NSBE Boston Professionals is proud to present the fifth annual INSPIRE STEM Gala and Scholarship Awards, taking place on March 4th, 2023 at Omni Hotel at Seaport, Boston.
We are excited to be partnering with this year’s presenting sponsor Amgen to honor the accomplishments of black leaders who are inspiring a generation of black innovators, as well as to celebrate our Youth STEM initiatives over the past year. Other major sponsors of the event include MassMutual, Liberty Mutual Insurance and Repare Therapeutics.
The 2023 Inspire STEM Gala will take place on Saturday, March 4th at the Omni Hotel at Seaport, Boston. We are excited to kick off this year’s fundraiser with a VIP welcome reception sponsored by MassMutual, followed by the dinner gala and awards ceremony. Attendees at this year’s gala will enjoy an evening of celebration, excellence and fundraising, directly benefiting NSBE Boston’s STEM initiatives. View the schedule of events, 2023 honorees, scholarship recipients and list of sponsors – www.inspirestemgala.com
Thanks to the amazing NSBE Boston community of supporters and sponsors, our 2023 Inspire STEM Gala will award over $75,000 to deserving black and brown students in the Boston area. Learn more about ways to give to our Inspire STEM fund and also attend the Inspire STEM Gala networking finale – https://inspire-stem-gala.eventbrite.com
NSBE Boston STEM Scholarships
This year we will be honoring the incredible accomplishments of thirty-nine collegiate and high-school students through the NSBE Boston Inspire STEM scholarship. The STEM scholarships are funded through a collaboration of our sponsors, the generous donations of our members and all the other supporters of the NSBE Professionals mission to graduate 10,000 black engineers every year by 2025. We are thankful to the Circle of Excellence sponsors, our community, and Inspire STEM Scholarship corporate supporters for making this year’s scholarships possible.
Learn more about our scholarship recipients here: www.nsbeboston.org/inspire-stem-gala-2023-scholars/
2023 Honorees
Artis C. Street
Inspire STEM Educator Award Recipient
Artis C. Street is the Assistant Head of School at the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in Boston Public Schools, as well as an adjunct lecturer at the University of Massachusetts Boston and Regis College. Prior to transitioning to education in 2010, Artis had over 14 years of technical industry experience working for companies such as Texas Instruments, Motorola, and Pollak-Stoneridge Company. He holds multiple advanced degrees, including an MBA from Texas State University and a Master of Science degree in Education from the University of Massachusetts Boston, and is currently enrolled in the Urban Education, Leadership and Policy doctoral program at the same university. Artis is passionate about inspiring students to pursue STEM-related careers and building strategic relationships with universities and STEM organizations to provide opportunities for students to succeed.
Oliver Thiel
President’s Award
Excellence in Leadership & Diversity Champion
Oliver Thiel serves as the site head for Amgen, Massachusetts. Prior to this role he served as lead of the Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging council for the site, and he is an active executive sponsor of several ERGs. Additionally, he leads a group of chemists and engineers, working across the Amgen sites in Cambridge, MA and Thousand Oaks, CA, supporting the commercial process development and commercialization of the Amgen small molecule portfolio.
Oliver joined Amgen in 2003 and moved to Cambridge in 2018 and has held various positions in Process Development. His teams have been accountable for commercial process development, technology transfers and commercial support across synthetic and biologic modalities, supporting multiple commercial products and > 50 clinical development candidates.
Prior to joining Amgen, Oliver was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. He has a M.Sc. degree in chemistry from the Technical University Munich, and a Ph.D. from the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim. He also holds an MBA degree from the Fernuniversität Hagen.
Josh Aviv
Inspire STEM Innovator Award Recipient
Joshua Aviv, also known as Josh, is a certified data scientist and the founder & CEO of SparkCharge. He has gained 10 years of experience in the cleantech and automotive OEM industries, and he is considered a dynamic figure in the cleantech community. Josh has successfully raised over $50MM to advance EV charging infrastructure and cleantech initiatives across the United States. His remarkable contributions to the industry have earned him recognition, including being named on Insider’s 100 Business Insider’s Transformers list and EY Entrepreneur of the Year. Joshua was also featured on Shark Tank, where he won partnerships with both Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner. Josh is determined to democratize access to electric vehicle (EV) charging energy and accelerate EV adoption for everyone.
George Liado
NSBE Boston Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
George is an experienced bio-pharma industry professional who served as the former Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, responsible for building the company’s Global Information Technology function. He has over 35 years of business, information technology, and cyber-security experience, having worked previously at Merck and Co. and Citibank, N.A. George serves on the board of directors of Charles River Laboratories and The National Center for Women & Information Technology, as well as the advisory board of Sierra Ventures and Temple University’s Fox Business School. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the New York Institute of Technology and completed the Executive Development Program at both Harvard and Wharton School of Business. He has received various awards, including being named to Forbes CIO Next 2021 list and being a Global CIO of the Year finalist.
Kristala Jones
NSBE Boston Inspire STEM Innovator Award Recipient
Kristala L.J. Prather is the Arthur D. Little Professor in and Executive Officer of the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT. Her research focuses on the design and assembly of recombinant microorganisms for the production of small molecules and novel bioprocess design approaches. Prather has received numerous awards, including the Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award and the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. She is also a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, and AIChE.
Karl Reid
President’s Award for Excellence in Leadership Recipient
Dr. Karl W. Reid is Senior Vice Provost and Chief Inclusion Officer at Northeastern University and a Professor of Practice in the Graduate School of Education. He served for seven years as Executive Director of the National Society of Black Engineers and was Senior Vice President for Research, Innovation and Member College Engagement at the United Negro College Fund. Dr. Reid is a certified diversity professional and advocate for increasing college access and success for low-income and minority youth. He also leads an NSF-funded national effort to achieve sustainable change in representation of engineering. Dr. Reid is a frequent contributor to the national diversity dialogue, and serves on various committees and advisory boards related to diversity and inclusion in STEM fields.
Banke Oluwole
Inspire STEM Educator Award Recipient
Banke Oluwole is an educator and mathematics enthusiast who values education and her Nigerian heritage. She began her career in 1989 after studying engineering at Boston University and has since shared her love of math with her children, students, and fellow teachers. Banke has worked on projects like Return to Ground Zero, which supports professional development, and now serves as the first African-American Vice President for Community Relations for the Cambridge Educators Association, advocating for equity in education. She is also an active member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Incorporated and volunteers in community service.
Raushanah Muhammad
Inspire STEM Educator Award Recipient
Raushanah is a Boston Public Schools (BPS) graduate who received a full academic scholarship to attend an HBCU, where her passion for learning, mentoring, and leadership developed. She began her teaching career in 2015 after working for over 14 years as a civil-environmental project engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers. Raushanah’s true passion is advancing opportunities for students in STEM through educational outreach and promoting inclusion in engineering and related careers, especially for underrepresented student groups from Boston. She completed two master’s degrees, one in engineering management from Tufts University and another in secondary education at UMass Boston. Currently, she works as a STEM specialist within the BPS and integrates science, engineering design, physics, coding, digital, and financial literacy in grades K-12. She also volunteers in community outreach and public service, tutoring math and curating STEM enrichment programs and camps.
Jody Rose
President’s Award for Community Impact Recipient
Jody Rose is an entrepreneur, operator, and leader who has worked with enterprise corporations and lean startups, primarily in mobile, eCommerce, and digital media. She co-founded Hack.Diversity, a non-profit dedicated to removing barriers for Black and Latino professionals in technology, and served as President of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA). Jody’s accomplishments include successfully advocating for non-compete reform and leading the launch of Rue Local, a new division of Rue Gilt Groupe. She also holds numerous board positions within the telecommunications and media industries. Jody has received several awards and recognitions, including an Honorary Doctorate of Business Administration from Mount Ida College and being named one of The 100 most influential people in Boston by Boston Magazine multiple times. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Cambridge Bancorp, The Rapid7 Foundation, and The New England Capital Association.
