Moderators

• 
  Michon Boston

  ITVS National Engagement Consultant

• 
  Kristy

Participants

• 
  Shannon Lucid

  Panelist

  Shannon Lucid is a member of NASA's first astronaut class to include women. Lucid, who holds a doctorate in biochemistry, was selected by NASA in 1978. She joined five other women as the agency's first female astronauts. A veteran of five spaceflights, Lucid logged more than 223 days in space, and from August 1991 to June 2007, held the record for the most days in orbit by any woman in the world. Lucid is the only American woman to serve aboard the Russian Mir space station. She lived and worked there for more than 188 days, the longest stay of any American on that vehicle. Her time on Mir also set the single flight endurance record by a woman until Suni Williams broke it in 2006. After more than three decades of service to the agency Shannon Lucid retired in 2012.

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  Karen Peterson

  Panelist

  CEO for the National Girls Collaborative and Principal Investigator for the National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP). The NGCP seeks to maximize access to shared resources for organizations interested in expanding girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Funded primarily by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the overarching goal of the NGCP is to use the leverage of a network or collaboration of individual girl-serving STEM programs to create the tipping point for gender equity in STEM. Currently, 31 Collaboratives, serving 39 states, facilitate collaboration between 12,800 organizations who serve 8.5 million girls and 4.9 million boys. Peterson is also Co-PI for the NSF-funded ITEST Learning Resource Center, Citizen SciGirls, SciGirls CONNECT, and Build IT Scale Up projects. These projects address gender, racial and socioeconomic underrepresentation in STEM fields. She has published in The Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering and CBE Life Sciences Education, a journal published by the American Society for Cell Biology. In 2013, Peterson was profiled in STEMConnector’s™ 100 Women Leaders in STEM publication. She has over 25 years of experience in education as a classroom teacher, university instructor, teacher educator, program administrator, and researcher and has worked with educators in a variety of international settings, including Egypt, South Africa, South America, and Scotland.

• 
  Misty Davies

  Panelist

  Research Computer Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center. For Misty Davies, it was all about making the world a better place. She grew up wanting to be a veterinarian, a writer, a mother, and a scientist. To fulfill some of those dreams, Dr. Davies says, “I am discovering how to make sure the programs we design at NASA and use for flight really do what they are supposed to do.” She earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Northern Arizona University. Thereafter, she completed Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in aerospace/astrospace engineering and mechanical engineering, leading Dr. Davies to NASA Ames as a research computer engineer. True to her childhood ambitions to be many things when she grew up, Dr. Davies’ path to NASA came only after holding positions as a Shakespearean actress, a waitress, and a veterinary technician. Along the way, she studied how albatrosses fly across the ocean without flapping their wings and why rubber is so stretchy. She is also a mother and learns something new from her two children every day. “All of this learning from so many diverse areas helps me think of new and different ways to approach the problems that NASA is solving in order to make the world a better place,” said Dr. Davies.

• 
  Thogori Karago

  Panelist

  Associate Product Manager, LinkedIn. Thogori Karago's main interest is in social innovation for developing countries. She loves technology and the ability it has to impact lives positively. She is passionate about getting more girls and women into Science Technology / Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields. She is currently working on a project to get young girls interested in STEM from a young age. Karago joined Carnegie Mellon University after a having worked in Kenya for 2 and half years in a leading Kenyan technology company. Before that she completed her Bachelor of Science with honors in Software Engineering in Malaysia. Having lived in three continents has been an eye opening experience for her. She completed her Master of Information Systems Management from Carnegie Mellon and graduated with highest honors. After graduation, she spent 3 months in Nairobi, Kenya. She recently accepted a job with LinkedIn, in their Mountain view HQ where her line of work will be focusing on creating economic empowerment globally and at massive scale.

• 
  Locsi Ferra

  Panelist