). She just completed a 4-year term chairing the Ways & Means and Development & Planning Committees, and was responsible for a $210M budget and oversight of all development projects across the city.
Judi has experienced great athletic success. In the 400-meter hurdles event, she is a 5-time National Champion, 3-time Pan American Gold medalist, and silver medalist in the 1984 Olympic Games. She has held numerous national records, and still owns an unbroken World Record as a member of the sprint medley relay team. She was named as one of the “Athletes of the Year,” specifically “1987 Sportswoman of the Year” by Sports Illustrated magazine. She just completed her term as Vice-President of the U.S. Olympians & Paralympians Association and is a current member of the Board Directors for USA Taekwondo.
Judi is a wife (Judge Hugh Clarke) and mother of three sons (Dorian, Mychael & Antonio). She has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge!
Since 2010, Clayton-Pedersen has been CEO of Emeritus Consulting Group which works to enhance nonprofits success for the public good. From 2010–2016 she was also an Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) Senior Scholar directing the work of its Preparing Critical Faculty for the Future Program, funded by the National Science Foundation. She was AAC&U’s Vice President for Education and Institutional Renewal (2001-2010), directing both ongoing programs and several grant-funded projects. Currently it is the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success. She was Senior Policy Director and Special Assistant to the President prior to her role as VP. She joined AAC&U after nearly 16 years at Vanderbilt University where she served in senior leadership roles that included student affairs, the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies, academic affairs, and athletic affairs. While at Vanderbilt she conducted more than 20 institutional studies of student retention, campus climate for diversity, and student use and impact of student programming and services.
She has directed projects funded by the BellSouth, Ford, Gund, James Irvine, and Lumina Foundations, as well as the Carnegie Corp of New York, the Lilly Endowment, the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the Metropolitan Nashville Government. Clayton-Pedersen has provided consultation on program evaluation, diversity, equity and inclusion, inter-organizational collaboration, and institutional change. She has undertaken these projects in a wide range of stakeholders and in higher education settings in the U.S. and internationally including Canada, China, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. She received her B.Sc. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and both her M.Ed. and Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.
Kristen Constant is the Interim Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Iowa State University (ISU) where she is leading Information Technology and the implementation of a comprehensive enterprise software modernization. She holds the rank of Morrill Professor and is the Wilkinson Professor of Interdisciplinary Engineering in Materials Science and Engineering at Iowa State University where she served as chair prior to her current position.
She earned a B.S. in Ceramic Engineering from ISU and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University. Her research relates to fabrication of photonic structures specifically toward enhancing energy efficiency. In addition to physical research, she is involved in research, service and outreach related to broadening participation in engineering, and in enhancing recruitment, retention and advancement of women faculty in engineering. She is a fellow of ASEE and serves on the ASEE Diversity committee and is the WEPAN delegate to the Board of Delegates of ABET.
KC is an early-career R&D engineer at ATI Specialty Alloys & Components in Albany, OR. They received their B.S. in chemical engineering as a Jack Welch Scholar at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where they researched polymer thin films. They received their M.S. in Materials from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2015, with a thesis on ductile-phase toughening in tungsten composites for nuclear fusion applications.
As a research metallurgist for a primary metals company, KC focuses on applying materials science fundamentals to develop new processes and next-generation reactive and refractory alloys for a wide range of applications, including those in the energy, medical, and aerospace industries. As a nonbinary person, KC is personally invested in promoting allyship and championing policies to support transgender and gender-nonconforming people. KC independently funds research in harmonic analysis – as a competitive amateur barbershop quartet singer, they have received several awards from performing with various groups.
Jessie DeAro's career with federal education and diversity programs started in 1999 after earning her doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara studying the mesoscale optical properties of thin organic polymer films. She was selected as a Presidential Management Fellow (PMF) and recruited by the U.S. Department of Education to manage a relatively new Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) capacity building program. In 2002 she became the special assistant to the director of Institutional Development and Undergraduate Education Services (IDUES) and developed a web-based performance monitoring instrument to link grantee outcomes to statutory program goals. She then worked as a science program officer for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE).
In 2003 she was recruited to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to become the Program Director for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program. She worked with HBCUs to strengthen their undergraduate science and engineering education and research programs as well as encourage more STEM education research at HBCUs with the addition of a broadening participation research track in the program. In 2007 she was asked to take on the management of the ADVANCE program which is an NSF-wide program to increase the participation and advancement of women in STEM academic careers.
In 2010 she was detailed to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where she worked on STEM education and workforce diversity policy as a Senior Policy Analyst. She returned to the NSF to work on broadening participation in STEM graduate education, postdoctoral training, and academic careers, as program director for the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. In addition, she served as the team lead for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) for one year.
In 2013 she became acting deputy division director in the Division of Human Resource Development and then served eight months as acting deputy division director of the Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings. After these management details, she returned to manage the ADVANCE program and serves as the HRD liaison to the EHR Core Research (ECR) program focusing on broadening participation in STEM research.
Rochelle Diamond, Member of the Professional Staff, has been the lab manager for Professor Ellen Rothenberg's developmental immunology group in the Division of Biology and Biological Engineering since 1982. Since 1984, she has also been facility managing director and applications specialist in Beckman Institute’s Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Facility. Notably, she was a member of the City of Hope/Genentech research team that cloned the human gene for insulin in 1978. She is co-editor of In Living Color: Protocols in Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting (Springer, 2000). Outside of Caltech, Rochelle is chair of the board of directors of the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP).
Awards include the Dr. Fred Shair Award for Program Diversity from the Caltech Center for Diversity, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Lesbian and Bisexual Women Active in Community Empowerment (L.A.C.E.) Award by the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center and the Walt Westman Volunteer of the Year Award by NOGLSTP. She is a member of the International Society for the Advancement of Cytometry, American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Thought Leader for DiscoverE, and is a founding member and treasurer for the Southern California Flow Cytometry Association. Rochelle gave the keynote for the National Science Foundation Pride Celebration in 2017. She was the lead organizer for the Diversity and Inclusion Events at the AAAS 2018 Annual Meeting.
Darryl Dickerson serves as Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Regenerative Technologies and the Associate Director of the Minority Engineering Program at Purdue University. Dickerson has extensive research experience in biomaterials development, orthopaedic tissue biomechanics, and tissue engineering. He received a Bachelor's of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. He continued his education at the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering at Purdue University.
Research for his doctoral dissertation “Bio-template Mediated Regeneration of Orthopaedic Interfaces” was carried out in the Human Injury and Regenerative Research Technologies laboratory under the direction of Eric Nauman. His research focused on the development of naturally-derived biomaterials specifically for the regeneration of interfaces between hard and soft tissues in the body which has led to two issued patents. Subsequently, he and Eric Nauman founded Advanced Regenerative Technologies to translate the benchtop work performed during his graduate studies to clinical practice.
During his time as a graduate student, Dickerson gained significant management and leadership experience as a member of the Board of Directors (2004 – 2009) of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), a nonprofit organization with over 30,000 members worldwide dedicated to increasing the number of blacks pursuing and obtaining engineering degrees. His work with NSBE culminated in his service as President, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer in 2007 – 2008. During his tenure, he honed his management and leadership skills overseeing a full-time staff of 30 at the World Headquarters in Alexandria, VA; managing a budget of $11 million; implementing a new programmatically-based strategic direction; and forging new partnerships with corporations including Battelle and Microsoft.
Dickerson received his Ph.D. from Purdue University in May 2009. In 2012, he joined the staff of the Minority Engineering Program at Purdue and has since taken on the role of Associate Director. In this capacity, he manages the staff members in executing programming designed to increase enrollment, retention, and success of underrepresented minority students in engineering. Within this realm, he has also taken on national leadership roles including as a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates.
Dolan is a non-binary, queer, white, and Latinx biracial educator who lives in Santa Barbara. Most recently the Director of the Resource Center for Sexual & Gender Diversity at the University of California, Santa Barbara, they have 7 years of experience doing LGBTQIA+ work with college students. Before their Master's in Higher Education at the University of Vermont, Dolan received a bachelor's degree in Science in Mechanical Engineering at Lehigh University. It is this blend that propels Dolan in their passion for learning, exploring, and solving problems and it drives their empathy and care for marginalized students in STEM fields.
Oscar Dubón, Jr. is Vice Chancellor of Equity & Inclusion and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley. He leads campus-wide efforts through the Division of Equity & Inclusion to broaden the participation of all members of the campus community, particularly those who have been historically underrepresented. Working with Division professionals, campus partners, and the broader University community, he pursues programs and services that lead to academic access and success for students; enable pathways to leadership and advancement for staff; build equitable structures for all members of the campus community; and close opportunity gaps for the university’s most marginalized groups.
Prior to appointment as vice chancellor, Oscar served as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Equity & Inclusion in the College of Engineering at Berkeley. In these roles, he was charged with guiding Engineering Student Services, building programs to recruit and retain students from historically underrepresented groups, supporting efforts to achieve a more diverse faculty, and ensuring that the College fosters and maintains a welcoming and inclusive environment for the College community. For his efforts Oscar received the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity.
Oscar is a Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received a B.S. from UCLA in 1989 and M.S. and Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1992 and 1996, respectively. After postdoctoral positions at Berkeley and Harvard University, he joined the Berkeley faculty in 2000. His research focuses on understanding the role of crystalline imperfections on the electronic behavior of materials for applications in semiconductor technologies. Oscar is the recipient of the 2000 TMS Robert Lansing Hardy Award, a 2004 NSF CAREER Award, and the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Erin-Kate Escobar is the Assistant Director in the Caltech Center for Diversity at the California Institute of Technology. She holds a master’s degree in Higher Education and Student Affairs from the University of Vermont. Escobar provides leadership, outreach, policy, and programming support for campus-wide diversity initiatives. Her primary responsibilities include the Women's Engagement Board, Women Mentoring Women, LGBTQ+ support, and facilitating workshops and trainings on topics of diversity and inclusion.
Talia Fox is an internationally known leadership strategist. Over the last 12 years, she has committed to supporting government agencies and public leaders in cultivating skills to emerge as global visionaries. She has worked side-by-side with government, industry, and educational leaders to study and test leadership teaching approaches that support extraordinary success and advancement. She served as the lead diversity strategist at Harvard University and has been a leadership development consultant and keynote at both the Women of Color Conference and the Black Engineer of the Year Awards Conference (BEYA).
Each year, Talia Fox supports and develops over 60 strategic leadership seminars for high ranking military personnel, executive military leaders, high performing engineers, and a host of other innovative leaders that are responsible for some of the largest and most complex missions, systems, and designs in the United States. Talia holds a B.A. in english and psychology and an M.Ed. in counseling psychology, both degrees from Howard University. She also graduated from the Harvard Leadership Fellowship Program in 2015.
Resa Furey is Director of Marketing and Business Development at Stantec where she provides direction, guidance, and solutions that create sustainable returns for the company’s global mining sector. She is experienced in growing businesses through strategic marketing by creating a positive brand image and positioning to gain a competitive market edge. Her recent career has been spent primarily in mining, engineering, and environmental consulting. She has significant international expertise having lived and worked in Europe and South America. Resa is a true believer that diversity, in particular diversity of thought, leads to better decisions and outcomes.
Ann Gabriel is a vice president for academic & research relations in global strategic networks at Elsevier, based in New York. She has held a variety of positions at the forefront of scholarly communication, most recently as Elsevier’s publishing director for journals in computer science and engineering, as well as electronic product development roles for Elsevier’s online platforms. She previously led various digital development projects at Cambridge University Press. Ann’s current work focuses on outreach and partnerships related to scientific impact; open science; sustainability; and diversity and inclusion.
Ann is a member the Association of American Publishers (AAP) / Professional/Scholarly Publishing (PSP) Executive Committee. She holds a master’s degree in communications from the University of Pennsylvania.
Carol Genetti is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and dean of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research centers on the documentation and description of languages of the Himalayas, especially Tibeto-Burman. Genetti has a secondary interest in Rhaeto-Romance and a love of everything Bantu. She is interested in all aspects of language and especially in how linguistic structures are shaped by the function of language as a tool of human communication. She specializes in the syntax of complex sentences, but has much broader interests in phonetics, phonology, morphology, clause structure, typology, language change, and language contact.
Genetti is actively involved in efforts to preserve the world’s linguistic diversity and is especially interested in the role of training in these efforts. She is a co-founder of the Consortium for Training in Language Documentation and Conservation and continues working to expand this organization. She is also a member of the LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation.
Euridice González has over fifteen years of experience in the mining industry, of which 10 have been in the management of mining operations and exploration projects, which include analysis and business development, as well as project management from start-up and development. Originally certified as an English teacher at Cambridge University, she obtained a diploma from La Salle University, and completed her Executive Program in Innovation for Economic Development at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Appointed in 2007 as general manager for Pangea Mining Company in Mexico, she became one of the first women to obtain the highest executive rank in the mining sector for managing day to day exploration and open pit gold mine operations.
In 2012, Euridice González took the position of country manager in Mexico for the operations of McEwen Mining, Inc. and in October 2013 she became the founding president of the Mining Business Council of Mexico (CONMIMEX), an institution that brings together formal mining companies in the state of Sinaloa, as well as small and gold prospectors.
In October 2016, International Women in Mining (WIM) appointed her to found Mujeres WIM de Mexico as the first NGO in favor of gender equity and mining in the country.
González was named the second most important executive of Latin America and covered in the March, 2015 issue of Latin America Business Review. She was also named one of the 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining in the 2016 book by WIM UK. She has also recently begun participating in the mining industry inclusion program promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank.
She currently serves McEwen Mining Inc. as the director of corporate affairs and sustainability, in addition to her previous responsibilities. González represents the interests of McEwen Mining in Mexico and promotes all CSR actions and is responsible for promoting mining in Sinaloa and Mexico.
Ashley Huderson is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana. She completed her undergraduate training at Spelman College (2006), a certificate in Health Policy (2012), doctoral work at Meharry Medical College (2013), and a post-doctoral fellowship at Georgetown University Lombardi Cancer Center’s Office of Health Disparities and Minority Research (2015). During her two years at Georgetown University her interest in exposing and helping minority students navigate their STEM careers flourished as she accepted her first adjunct position, affording her the opportunity to teach and advise undergraduate and graduate level students. It was during this time that she decided to turn her sights completely to diversity and inclusion issues within STEM education and embark on a career that would allow her to make a meaningful contribution on diversifying the scientific workforce and empowering those interested in STEM, regardless of their background.
Huderson was a 2015-2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science and Technology Policy (AAAS S&T) Fellow in the Engineering Education and Centers’ division at the National Science Foundation, where she provided leadership on developing, coordinating, and implementing support for programs that foster an inclusive climate for precollegiate and collegiate STEM students. Currently Huderson serves as the Manager of Engineering Education at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, where she is responsible for advancing and managing the research, development, promotion, implementation, and assessment of products and services that will help colleges of engineering develop their curricula and faculty. Huderson is also the founder and CEO of STEM Innovation Consulting, a consulting firm that provides educational consulting services that include, professional development, infrastructure development, capacity building, project management, curriculum development, and grant writing.
Darrell Hudson is an associate professor at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. Hudson holds a joint appointment with the Department of Psychiatry and is a Faculty Scholar with the Institute for Public Health. His research agenda focuses on racial/ethnic health disparities and the role of social determinants of health, particularly how socioeconomic position and social context affect health and health disparities.
Hudson completed his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, where he also received his MPH. He earned a B.S. in Psychology from Morehouse College. Prior to his faculty appointment, Hudson completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Kellogg Health Scholars Program at the University of California at the San Francisco and Berkeley campuses, focusing on social epidemiology.
Sharoni Denise Little is the chief executive officer of The Strategist Company, LLC. Little is a global organizational and leadership consultant, educator, corporate facilitator, and media commentator who helps organizations and community leaders devise evidence-based strategies and solutions to grow and transform their operations and lives. An author and renowned scholar, she speaks on workplace inclusion and equity, social justice and empowerment, and strategic leadership.
Little earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University, an Ed.D. in educational leadership, from the University of Southern California, and her B.A. and M.A. from California State University, Los Angeles. She is completing her forthcoming books, The Perpetual Surveillance of Black Men (2019), and Diapers and Dissertations: Women, Education, and Work (2019), and has been featured in various media outlets, including her TEDx talk, The Gift of Corrective Lenses. She has partnered with numerous organizations and communities, including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Kaiser Permanente, the Aspen Institute, Nike, Southern California Gas Company, the Obama Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the County of San Diego.
Jonathan D. Madison is a research scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, in Albuquerque, New Mexico within the Material, Physical and Chemical Sciences Center. Madison received his bachelor’s degree from Clark Atlanta University in Engineering Science with a concentration in Mechanical Engineering in 2003, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2007 and 2010 respectively. Throughout his academic matriculation, Jonathan has supported basic and applied research at Washington State University, Pullman WA; the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The department he currently serves provides multi-scale, experimental characterization that enables materials-based insight and solutions.
Professionally, Jonathan maintains active membership in The Association for Iron & Steel Technology (AIST), ASM International (ASM), The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS). A few of Madison’s accolades include; Sandia National Laboratories – Early Career LDRD Award (2010), Lead Guest Editor, Special Issue on 3D Materials Science, Integrating Materials and Manufacturing Innovation, Springer (2014), Albuquerque Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” (2015), Black Engineer of the Year Awards – “Most Promising Scientist in Industry” (2015), and Lead Organizer, 3rd TMS National Summit on Diversity in the Minerals, Metals & Materials Professions (2018). While at Sandia, Madison has spearheaded a new in-house characterization capability by acquiring capital equipment within his first two years, expanded the customer base for materials characterization, developed new technical partnerships to conduct world-class research, and led complimentary modeling projects to leverage novel experimental capabilities.
Jonathan’s research interests focus on the intersection of experimental and computational techniques for 3D reconstruction of microstructure, quantitative characterization and models of microstructural evolution. Madison has 7 D.O.E. published technical reports, over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, and over 240 citations.
Lynn Milan is a project officer in the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES) within the National Science Foundation (NSF). Currently she manages the National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), a biennial longitudinal survey that provides data on the nation’s college graduates, with a focus on those in the science and engineering workforce. Prior to her work on the NSCG, she managed the Survey of Earned Doctorates (a census of all research doctorate recipients in the U.S.) and the Survey of Doctorate Recipients (a biennial longitudinal survey focused on individuals with a U.S. research doctoral degree in a science, engineering, or health field). Results from these and other NCSES surveys are used to inform policies related to the science and engineering enterprise and are published regularly in two Congressionally mandated reports: Science and Engineering Indicators and Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering.
Prior to starting at NSF, Milan was a survey statistician at the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences and a data analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). She received her Ph.D. in psychology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
NCSES is one of 13 U.S. federal statistical agencies. Its mission is to serve as a central federal clearinghouse for the collection, interpretation, analysis, and dissemination of objective data on science, engineering, technology, and research and development. To accomplish this mission, NCSES designs, supports, and directs periodic national surveys and performs a variety of other data collections and research related to the science and engineering enterprise in the United States and other nations (http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/).
Fatemeh Molaei holds a M.Sc. and B.S. in Mining Engineering from the University of Tehran in Iran in 2009. She came to the USA in 2015 and obtained her second M.Sc. in Mineral Engineering from New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 2017. Her research topic was numerical simulation in rock. She worked as a mining engineer in various companies in Tehran where her focus was mostly on feasibility studies. Her expertise is in rock mechanics, geotechnical engineering, project management and feasibility studies.
Molaei started her Ph.D at the University of Arizona in Fall 2017 and her focus is on the numerical simulation in nano scale.
Debbie joined GE Aviation in 2003 on a rotational engineering development program. She held various roles within the Materials Science and Engineering function including materials behavior, failure analysis, and application engineering. Her off-program role allowed her to become proficient in the hot section of the engine including high temperature superalloys and coatings. She has diversified her experiences by leading digital projects that delivered data analytics to the airline customer. Debbie then became a Systems Certification and Test Manager leading a new engine through a certification test program with the FAA. Before entering her current role, Debbie had the opportunity to work at multiple GE businesses on Corporate Technology Staff. Her projects included delivering a sourcing strategy for model-based enterprise and guiding a controls team with Fastworks principles to lower software requisition costs and enable future software revenue growth.
Debbie currently leads the “Military & New Technology Introduction” section within the Engineering Materials Systems department at GE Aviation. The group is responsible for the materials application and development for all legacy and next generation military products. She also has the awesome responsibility of growing additive manufacturing use in GE Aviation products.
Debbie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic University and a Master’s degree in Materials Engineering from The Ohio State University. She also received an MBA from Xavier University with a concentration in Management Information Systems. Debbie enjoys being active including training for an eleventh marathon coming up in September. She also enjoys volunteering her time to the Women’s Network and STEM efforts.
Mike Morris is currently a fourth year chemistry Ph.D. candidate in the Nowick group at UC Irvine, where he synthesizes imaging probes for self-assembling peptides. He was born and raised outside of Boston and received his B.S. in biochemistry at Union College in New York. As a gay scientist, Mike is concerned with the visibility and treatment of LGBTQ+ people in STEM, wondering if there is space for diversity and inclusion in the intense atmosphere of the research laboratory. To address such issues, Mike has organized symposia at the American Chemical Society (ACS) conferences to promote awareness and community for LGBTQ+ chemists. Mike is also the chair of the Gay and Transgender Chemists and Allies (GTCA) ACS subdivision, where he organizes ACS programming designed specifically for LGBTQ+ chemists. Mike also has a passion for science outreach and has served as the manager of the UCI Chemistry Outreach Program for the past three years, where he organizes science outreach visits to low-income schools in Orange County.
Simona Hunyadi Murph is a Principal Scientist in the National and Homeland Security Directorate at Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Georgia. She is also a Technical Monitor for the Department of Energy - Office of Environmental Management Minority Serving Institutions Partnership Program.
Murph is a veteran educator and the founder of SRNL’s Group for Innovation and Advancements in Nano-Technology Sciences (GIANTS) program which assists young scholars in pursuing a career in STEM fields. Through her position at SRNL, Murph is “putting nanoscience to work” for national security missions, environmental stewardship and clean energy applications. Over the years, she has been awarded nearly $8 million in grants leading to pioneering nanotechnologies, 10 patents/invention disclosures, more than 80 technical publications, and nearly 150 invited and contributed presentations. She mentored and supported over 40 students and postdoctoral researchers.
Murph is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the SRNL Director’s Award for Exceptional Scientific and Engineering Achievements, SRNL’s Exceptional Leadership Award, the U.S. Clean Energy Education and Empowerment (C3E) Award Finalist in Research, and the Principal Investigator of the Year at the National Nuclear Security Administration, NA-42 Program. Murph was named “Inspirational Woman in STEM” by the U.S. Department of Energy and recognized as one of the “Women at the Forefront of their Fields” at NNSA. She is the recipient of Augusta University’s “Distinguished Alumna and Presidential Alumna Awards” for outstanding contributions to one’s professional career and exemplary dedication to the advancement of the community. Murph holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of South Carolina, an Education Specialist in Educational Leadership from Augusta University, and both a M.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Chemistry/Physics with a minor in Education from Babes-Bolyai University, Romania.
Xavier Ochoa was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He attended college in the United States at the University of Arizona where he graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering with Departmental Honors.
He started his career in Northern Nevada at the now-closed Echo Bay Mines’ McCoy-Cove Mine where he worked in various roles. He then worked for Barrick Gold Corporation at Goldstrike.
In the late 1990s, he joined The Winters Company in Tucson, Arizona as a consultant; his activities required work in various commodities, in different locations with cross cultural needs.
The Mining and Exploration Division of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) awarded Xavier with the Outstanding Young Professional Award in 1998.
In 1999, he moved to Peru as Engineering Superintendent for Barrick Gold for the successful startup and expansion of the Pierina Mine. This was followed by a move to San Juan, Argentina in 2002 as the Project Manager for Barrick’s Veladero Mine where he participated in the permitting process, construction and commissioning in late 2005.
In 2006 he joined Falconbridge in Chile, later Xstrata, as Engineering Manager for the El Pachon binational project spanning Argentina and Chile, becoming General Manager. Then, as General Manager, he led the 2012 shutdown of the historic Tintaya Mine in Southern Peru and the transition into a new 70,000 tpd Antapaccay Operation next door.
In 2014, he initiated a venture in solid biofuels called Bio Thermal Solutions with projects in Argentina and the Dominican Republic.
In mid-2014, became General Manager of the Cerro Negro Mine in the Argentinean Patagonia with Goldcorp to commission the underground mining operations and milling.
In 2016, Xavier was appointed Chief Operating Officer with McEwen Mining Inc. which operates mines and projects across the Americas from the Argentinean Patagonia, to the high Andes of Argentina, Western Mexico, Northeastern Nevada and in Timmins, Ontario.
Saemi completed her Ph.D., under the supervision of Javier Read de Alaniz and Craig Hawker, with an emphasis on organic chemistry and materials chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016. During her graduate career, she was actively involved in the outreach programs on campus and served in different roles for Graduate Students for Diversity in Science (GSDS), including as president from 2014 to 2015. Since then, she has started her professional career as a product development scientist at The Clorox Company. Saemi formulates cleaning products based on innovative technologies and works on maintaining a range of cleaning products in the market.
Thomas Cole Reeve was born and raised in Chillicothe, MO, USA. Thomas attended Iowa State University for his undergraduate in materials engineering. During his time at Iowa State, Thomas was involved in materials research with a number of faculty members, served as a department peer mentor, and a member, fundraising co-chair, and president of the departmental undergraduate materials society, Materials Advantage. Thomas also held multiple summer engineering internships during his undergraduate career for 3 recurring summers with Honeywell Federal Manufacturing and Technology. Thomas graduated from Iowa State in May 2013 with a B.S. in materials engineering and two minor degrees, in nuclear engineering and in economics.
After graduation, Thomas immediately joined the Ph.D. program in the materials engineering department at Purdue University, where he performed research through the collaborative advisement of Carol Handwerker (Purdue University) and Iver Anderson (Ames Laboratory) on Pb-free solder alloy design. During his time at Purdue, Thomas served the department through his service to the graduate student association as a member, professional development chair, and treasurer, and through his involvement with the NSF funded IGERT program. He volunteered through professional societies, including ASM, TMS, and ACerS, particularly through his involvement as a member of the TMS electronics packaging and interconnects materials committee and the TMS diversity committee.
During his graduate studies, Thomas received several awards, including: the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) fellowship, the College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate Student Service Award, the Journal of Phase Equilibria and Diffusion Editor’s Choice Award, the ACerS Basic Science Divisions Graduate Excellence in Materials Science “Diamond” Award, the Surface Mount Technology Association Charles Hutchins Education Grant, and the Purdue University Ross Fellowship.
Amanda Reid is the Global Talent & Organizational Development Consultant for Caterpillar Surface Mining and Technology. She has over 14 years of customer focused consulting inclusive of leadership development, succession planning and Diversity & Inclusion initiatives. Her work developing and facilitating a global program for Mine Site Performance Managers earned her a nomination by her peers for a Bridge Builder Award. The project and team were additionally recognized as finalists for the Enterprise Excellence Award. Her recruitment process project in 2017 doubled female applicant rates within the U.S. She presently manages the succession planning and diversity related initiatives within Caterpillar Surface Mining.
Within greater Caterpillar, Amanda has held multiple leadership roles in Caterpillar’s Women’s Employee Resource Group with projects including a global Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day program. Her support of the Caterpillar Women’s Breakthrough Leadership program was recognized as a Finalist for the Chairman’s Award for Diversity & Inclusion, and Winner of the Chairman’s Award for Delivered Innovation. She is also a member of the Corporate Diversity Champion team, working to impact the organizational culture. She also volunteers her time to support negotiation and emotional intelligence workshops to college students looking to enter the workforce.
Amanda is also a Certified Gallup StrengthsFinder Coach as well as an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist, and a member of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Rosa Maria Rojas holds a M.Sc. and B.S. in Mining Engineering from University of Arizona and Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru respectively. She has over 10 year experience and a proven track record of performance in the mining industry of Chile, Peru, and the US. Her expertise is in Mine Operations, Strategic Mine Planning, Business Improvement, and Management in various commodities.
In the past he has held positions such as Long-Range Planning Engineer, Mine Operations Supervisor, Dispatch Engineer, Stockpile Planner Engineer, Mine for Leach Engineer, Ore Control Engineer, Business Improvement engineer, among others working for BHP Billiton and FreeportMcMoran Inc. Her graduate research work was in “Reengineering frontline supervision through a centralized control room and mobile computing” presented at SME, PERUMIN, Codelco Tech and MININ international conferences.
Rosa is a wife and a mother. She is passionate about promoting STEM within younger female generations. She is also part of the leadership of various SME committees. Currently, she is a Professor of Practice at the Mining and Geological Engineering department at the University of Arizona where she is the leading the Mining 360 Executive Program.
Amy is a Ph.D. Candidate from University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). She has been involved in several initiatives at her alma mater, California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), at UC Berkeley, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). CSULA is a public comprehensive university that is recognized as a Hispanic-serving institute and has been nationally recognized as the best university in terms of upward mobility of its students. She wants to emphasize the potential to grow retention and diversity in the Materials Sciences by drawing attention to potential recruitment opportunities at universities similar to CSULA and by highlighting the effective retention strategies initiated by UC Berkeley and LBNL.
At CSULA, she has hosted several workshops for underrepresented minorities on life as a Ph.D. student and how to write a competitive application for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. The workshops have helped two students receive the fellowship as well as two Honorable Mentions. As a member of the Women Scientists & Engineers Council of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, she worked on the Women at the Lab event—a program created to bring visibility to women within the lab—to ensure that outreach efforts were considered when choosing award recipients. At UC Berkeley, she was the graduate mentor for 10 underrepresented minority undergraduates through the Cal New Experiences for Research and Diversity in Science Summer Program. She looks forward to bringing a perspective from a broad range of institutions to the event.
Melvin R. Webb, Professor of Biological Sciences, has been a faculty member at Clark Atlanta University for 45 years. Webb received his B.S. degree from Albany State College, M.A. degree from Atlanta University, and Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He served as Dean of Faculty and Instruction at Clark College and the Dean of Education at Clark Atlanta University. Webb has devoted his career to enhancing the participation of students from groups who are underrepresented in STEM.
He has amassed considerable experience and expertise on the K-16 STEM 100 education pipeline and has written several articles and made presentations on the subject at the annual meetings of organizations that include the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society the National Science Teachers Association, and the Congressional Black Caucus Brain Trust on Science and Technology. Webb has served on numerous national advisory committees and panels. During his appointment to the Office of Technology Assessment of the Congress of the United States, he served as a member of the Advisory Panel for three publications: Higher Education for Science and Engineering - A Background Paper; Educating Scientists and Engineers: Grade School to Grad School; and Elementary and Secondary Education for Science and Engineering - A Technical Memorandum.
Webb’s efforts to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in STEM generated $40 million from grants to agencies such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Office of Naval Research. Programs created include the Saturday Science Academy for students in grades 3-8; the Summer Science, Engineering and Mathematics Institute significantly increased the number of students in grades 10-12, and the Program for Research Integration and Support for Matriculation to the Doctorate (PRISM-D). At least 70 participants have earned Ph.D. or M.D. degrees and 90 percent of the participants earned B.S. and M.S. degrees.
Webb is married to Brenda Burton Webb and their son, Melvin Cecil-Paul is a Clark Atlanta University graduate.
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