Last week, the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) introduced keynote and featured speakers for the 2022 SACNAS National Diversity in STEM Conference (NDiSTEM).
Keynote speakers include Dr. Tara Astigarraga, an IBM Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor, and Dr. José Luis Cruz Rivera, president of Northern Arizona University (NAU).
Tara Astigarraga, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has been working at IBM for 20 years. As a first-generation college graduate, she had a very untraditional path into STEM, finding herself working in engineering after taking a leap of faith while attending a recruitment trip in college. Today, Tara is a Distinguished Engineer and Master Inventor with over 75 patents issued, and in 2021 she was featured in a Smithsonian exhibit highlighting Women Inventors.
José Luis Cruz Rivera is the 17th President of Northern Arizona University. Before joining NAU in 2021, Dr. Cruz Rivera served as president of Lehman College of The City University of New York (CUNY) and as executive vice chancellor and university provost of the 25-campus system. He has also served as provost of California State University, Fullerton, vice president of Higher Education Policy and Practice at The Education Trust in Washington, D.C., and Chief Student Affairs Officer for the University of Puerto Rico system.
Featured speakers include Dr. Raychelle Burks. Her research team is focused on the development of field portable colorimetric and luminescent sensor arrays for the detection of analytes of mainly forensic interest such as explosives, chemical weapons, controlled substances, and latent prints. In 2021, Dr. Burks was listed as one of the “6 women who are changing chemistry as we know it” by BBC Science Focus Magazine.
We are pleased to highlight this year’s #2022NDiSTEM keynote, featured, and panel speakers!
Join us in welcoming Dr. José Luis Cruz Rivera, our keynote speaker!
To learn more about our speakers, visit our website https://t.co/oKP1LpWPmG pic.twitter.com/zO7lBC8Rre
— SACNAS (@sacnas) October 15, 2022
Dr. Ana Maria Porras is a biomedical engineering professor, communicator, and science artist. She leads the Tissue-Microbe Interactions lab at the University of Florida. Her group engineers models of disease to study human-microbe interactions. They also develop bilingual and artistic strategies to engage communities locally and globally. Dr. Porras is the co-founding President of the Latinx in Biomedical Engineering community. She was selected as an IF/THEN AAAS Ambassador for girls and women in STEM and was honored with a statue at the Smithsonian Institution within that program.
Dr. Lydia Jennings is a soil microbiologist and citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. She is a 2015 National Science Foundation “Graduate Research Fellow”, a 2019 American Geophysical Union “Voices for Science” Fellow, a 2019 Native Nations Institute “Indigenous Data Sovereignty” Fellow, and was recognized in 2019 by REI as a “trail runner changing the world”. In addition to her science research, Lydia is passionate about diversifying the outdoor recreation community and using running to engage more youth in science.
Judith Simcox, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the department of biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her lab studies lipids in the blood plasma, working to understand how plasma lipids are regulated and how they change in metabolic disease in diverse human populations. Judith is also the co-mentor for the University of Wisconsin-Madison American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) Chapter, a faculty mentor for the Native American Center for Health Professionals (NACHP), and an alumna of the 2017 Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute.
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Conference Emcee Dr. Mónica Feliú-Mójer is a bilingual scientist-turned-communicator. She is a proud long-time SACNISTA, an alumna of the 20 15 Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute, and an alumna of the 2017 SACNAS-HHMI Advanced Leadership Institute.
SACNAS serves a growing community of over 20,000 supporters including 9,000+ members and 100+ student and professional chapters throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. The conference will take place at the Puerto Rico convention center October 27-29.
We are pleased to highlight this year’s #2022NDiSTEM keynote, featured, and panel speakers!
Join us in welcoming Tara Astigarraga, our keynote speaker!
To learn more about our speakers, visit our website https://t.co/oKP1LpWPmG pic.twitter.com/MAcwMkwAs9
— SACNAS (@sacnas) October 14, 2022
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