Published Sep 15, 2023
Hill Harper, an accomplished actor, writer, and advocate, has been selected to host the 28th Women of Color STEM Awards as the Master of Ceremonies.
The event will feature the Leaders and Legends Recognition ceremony, where Qiana Jackson, an engineering program manager at the Applied Research Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University, will receive a Special Recognition Award.
The Women of Color STEM Awards Conference aims to commend the accomplishments of women, highlighting their commitment, resilience, and dedication.
Attendees will witness inspiring stories of diverse women who have emerged victorious over adversity on their path to success.
The conference will feature several pivotal events, including the Technology Recognition Event on Thursday, October 12, the Leaders and Legends Recognition Event, and the Women of Color Awards Ceremony, both on Saturday, October 14.
At the Leaders and Legends Recognition Event, Qiana Jackson, a program manager for engineering at the Applied Research Laboratory of Pennsylvania State University, will receive a Special Recognition Award.
Jackson played a pivotal role in 2019 by creating a memorandum of understanding between the Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State and the University of the District of Columbia.
This memorandum led to the creation of seminars exclusively curated for students within UDC's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The seminars focused on resume-building and internships for UDC students via the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University Student Opportunities in Applied Research (SOAR) internship program.
Jackson's tireless efforts to ensure diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility were pivotal objectives in the most recent edition of the Applied Research Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University Strategic Plan.
Her tireless work aligns with the 2019 National Academies of Sciences report entitled "Minority Serving Institutions: America's Underutilized Resource for Strengthening the STEM Workforce" and the National Science Board's "Vision 2030" document.
Other awardees in the special recognition category include Yoko Kawai Parker, systems engineering specialist at L3Harris Technologies; Ana Lucia Ochoa-Lorenzini, director of supply chain management in the metal forming division of American Axle & Manufacturing; Autumn Leake, chief engineer at the AIM-9X Sidewinder Technical Project Office, within the Naval Air Systems Command; Diedra Hollins, deputy chief information officer at the Battelle Energy Alliance in the Idaho National Laboratory (INL); Judith Jeevarajan, Ph.D., vice president and executive director of the Electrochemical Safety Research Institute in UL Research Institutes; Melody Martinez, chief of Section B's Prototypes and Flight Experiments Branch at the Air Force Research Laboratory; Gitanjli McRoy, chief engineer for electric vehicle management systems at Ford Motor Company; and Sabrina Bailey, vice president of operations for the integrated product support team at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII).
