SLAC Diversity, Inclusion, and Youth Engagement Symposium

Susan Wojcicki  -- Speaker

Susan Wojcicki is CEO of YouTube, the world’s most popular digital video platform used by over a billion people across the globe to access information, share video, and shape culture. An early champion of online video who was instrumental in Google's 2006 acquisition of YouTube, Susan now oversees YouTube's content and business operations, engineering, and product development.

Prior to joining YouTube in February 2014, Susan was Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google, where she oversaw the design and engineering of AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, and Google Analytics. She joined Google in 1999 as the company's first marketing manager and led the initial development of several key consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. In 2002, Susan began working on Google’s advertising products and over the next 12 years she led teams that helped define the vision and direction of Google’s monetization platforms.

Susan graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master's in economics from UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA. In 2015, Susan was named to Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Devon Conradson  -- Speaker

 

I am a rising senior attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR. My field of interest is biochemistry and molecular biology. My inspiration in advocating for diversity and inclusion came from my various college experiences. I always knew that I was different from most, but I had never felt my skin until I attended college. Questions like, "which side of your family do you identify most with--white or colored?" and the various remarks made about the color of my skin and my racial background made me feel even more different. Talking with others who come from minority groups--women, other POCs, those from the LGBTQ+ community, and others--inspired me to do more to promote equity and diversity. These conversations and interactions have also helped me to understand myself.

Meriame Berboucha -- Speaker

I’m a curious and keen physicist that is currently studying for an MRes (Masters in Research) in Photonics from Imperial College London. But I am completing my masters project at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory where I'm working with super short and powerful lasers! I’m also a keen science communicator and vlogger who’s caught the physics bug and would like others to catch it too! I was named the UK Young Face of Fusion 2016 for EUROFusion, a Very Early Career Physics Communicator finalist from the Institute of Physics and am a regular writer for Forbes. I also let the world hear my voice on Science Mixtape on Soho Radio in London where we interview scientists about their field of expertise and learn more about their musical tastes. As a woman of color, I am a minority in a minority, or a minority squared, if you like, in my field and I use my platforms to help others realize that science is global and for everyone.

Hana Lee, Kalee Chau, Jennifer Truong -- Speakers

Hana, Kalee, and Jenny are second-year graduate students at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. They will be earning their doctorates next spring, and have both lab and clinical experience in healthcare. Kalee is a Berkley alumnus with experience in cancer research, while Hana and Jenny currently work in biochemistry research at UOP. As Asian-American women, all three have worked as medical translators and healthcare activists. Kalee and Hana have participated in international mission trips, while Jenny has presented at Harvard on vaccination and medication affordability.

Antonia Forster -- Speaker

Antonia Forster is a bisexual, polyamorous science presenter with an MSc in Animal Behaviour and published research. Combining her personal experiences, her scientific expertise, and a dash of comedy, Antonia is passionate about campaigning for diverse participation in science.

She has performed at Wilderness Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the Royal Society, the Grant Museum of Zoology, Pride in STEM, and Kew Gardens. She has been featured on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio H&W, and delivered a TEDxBristol talk to an audience of 2,000; reaching over 13,000 viewers online.

Sabah Ul-Hasan -- Speaker

Sabah Ul-Hasan (@sabahzero) is a Quantitative & Systems Biology PhD Candidate and Eugene Cota-Robles Fellow at the University of California, Merced investigating venomous host-microbe interactions for environmental and biomedical applications under the advisement of Dr. Tanja Woyke and Dr. Clarissa J. Nobile. A first-generation Muslim-American from Salt Lake City, Sabah holds a long-standing interest in symbiotic relationships with completing several Bachelor of Science degrees (Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental & Sustainability Science) at the University of Utah and a Master of Science (Biochemistry) at the University of New Hampshire alongside research. Today Sabah works with a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of young professionals to highlight the inherent value of diversity in the sciences through the empowerment and practice of their developing non-profit science education organization, The Biota Project (thebiotaproject.org).

Mendel Chuang -- Panelist

Mendel Chuang graduated from MIT with two degrees and joined Google pre-IPO. During his 5 years at Google, he worked on a variety of projects including Google Desktop, Toolbar, Blogger, AdWords, and AdSense, where he won the Google Founders Award. He was the Co-Founder and CEO of a mobile startup and is now the Executive Director of Founder Friendly Labs, the equity-free startup accelerator for experienced tech industry professionals. 

As a member of the LGBT community, he has been featured in the Business of Pride issue of the Silicon Valley Business Journal. He has also given talks at Harvard Business School, MIT, and South by Southwest.

Profesor Mike Dunne -- Panelist

Mike Dunne is Director of LCLS, the world’s first “hard x-ray free electron laser facility”. He is a Professor of Photon Science at Stanford University and an Associate Laboratory Director at SLAC.

Mike has substantial experience in the design, construction and operation of a wide variety of photon science research facilities. Prior to joining SLAC, he was director for Laser Fusion Energy at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and previously served as Director of the United Kingdom’s Central Laser Facility.

Mike spent 10 years at AWE Aldermaston leading their plasma science research group, and was the international project leader for the European laser fusion project HiPER involving a consortium of 26 institutions across 10 countries.

Professor Kelly Gaffney -- Panelist

Professor Kelly Gaffney directs the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. SSRL supports the science of over 1,600 scientists a year, including over 300 a year from Stanford, in the use of x-ray scattering, spectroscopy, and imaging. Professor Gaffney also leads a research team focused on femtosecond resolution measurements of chemical dynamics in complex condensed phase systems. This research takes advantage of recent advances in ultrafast x-ray lasers, like the LCLS at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, to directly observe chemical reactions on the natural time and length scales of the chemical bond – femtoseconds and Ångströms. This research focuses on the discovery of design principles for controlling the non-equilibrium dynamics of electronic excited states and using these principles to spark new approaches to light-driven catalysis in chemical synthesis.

This research builds on Professor Gaffney’s extensive experience with ultrafast optical laser science and technology. This work began with time- and angle- resolvedtwo photon photoemission studies of electron solvation and localization at interfaces as a graduate student working with Professor Charles Harris at the University of California at Berkeley and extended to multidimensional vibrational spectroscopy studies of hydrogen bonding and ion solvation dynamics in solution during postdoctoral studies with Professor Michael Fayer at Stanford and as an Assistant Professor. The transition to ultrafast x-ray science began in 2004 at SLAC, where he helped establish the first chemical dynamics research program at SLAC.

Ashli Stephens -- Panelist

Ashli Stephens is a recent graduate of Howard University, where she received a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Education with a concentration in Maternal and Child Health and a Bachelor’s of Arts in Sociology. Ashli is dedicated to educating, empowering, and uplifting minority women and girls through health and service.

She has held various roles on the state and local level with diverse colleagues and clientele. Ashli has had the opportunity to work with Girls Incorporated of the Greater Washington, DC Metropolitan Area, The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, The City of Philadelphia Finance Department, and other organizations.

Ashli is currently a SAMHSA Prevention Intern at the Native American Health Center In Oakland, California where she works with the Director of Research and Evaluation, Senior Program Manager, and Project Coordinator. In this role she works on multiple projects and grants, assisting with data collection, data entry, program evaluation, report development, program planning, and working with California-state officials on healing modalities in Native communities.

David Taus -- Panelist

David has been working in education for over 20 years, and has dedicated his professional career to promoting social equity through education at every level. He strongly believes that scientific literacy is one of the most effective ways to heal the world’s ills. David taught high school science and psychology for several years in public and charter schools in Boston and San Francisco, where he developed a rigorous psychology curriculum that was taught as a lab science class – the first of its kind. Following his time in the classroom, David co-founded Tutorpedia Foundation (TF), a Bay Area education nonprofit whose mission is to provide personalized academic support to deserving under-resourced students. He served on TF’s Board of Directors and as TF’s Program Director for five years. It was as Tutorpedia Foundation’s Program Director that David’s interest shifted towards teacher training and preparation, an area of need he is more able to focus on with EnCorps. David has served on advisory boards and consulted with San Francisco nonprofits such as the California Academy of Sciences and the San Francisco Yellow Bike Project. In his fleeting spare time, David plays guitar in various rock bands, is working on a book about Evolutionary Psychology, and has the tendency to disappear into incredibly remote sections of wilderness for days at a time. David has a BA in Psychology from Brown and a M.Ed. from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education.

Raissa Williams -- Panelist

Raissa Williams is head of Wells Fargo CEO Mobile® (Commercial Electronic Office - CEO Mobile service) Product Management as part of Digital Solutions for Business within the Treasury Management, Payment Solutions division of Payments, Virtual Solutions, and Innovation Group. She is responsible for leading a team of digital product managers focused on iOS, Apple Watch OS, and Android smartphone mobile app product development and management for the award-winning CEO Mobile® commercial mobile banking used by business and corporate treasury management, international, investments, insurance, credit, and trust customers.

Since joining Wells Fargo in 2008, Raissa has held several product management leadership roles, with direct management and budgetary oversight of teams focused on product development, patenting, and R&D innovation efforts. Across all of these roles, her focus has been on leveraging native mobile device features (e.g. camera, touch, voice, etc.) to make it easier and more convenient for customers. She was a recipient of the 2017 Wells Fargo enterprise “Galileo Award” for innovative contributions and patent advocacy.

Raissa holds an MBA from University of San Francisco. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, DC where she was a National Competitive Scholar, the recipient of a 4-year, full tuition academic scholarship award, a United States White House Intern, and selected to attend Stanford University on full academic scholarship as an exchange student in 1995.

Kate Saylor -- Artist

I’m a rising senior attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland Oregon studying biochemistry and molecular biology. I plan to attend medical school with a potential specialty in pediatrics or trauma and wilderness medicine.

As an adoptee from China as well as a member of the LGBT community, I have a unique perspective and experience different every day to day interactions. Growing up, finding people similar to myself was sometimes difficult; however, I’ve been able to find niches of people similar to myself or people who are accepting in different and surprising aspects of life.

 

Sean-Paul Rocero -- Artist

Sean-Paul Rocero is an artist and User Experience designer born in the East Bay Area and living in San Francisco. He does Creative Direction for EFNIKS—an online space for Queer and Trans People of Color.