Adrienne Sheares is the owner of the social media consultancy of ViviMae Labs.
For over ten years, Adrienne has created social media marketing solutions for clients such as AARP, Discovery Education, Issa Rae (creator of HBO's Insecure), The Root, and more. You can find her industry expertise featured in ABC News, Adweek, PRWeek, Ragan's PR Daily, and more.
Adrienne is a proud graduate of Spelman College and has a master of arts in communication from Johns Hopkins University.
STEM advocate, Aisha Lawrey, has 25 years of experience on this journey. Working in industry, government, nonprofits, and education she knows how to engage many different stakeholders, at all levels. Her focus is on increasing the number of women and minorities in engineering.
Aisha currently works for AWS (Amazon Web Services), in Training & Certification as the Head of Global Education Programs for Cloud Career Training Programs. She covers AMER, EMEA, and APJ so the world basically. Her role represents all 5 of the Education Programs spanning K-12, higher education, and professional skilling, reskilling, and upskilling learners. The goal is to show multiple pathways to learners that lead to professionals joining the cloud workforce.
Aisha obtained a Master of Public Policy and Administration from Rutgers University and a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. A New Jersey native, Aisha now resides in Maryland with her husband and 15-year-old twins.
Carleitta Paige-Anderson currently serves as Program Director for the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP) in the Division of Human Resource Development at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Her academic journey began at Virginia Union University (VUU), where she developed a passion for basic science research and earned a BS in Biology. After obtaining a PhD from Wake Forest University and completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University, she returned to VUU. Over the years, she established a research program investigating biochemical signaling mechanisms in disease-causing bacteria and viruses. By leveraging her scientific expertise to integrate research into the academic curriculum, she was selected as a 2013-2014 Senior Fulbright Scholar in Surabaya, Indonesia at Universitas Airlangga. At VUU, she also served as the founding director of the VUU Center for Undergraduate Research, Dean of the University College, and Vice-President for Student Development and Success. Her collective efforts are rooted in enhancing the research and education capacities of HBCUs, a community she is excited to serve in her current role. Paige-Anderson attributes much of her success to the support of her family and friends.
Christina oversees VentureWell's early stage innovator and venture development programs. She has a decade of experience working with startups as an investor, instructor, coach, and program manager. Prior to VentureWell, she worked at a seed-stage impact venture fund where she built a portfolio of 18 companies around the world. Christina holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Management from the University of Massachusetts Boston.
I am a Chemist. I am a Creative. I am a woman of color. EUMELANIN is a clothing and jewelry brand that merges my scientific and creative side. I wanted to use my talents and life experiences to address issues of colorism that I’ve faced in my community that exist around the world.
I was born and raised in Detroit, MI, which currently has the largest percentage of African Americans in the United States at 84%.
I grew up in Southwest Detroit, which is one of the most diverse populations in the city comprised of African Americans, Latin Americans, and Arab Americans. I witnessed first hand how our skin tones and shades were used to separate and invalidate us. EUMELANIN is a brand designed to challenge behavior that does not honor any of us. To bring to the forefront behaviors we have accommodated and tolerated because we were afraid to speak up. I envision a brand that has an impact on colorism globally. A brand that celebrates self-love holistically and combats negativity associated with black and brown people around the world because of their skin tone.
EUMELANIN is not only my brand it has grown into something more, my therapy. I believe we have a responsibility by the way we live our lives and when we open our mouths to empower, to love and to teach; so I created EUMELANIN.
Derrick Brent is the Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). He serves as the principal advisor to Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO, for one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion.
Deputy Director Brent has served in all three branches of the federal government and the private sector. He clerked for the Hon. Algenon L. Marbley, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and served for six years as a Senior Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, where he received a Special Achievement Award for his trial work. Also, he served as a Chief Counsel in the U.S. Senate, where handled IP issues along with other areas such as constitutional law, civil rights, and judicial nominations.
Deputy Director Brent’s experience in the private sector includes serving as Vice President/Associate General Counsel for Masimo, on the leadership team at Cut Golf, and as an engineer at General Motors.
Deputy Director Brent received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from The Ohio State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern University School of Law (now the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law).
Dianna Vass Ph.D. is the Director of Sponsored Programs and Research within the Division of Academic Affairs at Coppin State University.
Designing programs for improved leadership, collaboration, and operations, Dr. Vass is an innovative executive and a passionate advocate for experiential education and transdisciplinary research across an institution, metro area, and the globe. Her professional achievements include reducing a direct marketer’s apparel returns by 20 percentage points employing quality training and partnering with the supply chain on sizing and fit standards and annually fundraising $2.2 Million for the College of Engineering at North Carolina A&T.
Her research projects with wearer needs and sewing dynamics improve solutions at the intersections of creativity and strategy, innovation and operations, community well-being, and quality of life. Dr. Vass earned her MBA from the University of Delaware and her Ph.D. in Total Quality Management and Training within Apparel/Textile Product Manufacturing Organizations from Virginia Tech.
Elden Hawkes serves as the Partnership and Innovation Specialist, a role that supports the advancement of the Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/ STTR) programs. His primary duties include managing the agency’s Federal and State Technology (FAST) Partnership Program. Other duties include outreach efforts targeting Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) and SBIR Road Tours.
Before SBA, Elden spent seven years with USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) where he helped grow the USDA’s SBIR program as its program specialist and program manager. He holds a degree in Environmental Science/Marine Science and a Master’s in Food and Agricultural Science, both from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Hope leads the Higher Education Catalyst Team, supporting faculty in developing programs that cultivate student innovators and promote institutional change. Prior to VentureWell, she was the founding Dean of the School of Continuing and Online Learning at Cardinal Stritch University and was the Senior Director of Knowledge and Learning at Social Current, a national nonprofit that services the social sector. She has a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech.
Dr. Iris R. Wagstaff is a scientist, educator, mentor, researcher and STEM advocate. She currently serves as a STEM Program Director in the Inclusive STEM Ecosystems for Equity and Diversity (ISEED) Department of AAAS where she manages programs a ~$20 Million Dollar portfolio focused on broadening participation in STEM, workforce development and inclusive innovation at the undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels. She served as a 2015-2017 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the DOJ National Institute of Justice Office where she led an agency-wide diversity and inclusion initiative. She is a native of Goldsboro, NC with a BS and MS in Chemistry from UNC-Greensboro and NC A&T State Universities respectively; and a PhD in Science Education from North Carolina State University. She worked as a research chemist at the Dow Chemical Company for 15 years where she led analytical project teams and company-wide diversity initiatives. She has over 20 years of STEM outreach and advocacy developing strategic partnerships between industry, academia, and community organizations.
Iris is also a social scientist with a research focus on examining factors that predict science self-efficacy, science identity, and STEM career intent in students. She serves on the Boards of several organizations that include the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), the Chemical Society of Washington (CSW), and Science, Engineering, and Math Links (SEM). She also serves as an adjunct chemistry professor at UNC-Greensboro. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Wagstaff STEM Solutions, an education and diversity consulting company. She has received several honors that include the 2020 DC Metro HBCU Alumni Alliance Education Award, the 2019 BEYA Science Trailblazer Award, and the 2018 NOBCChE Presidential Award for Mentoring.
Mr. Jamerus Payton, a native of Eastern North Carolina (ENC), has a diverse portfolio of unique experiences across various cultures and socioeconomic backgrounds. He has over 15 years of experience in Operations and is a nationally and internationally recognized HBCU Advocate, Entrepreneur, Author and Speaker.
Mr. Payton is an MBA candidate at East Carolina University (College of Business), a two-time graduate of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University (School of Technology) and a graduate of Southern Methodist University (Cox School of Business).
He is the Owner of Carolina Chicken & Waffles (CCW), a family-owned and operated food and beverage company. He is a major advocate for higher education, especially Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the creation and sustainability of the next generation of leaders, business owners and investors. His love for higher education, STEM, community and combating poverty led him to co-found HBCU Wall Street and The Jamerus & Amber the Payton Family Foundation, Inc.
He has served on various nonprofit boards, committees and advisory boards including East Carolina University Graduate and Professional Student Senate, Net Impact Black Professionals Chapter (NIBPC), United Way of Cumberland County, My Brother’s Keeper of Wake County, and the Department of Applied Engineering Technology in the College of Science and Technology at North Carolina A&T State University and Stillman College School of Business, Entrepreneurship, and Computational & Information Sciences (SBECIS) and the Jean Mills Health Symposium.
He is a 2017 Washington, DC The Made Man (TMM) Honoree and also a graduate of United Way’s Leadership Development Program. In 2018 he was a George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) Dream Tulsa Cohort, a Black Enterprise Modern Man 100 Men of Distinction Honoree, a Black Enterprise Tech Fellow and a Young Alumni Influencer Honoree for The Black Varsity. He is a 2019 North Carolina New Leaders Council Alumni and a 2019 Order of the Living Waters Award recipient from African Diaspora Nation with the endorsement of the African Union. In 2022, he became a Senior HBCUvc Fellow and the first place winner for the fifth annual Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge (PEC).
He has been featured in media outlets such as SiriusXM, AspireTV, Black Enterprise, NBCBlk, The Motley Fool and BestColleges. Mr. Payton is the author of the book, “HBCUNomics: A Story Of The Power Of Black College Students, Economic Self-Sufficiency and Financial Freedom”.
Dr. James Holly, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and core faculty member within the Engineering Education Research program at the University of Michigan. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University and a master’s degree from Michigan State University, both in Mechanical Engineering. He earned his doctorate in Engineering Education from Purdue University. His research paradigm is shaped by his experiences growing up in a Black church within a Black city and later studying engineering at Tuskegee University, a Black institution, three spaces where Blackness is both normal and esteemed. As such, he sees his teaching, research, and service as promoting pro-Blackness—affirming the humanity and epistemic authority of Black people—in engineering education. His scholarship focuses on the ways disciplinary knowledge (i.e., mechanical engineering) reinforces racialized power, the role of culture and cognition in teaching and learning, and preparing pre-college engineering educators to identify and counteract racial inequity. He directs the Afro-Epistemic Academics, a research group whose focus is to esteem the heritage knowledge of Black engineering students, faculty, and researchers, along with nourishing their self-knowledge; also, to support non-Black scholars committed to accomplishing racial justice in engineering.
The U.S. National Science Foundation has selected James L. Moore III to head the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, or EHR, which supports research that enhances learning and teaching, and broad efforts to achieve excellence in STEM education at all levels and in all settings.
Since 2018, Moore has been vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at The Ohio State University. In this role, he has managed a robust diversity and inclusion portfolio, serving more than 6,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and a myriad of faculty, postdocs, and staff throughout the university. Simultaneously, he served as the first executive director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male and is a Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the College of Education and Human Ecology.
"James L. Moore III brings great leadership skills and vision to our agency and is poised to develop new mechanisms and models for reaching the missing millions in our country," said NSF Director Sethuraman Panchanathan. "His efforts will inspire the next-generation STEM workforce as they unleash their potential and advance discovery and innovation across the United States. I am thrilled to have him join the agency at this important time when access to quality STEM learning experiences for individuals, family and communities is recognized as a national imperative."
Moore is internationally recognized for his work on African American males. His research focuses on a variety of education topics, including STEM education, gifted education, multicultural and urban education, and higher education. He has published over 160 publications, received nearly $40 million in funding, and given over 200 scholarly presentations and lectures throughout the United States and other parts of the world. Moore is no stranger to NSF and has received nearly $9 million in funding from the agency throughout his career.
"Becoming the new EHR assistant director is an opportunity that I do not take lightly. It extends the opportunity to be a part of the director's brain trust in bringing the 'Missing Millions' and developing critical strategy — within NSF — to attract, inspire, and cultivate more U. S. citizens for careers in STEM," said Moore. "With the recent passing of the 'CHIPS and Science Act,' there are immense opportunities to improve STEM educational and workforce outcomes. I am very excited about the possibilities and ready to run the marathon at a sprinter's pace to put forth strong initiatives that build a robust, diverse, and inclusive STEM workforce throughout the country."
NSF's EHR Directorate invests in the development of people and knowledge, supporting the development of a diverse and well-prepared workforce of scientists, technicians, engineers, mathematicians and educators and a well-informed citizenry that have access to the ideas and tools of science and engineering. In his new role, Moore hopes to build on the successes of the previous assistant directors. "I am very interested in pinpointing ways to improve STEM preparation and pathways in rural and urban, underserved and under-resourced communities across the United States and advancing scientific knowledge on how best to improve STEM educational and workforce outcomes for talented individuals in some of the most distressed communities across the nation," Moore added.
From 2015 to 2017, Moore served as NSF program director for the Broadening Participation in Engineering program and also helped launched NSF INCLUDES, a national broadening participation initiative. "I am very familiar with the EHR Directorate and understand its significance in broadening participation in STEM, supporting STEM education research and cultivating key educational and workforce pathways throughout the STEM enterprise. I look forward to working with colleagues across the agency and beyond to advance the broad portfolio of EHR," Moore added.
Since 2018, he has been annually cited by Education Week as one of the 200 most influential scholars and researchers in the United States. Throughout his career, he has received many prestigious awards, honors and distinctions. Notably, he was selected as an American Educational Research Association Fellow, American Counseling Association Fellow, American Council on Education Fellow and a Big Ten Committee on Institutional Cooperation Academic Leadership Program Fellow. Earlier this year, the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities recognized him with its highly regarded Michael P. Malone International Leadership Award and in 2021, the American Council on Education honored him with the Reginald Wilson Diversity Leadership Award.
Moore has a bachelor's degree in English education from Delaware State University and master's and doctoral degrees in counselor education from Virginia Tech.
Moore will begin his NSF appointment on August 22, 2022.
Joey Womack’s goal is to positively impact 1 billion people by the year 2039. Part startup coach, part super-connector, he is the Founder of Goodie Nation, a tech nonprofit that empowers everyone to play a role in using innovation to reduce disparities in education, environmental sustainability, financial access, health, and safety. He is also Founder of Amplify 4 Good, a mission-driven agency that uses rapid problem-solving to help large companies, nonprofits, and government agencies create social impact, and Co-Founder of Atlanta Black Tech.
Joey was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in 2002 when he launched digitalguestlist.com as a graduate student at Florida A&M University. He grew the site to 80,000 users, and advertised thousands of events for Fortune 500 companies, agencies, and high-profile promoters during special events like NBA All-Star Weekend, Super Bowl Weekend, and Essence Music Festival.
Joey received his MBA from Florida A&M University in the Spring of 2003, where he was also initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha, Fraternity, Inc.
Dr. Colom-Ustariz is currently an NSF EPSCoR Program Director. He has extensive experience in academia, in both research and education, as well as in administration. Dr. Colom-Ustariz joined EPSCoR after more than 25 years as professor at the UPR-Mayaguez, where he was the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Chair from 2015-2018. His research interests are in the area of Dual-Pol Weather Radars and Microwave Circuits.
He has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering with a focus in Microwave Engineering from Penn State University, a MSEE from UMass in Microwave Remote Sensing and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. His research interests includes the design and development of Weather Radars and Microwave Circuits.
Dr. LaKisha Odom joined the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) in 2016 as a scientific program director to pursue her commitment to promoting the use of innovative science and interdisciplinary thinking to tackle today’s complex challenges in food and agriculture. She is also committed to cultivating increased diversity in a new generation of food and agriculture scientists. In her current position, she has championed work force development programs to train the future leaders in Agriculture and has developed a portfolio of over $60 million dollars in public private partnership to support soil health.
LaKisha received her bachelor’s degree from Tuskegee University, her master’s degree from The George Washington University and her doctorate from Tuskegee University.
Marguerite Matthews, PhD is a program director in the Office of Programs to Enhance Neuroscience Workforce Diversity at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and manages diversity initiatives and programs providing research training and career development for underrepresented students and early career investigators. Prior to NINDS, she served as a 2016-2018 AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow in the Office of the Director at the National Institutes of Health, doing policy planning and implementation for the biomedical research workforce. Dr. Matthews is a proud alumna of Spelman College, where she earned a BS in biochemistry. She received a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral neuroscience at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Through her experiences as a Black woman in the sciences, Dr. Matthews is invested in promoting equitable and inclusive practices that enhance the STEM workforce.
Mintesinot Jiru holds a PhD in Applied Biological Sciences from Gent University (Belgium) and is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at Coppin State University. He has over 20 years of teaching and research experience in areas of climate change and environmental contaminants. Dr. Jiru has done extensive work on land degradation, food security, and water management issues in Africa. His research focuses on understanding the socio-environmental and biophysical issues encompassing water quality in Baltimore’s watersheds. Currently he is leading a research program on emerging environmental contaminants with a focus on microplastics, toxic heavy metals and pharmaceuticals (mainly estrogen in water). Dr. Jiru serves as the chief editor for the American Journal of Experimental Agriculture. He is a member of the External Advisory Board for the National Socio-environmental Synthesis Center.
Neela White is a Project Director in the Inclusive STEMM Ecosystems for Equity and Diversity (ISEED) department at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Her portfolio of projects at AAAS have been centered on broadening participation in STEM, and inclusive innovation at the undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral levels, and professional levels. She has served as an external evaluator for multiple projects including the NSF INCLUDES Early STEM Engagement for Minority Males (eSEM) project and the Verizon Innovative Learning Summer Program for Minority Males at Morgan State University. Her areas of focus have been within the sectors of invention; innovation; entrepreneurship; HBCUs, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education; Maker movement; international research collaboration; and diversity, equity and inclusion in science. Neela is a 2003 graduate of Temple University.
Quincy Brown is in her second tour as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Prior to re-joining the White House, she was a Senior Director for Innovation Research at AnitaB.org. She has also served as a Program Director for STEM Education Research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is a leader in STEM and Computer Science education and workforce development in PK-20 and has been supporting Black women and girls in computing for nearly two decades.