2021 GlobalMindED
The Future of Work is Diverse, Inclusive, Just and Equitable
GlobalMindED closes the equity gap by creating a capable, diverse talent pipeline through connections to role models, mentors, internships for low-income students, returning adults, First Gen to college and inclusive leaders who teach them, work with them and hire them.
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Toi Massey is a GlobalMindED STEM Leader and trail blazer. After a successful STEM career, she founded the JEKL Foundation to ignite the passion for STEM in all students, especially under-represented students, girls and students of color. Read her story below and learn about how her work will change lives for all us with more STEM leaders like Toi in charge.
Upcoming Events:
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The Virtual Career Fair with partners at Diverse Talent starts today and includes national companies in Health, Tech, Engineering, Legal, and Business as well as Career Prep and Coaching and a Diversity Theatrical Performance by the Pillsbury House Theater, details below.
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The Benefits of Global Internships Friday at 8:00MT/10:00ET with Adrian Rosado; President, Zion Leadership Group, Mara Luna; Director, TRIO Upward Bound Univ. of Puerto Rico, Mitzi Damazo-Sabando; CEO, TinkerHouse Inc. Manila, Philippines, Tree Xu; Community Manager, Education First Wuxi, China, Erika Aquino; Executive Director, Infinit-O Group Foundation, sign up below
All GlobalMindED DEI events are on our YouTube channel. See links below to our Earth Week events.
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Toi, you are a successful corporate leader turned inclusive educational leader. What is your STEM path to stardom and how did you get where you are today?
A lot of people are to be credited with how I arrived to where I am today. With grandparents who earned advanced degrees, parent who earned advanced degrees and technical skills training, there was never an option presented with respect to career paths that didn’t include college..
I was a member of the first cohort of the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program, DAP-CEP, founded by a then Ford Motor Company Engineering Executive, an African American man named Kenneth Hill. Mr. Hill was talking STEM education for urban youth nearly 40 years before the acronym became a buzz word. To his credit a program that launched with 15 of us can now take credit for reaching over 11,000 Detroit students annually and more than 68,000 alumni. Mr. Hill and DAP-CEP’s laser focused program was very instrumental in my pursuit of Engineering.
I earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, one of two women in the department whose Chair, Dr. Vincent, was instrumental in me heading off to Howard University to pursue a Master of Engineering degree in Mechanical Engineering with a concentration in Nuclear Engineering. The Director of the Nuclear Engineering Program, Dr. George Ferguson, challenged me to apply for the highly competitive Department of Energy fellowship and with his support I presented a winning application that covered my tuition, books, housing and a $1000 per month stipend to cover all other expenses so that I could concentrate fully on my studies. Dr. Gwendolyn King advocated for me to achieve the unprecedented opportunity to conduct my thesis research at Howard University Hospital, in nuclear medicine and oncology and I published a thesis titled The Dosimetry of Simultaneous Intraoperative Hyperthermia and Intraoperative Radiation Therapy with Electrons. In 2019 my thesis title was brought up during an interview following which a woman seated in the audience approached and thanked me, stating that it was my research that saved her life as it was the modality chosen in her battle with breast cancer.
I was recruited and went to work for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) the semester before I graduated. I was said to be only the 3rd African American female engineer hired in the organization’s then 40-year-old history. I was hired with focused intention to fast track my career while addressing the lack of diversity across the organization. I was assigned a male C-suite mentor and was a member of a small cohort of fresh out of college hires, either BIPOC or women or both. This inaugural DEI model was considered pretty progressive, strategically speaking, for corporate America at that time. The organization was hired engineers and was heavily populated with US Nuclear Navy engineers. My first day on the job I was asked if I were the new secretary, that was the language used when referencing whom today refer to as admins. I responded with a smile: “No, I am not, however, if you are getting yourself coffee, I take mine with two creams and two sugars and you can bring it to that office.” pointing to my office.
Two of NASA’s internationally known inventors, Dr. Valerie Thomas (real time computer data systems/Landsat Program) and Dr. George Caruthers (illusion transmitter/ultraviolet camera/spectrograph for Apollo 16), mentored me post graduate school and introduced me to Civil Rights legend Dr. Dorothy Height, the President of National Council of Negro Women, who enlisted me to run NCNW’s Saturday Math and Saturday Science programs which were created in partnership with Chevron Corporation. Again, a lot of people are responsible for how I got to where I am today.
I moved from the energy industry into aerospace and earned a Black Belt certification in Six Sigma. As the senior lead and change agent responsible for building enterprise process systems while removing any constraints to business growth and efficiency, I was tasked with persuading my cohort, a senior C-Suite team of decision makers, predominately much older, white and male, with data intended to keep our business innovative and a profitable leader across the aerospace industry. As a woman in complex tech and engineering, movement from one industry to another found no real change with respect to the number of women or BIPOC professionals with whom I could engage. In fact, when I separated from Corporate, I was the only African American executive located on the campus of the organization's headquarters.
I had some wonderful mentors and advocates who were committed to advancing my career and supportive of my success. However, no one is more responsible for who I am today than my mother. It was the magic of my mother’s incessant belief in me, her encouragement and tough responses to any complaints I might share about being the only one that looked like me in these often-lonely spaces that finds me resilient, intentionally fearless in my pursuit and determination to increase the number of women and BIPOC in the STEM disciplines, particularly, engineering, the backbone of it all. From the moment I showed an interest in the sciences, it was my mother who would find classes and programs and workshops for me to participate. My Saturday mornings were often spent at the Detroit Science Center when it was launched in a store front building, a single room filled with kids that couldn’t move fast enough from one activity to the next. Even in that space, we were often the only Black family, and I was often the only Black girl.
When I chose to major in physics, then nuclear engineering, and when I walked away from the C-suite and all of its perks to found JEKL, it was my mother who encouraged me, insisting I had work to do that would change the lives of young people all over the world.
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What is the mission of JEKL foundation and how are you closing the equity gap with your work?
The JEKL Foundation’s mission is to embrace the uninitiated in order to change the face of technology forever! JEKL creates access and provides support in order that those often under supported and overlooked are afforded true opportunity. We partner with organizations who share like vision around increasing the exposure of girls and youth of color to STEM so they might take an interest in and professionally pursue the STEM disciplines. Ultimately the goal is to impact those groups currently underrepresented across the STEM disciplines by increasing their numbers. Using art+design, JEKL expands the view for these youth with respect to just how available to them, how within their reach, careers in STEM are. JEKL has impacted in excess of 8,000 youth between USA and Africa with at least 95% of our participants being young people of color. Among our programs are those specifically designed for girls, female collegiates and professional women. Additionally, JEKL works with employers committed to recruit and support retention of their female STEM employees, offering equity audits to benchmark their current state and strategies to address and close the gaps.
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You have led several high impact sessions for GlobalMindED leaders, including one called: Everyone is Not at the Table. What must happen right now for everyone to be at the table so that all can succeed?
You know, the title of that session was absolutely and without question relevant and intentionally provocative. To be missing from the table is one thing, but not to be missed is quite another, and the latter usually equates to an increase in disparities, an increase in inequity and an impact on social justice across communities who are not seated.
There are no easy answers nor quick fixes available that might insure equity and total inclusion, ie, everyone at the table, but that truth must not be the argument that finds us complacent in our efforts to disrupt status quo. I believe those who have historically controlled who is seated at the table have a responsibility to increase access and provide support of those not historically at the table. I believe when we recognize and incessantly celebrate the immeasurable contributions of women and BIPOC across STEM, especially in technology, certainly affects the myth that women and BIPOC have only minimally contributed to these fields inspiring a paradigm shift about the significance of everyone contributing, presenting a complete solution to the problems that we are facing globally. Finally, people of color must reclaim our power and create our own tables, welcoming all and excluding none.
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What is your hope for the nation and the world right now as one of fearless STEM Stars and Equity leaders and how can we make your hope a reality?
Perhaps the single most urgent issue facing our planet today is its expeditious warming. Global warming and sustainability are areas that we are not consistently addressing with any real urgency. My hope is that we come together as a collaborative global community working to get people talking and get people moving into action.
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Watch our Earth Week sessions:
International Youth: Strategies for Inclusive, Just, and Equitable Climate Leadership Ash Pachauri; Co-Founder and Senior Mentor, Protect Our Planet Movement and Drishya Pathak; POP Movement, India lead this panel of international students including Summer Benjamin; POP Movement Peter Gruber International Academy, US Virgin Islands, Caroline Sandberg; Tahoe Expedition Academy, USA, Tsague Dongfack/Willy Endelson; POP Movement, Cameroon, Ricardo Delgado; POP Youth Mentor, Arturo Michelena University, Venezuela, and Zoe Ricardo Rivera; CEI University, México
How Environmental Justice and Equity Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis Part 1 Courtney Knight; Founder and Managing Member, Capstone Capital Advisors and Susan Kidd; Executive Director, Center for Sustainability , Agnes Scott College lead this panel discussion with Anamarie Shreeves; Environmental Education Programs Manager, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Eriqah Vincent; Network Engagement Director, Power Shift Network, Dr. Dana Williamson; EPA Environmental Health Fellow, Assoc of Schools and Programs of Public Health, and Gwendylon P. Smith; Executive Director, Collier Heights Association for Revitalization, Resilience, and Sustainability.
How Environmental Justice and Equity Can Help Solve the Climate Crisis Part 2 Dr. Kyle Whyte; Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, leads panel discussion with Ka’illjuus / Lisa Lang; Executive Director, Xaadas Kil Kuyaas Foundation, Dr. Kelsey Leonard; Assistant Professor, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo, Brittany Judson; Just Growth Consultant Partnership for Southern Equity, and AJ (Andrea) Grant; President, Environmental Communications Associates.
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Click below to watch the Inclusive Leader Award Ceremony featuring inspirational messages from the diverse Award Winners
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GlobalMindED and the SDG Impact Fund are delighted to announce GlobalMindED's Donor Advised Fund. 2020 is the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations and the 25th Anniversary of the Beijing Women's Declaration and Action Platform. Many from around the world are thinking of 2020 as the gateway to our most vital decade for delivering equity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and a world where all can thrive. Our key time for these outcomes is 2020-2030.
GlobalMindED DAF and the SDG Impact Fund are a powerful combined force for good as the 2019 year comes to a close and we reflect on the gratitude and the commitments we make to the causes we care most about. The DAF offers immense power and flexibility for giving prior to the year's end as you plant seeds of generous intention for 2020 and the decade ahead.
When you contribute to GlobalMindED, you support First Gen students. We have served more than 400 students by connecting them to role models, mentors, internships and jobs. Your generous support will allow us to take our work 10x and reach these talented students at scale who lack the resources and support we provide. Your support also helps teachers who can't afford the conference fees, faculty at colleges which are under resourced and students who persist at those universities despite food insecurity and/or housing insecurity.
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Links to read about Inclusive Leaders, many of whom are African American and people of color:
Curated sessions from GlobalMindED 2020 YouTube channel:
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From the Center for Positive Organizations:
From the Economist:
From Forbes:
From Harvard Business Review:
From the World Academy of Art & Science and UN; Geneva Global Leadership in the 21st Century econference:
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Listen here for an interview with Pam Newkirk, GlobalMindED speaker and author of Diversity Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion- Dollar Business.
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Meet GlobalMindED Founder, Carol Carter as interviewed by Tim Moore on his podcast Success Made to Last: From Success to Significance
Listen to Part 1 of Carol's interview
Listen to Part 2 of Carol's interview
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Recent GlobalMindED Newsletter Profiles:
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Since 2006 when the flagship TGR Learning Lab opened its doors in Anaheim, CA, TGR Foundation has had a lot to celebrate, including its most recent milestone of one million students impacted by TGR EDU: Explore, alone.
Developed in partnership with Discovery Education, TGR EDU: Explore is a free digital resource library that offers interactive web experiences, lesson plans, training videos and tools for educators, students and families to explore new disciplines and gain skills for a modern and expanding workforce.
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As you start the New Year, are you looking for ways to re-engineer your classroom culture? Check out Designing the Future: How Engineering Builds Creative Critical Thinking in the Classroom. The associated website has lots of activities, projects, and resources you can implement immediately. Our fall workshops using the book as a roadmap for change have been highly successful. Start designing the future today - try using the customized Study Guide for a book study in your PLC. Or contact ProjectEngin or Solution Tree to learn how you can bring professional development based on Ann's book to your school, district, or conference.
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THE FLYOVER NATION
Energy's Role in a Troubled Heartland
By J.C. Whorton
A unique and timely discussion of the challenging issues facing the country’s troubled Heartland.
Since the beginning of westward expansion into the Heartland’s vast regions, natural resource development has played a historic role in shaping its communities. Today, domestic oil and gas development offers one of the strongest prospects for the Heartland’s present and future prosperity as well as the nation’s re-emergence as a dominant player in the global energy economy.
The U.S. is now the world’s largest producer of crude oil and natural gas, two circumstances that are universally disrupting international geopolitical order. The earth has a finite supply of natural resources and a rapidly growing and over consuming population.
As America positions itself for a very uncertain and constantly evolving global marketplace, will the Heartland become America’s “great connector” or “great divide”?
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J.C. Whorton is a senior level energy and financial professional with over forty years of essential experience. Having a ranching and Native American heritage, Mr. Whorton is a strong advocate for rural education and economic development initiatives.
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