Appendix C
Committee Member Biographies
FREEMAN A. HRABOWSKI, III (Chair), has served as president of The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) since May 1992. He serves as a consultant to the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. He also sits on several corporate and civic boards, such as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Constellation Energy Group, the France-Merrick Foundation, Marguerite Casey Foundation (Chair), McCormick & Company, Inc., Mercantile Safe Deposit & Trust Company, and the Urban Institute. He has coauthored two books, Beating the Odds and Overcoming the Odds (Oxford University Press), focusing on parenting and high-achieving African American males and females in science. Both books are used by universities, school systems, and community groups around the country. Born in 1950 in Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Hrabowski graduated at 19 from Hampton Institute with highest honors in mathematics. At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he received his MA in mathematics and four years later his PhD in higher education administration/statistics at age 24. He has served on the National Academies’ Government-University-Industry Research Roundtable and the Oversight Committee for the NRC’s Assessment for NIH Minority Research/Training Programs. He also recently provided testimony for a hearing on women in academic science and engineering hosted by the Research and Science Education Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
JAMES H. AMMONS is the president of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU). A native of Winter Haven, Florida, Ammons earned his baccalaureate degree at FAMU, graduating in 1974 with a degree in political science. He then enrolled at Florida State University, earning a master’s degree in public administration in 1975 and a doctorate in government in 1977. Ammons began his academic career at the University of Central Florida, where he served as an assistant professor of public administration from 1977 to 1983 before returning to FAMU as a professor of political science. Over the course of his 17-year tenure at FAMU, Ammons has risen steadily through the administrative ranks, serving as assistant vice president for academic affairs from 1984 to 1989. From 1987 to 1988, he also served as a faculty program consultant to the Board of Regents, leading a comprehensive review of the Florida system’s nine political science programs. In 1989, Ammons was promoted to associate vice president for academic affairs and director of Title III programs, a post he held until being named FAMU’s chief academic officer in 1995. During his tenure as provost and vice president for academic affairs, the campus has witnessed unprecedented growth in student enrollment, freshman SAT/ACT scores, retention and graduation rates, and academic program offerings. Active in professional and civic organizations, Ammons has received numerous awards and honors. He was named an American Council on Education Fellow and a CIGNA Foundation Fellow in 1986-1987, a Booth Ferris Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993, and a Nissan-Educational Testing Service Fellow in 2000. At FAMU, he has received the 1987 Distinguished Alumni Award and the 1999 Millennium Award. Ammons was recently elected to the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and has chaired numerous SACS accreditation review committees, including the 1999 SACS review of NCCU. He currently chairs the Editorial Board of the University Press of Florida and serves on the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Task Force on the Professional Development of Teachers. He also has served on the boards of directors of the Greater Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce and the Tallahassee Marine Institute, as well as on the Promotion Review Board of the Florida Highway Patrol.
SANDRA BEGAY-CAMPBELL is a principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories. Ms. Begay-Campbell leads Sandia’s technical efforts in the Renewable Energy Program to assist tribes with renewable energy development. She also serves as a member of the National Science Foundation’s Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering. A member of the Navajo nation, she combines her cultural values with the technical environment. Begay-Campbell is the former executive director of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), a
nonprofit organization whose mission is to increase the number of American Indian scientists and engineers. She received a BA in civil engineering from the University of New Mexico and worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories before she earned an MA in structural engineering from Stanford. She subsequently worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory before joining Sandia. Begay-Campbell has served on two committees for the National Academy of Engineering, the Committee on Diversity of the Engineering Workforce, and the Committee on Engineering Studies at Tribal Colleges.
BEATRIZ CHU CLEWELL, director of the Program for Evaluation and Equity Research (PEER) and principal research associate in the Urban Institute’s Education Policy Center, is a leading expert on breaking barriers to move more women and underrepresented minorities into the science and technology workforce. Her recent journal article, “Taking Stock: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We’re Going,” traces women’s progress in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) over the past decade. She is also an author of a 2005 review of mathematics and science curricula and professional development models for middle and high school levels proven effective in increasing student achievement. An author of Breaking the Barriers: Helping Female and Minority Students Succeed in Mathematics and Science, she explored the theoretical and empirical foundations of intervention programs to increase the success of women and underrepresented minorities in science and mathematics. In 2007 she published Effective Schools in Poor Neighborhoods: Defying Demographics, Achieving Success. Dr. Clewell received a BA in English literature and a PhD in educational policy from Florida State University. She was a senior research scientist at Educational Testing Service for 12 years before joining the Urban Institute and, on leave from that organization, served at the National Science Foundation as Executive Director of a bipartisan commission on the status of women, minorities, and persons with disabilities in STEM (CAWMSET). She served on the Committee on Science Education K-12 and the Committee on NASA Education Program Outcomes Study for the NRC. Dr. Clewell has been the principal investigator for several formal evaluations of major NSF intervention programs to increase the participation of women and minorities in STEM, including the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP), the Program for Women and Girls, and HBCU-UP.
NANCY S. GRASMICK is Maryland’s first female State Superintendent of Schools. She has served in that post since 1991. Dr. Grasmick’s career in education began as a teacher of deaf children at the William S. Baer School in Baltimore City. She subsequently served as a classroom and resource teacher,
principal, supervisor, assistant superintendent, and associate superintendent in the Baltimore County Public Schools. In 1989, she was appointed Special Secretary for Children, Youth, and Families and, in 1991, the State Board of Education appointed her State Superintendent of Schools. Dr. Grasmick holds a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University, an MS from Gallaudet University, and a BS from Towson University. Dr. Grasmick has been a teacher and an administrator, and, most importantly, a child advocate. Her numerous board and commission appointments include the President’s Commission on Excellence in Special Education, the U.S. Army War College Board of Visitors, the Towson University Board of Visitors, State Planning Committee for Higher Education, and the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education. Dr. Grasmick has received numerous awards for her visionary leadership, including the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education.
CARLOS G. GUTIERREZ is professor of chemistry and biochemistry at California State University, Los Angeles. He received a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from the University of California, Davis, in 1975. Dr. Gutierrez was a visiting scholar at the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. At California State University, Los Angeles, he has served as director of the Access to Research Careers program since 1978, the Minority Student Training for Biomedical Research program since 1992, the Los Angeles Bridges to the Future program from 1993 to 1997, and the Los Angeles Biomedical Sciences program from 1980 to 1983. Dr. Gutierrez has been a member of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences Council of the NIH since 1995. He has served as a member of the National Research Council’s Advisory Committee of the Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel and Board on Higher Education and Workforce. Additionally, he has served as vice chair of the NRC’s Committee on the Feasibility of a National Scholars Program and was chair of the Oversight Committee for the Assessment for NIH Minority Research/Training Programs: Phase 3 for PGA. He has also served on the California State University Systemwide Task Force on the Status of Women Faculty and Students in the Sciences.
EVELYNN M. HAMMONDS is the dean of Harvard College, starting in 2008, and Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African American Studies. She was the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity at Harvard University. She has published articles on the history of disease, race and science, African American feminism, African American women and the epidemic of HIV/AIDS, and analyses of gender and race in science and medicine. She is also the author of the article “Gendering the Epidemic: Feminism and the Epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the United States, 1981-1999,” which appears in Science, Medi-
cine, and Technology in the 20th Century: What Difference Has Feminism Made? (2000). Dr. Hammonds’ current work focuses on the intersection of scientific, medical, and sociopolitical concepts of race in the United States. She is completing a history of biological, medical, and anthropological uses of racial concepts entitled The Logic of Difference: A History of Race in Science and Medicine in the United States, 1850–1990. She is also completing the MIT Reader on Race and Gender in Science, coedited with Rebecca Herzig and Abigail Bass. Dr. Hammonds was named a Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer (2003–2005) by Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society. She has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin and a fellow in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She earned a PhD in the history of science from Harvard University, an MS in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a BEE in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and a BS in physics from Spelman College. She taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before coming to Harvard. While at MIT she was the founding director of the MIT Center for the Study of Diversity in Science, Technology, and Medicine. Dr. Hammonds has been a Visiting Professor at UCLA and Hampshire College.
WESLEY L. HARRIS is head of the MIT Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, where he is the Charles Stark Draper Professor of Aeronautics. He also serves as vice chair of the National Science Foundation Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Education, which has been tasked by Congress to address problems of growth and diversity in science and engineering. He is a former NASA associate administrator for aeronautics, responsible for all aeronautics programs, facilities, and personnel (19931995). From 1990 to 1993 he was the University of Tennessee Space Institute’s vice president and chief administrative officer. From 1985 to 1990, he served as Dean of the School of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Connecticut. From 1972 to 1985, he held faculty and administrative positions at MIT, including professor of aeronautics and astronautics. His academic research with unsteady aerodynamics, aero acoustics, rarefied gas dynamics, sustainment of capital assets, and chaos in sickle cell disease have made seminal contributions in these fields. In academe, Dr. Harris has worked with industry and governments to design and build joint industry-government-university research and development programs, centers, and institutes. An elected fellow of the AIAA and of the AHS, Dr. Harris was recognized for personal engineering achievements, engineering education, management, and advancing cultural diversity. He has been recognized by election to membership in the National Academy of Engineering, the Cosmos Club, and the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. He is a member of the following NRC committees: Committee
on Assessing Corrosion Education (Chair), Committee on Engineering Education, Committee on Systems Engineering: A Retrospective Review and Benefits for Future Air Force Systems Acquisition, Air Force Studies Board, and Division Committee on Engineering and Physical Sciences.
SYLVIA HURTADO is professor and director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences. Just prior to coming to UCLA, she served as director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. Dr. Hurtado has published numerous articles and books related to her primary interest in student educational outcomes, campus climates, college impact on student development, and diversity in higher education. She has served on numerous editorial boards for journals in education and served on the boards for the American Association of Higher Education (AAHE) and the Higher Learning Commission and is past president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Black Issues in Higher Education named her among the top 15 influential faculty whose work has had an impact on the academy. She obtained her PhD in education from UCLA, MEd from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and AB from Princeton University in sociology. Dr. Hurtado has coordinated several national research projects, including a U.S. Department of Education-sponsored project on how colleges are preparing students to achieve the cognitive, social, and democratic skills to participate in a diverse democracy. She is launching a National Institutes of Health project on the preparation of underrepresented students for biomedical and behavioral science research careers. She has also studied assessment, reform, and innovation in undergraduate education on a project through the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement.
JAMES S. JACKSON is director of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan. He is the Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and directs the ISR Research Center for Group Dynamics and the Program for Research on Black Americans, which he helped to establish in 1976 at the ISR. In addition, Jackson is a professor of health behavior and health education at the U-M School of Public Health and directs the U-M Center for Afro-American and African Studies. In 1980, he directed the National Survey of Black Americans, the first survey of a nationally representative sample of Black Americans. In 2002, Jackson was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science. Jackson is immediate past chair of the Section on Social, Economic, and Political Sciences (K) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a former chair of the Section on Social and Behavioral Sciences and of the Task Force on Minority Issues of the Gerontological
Society of America, the Committee on International Relations, and the Association for the Advancement of Psychology, American Psychological Association. He was a recipient of a Fogarty Senior Postdoctoral International Fellowship, 1993-1994, for study in France and Western Europe. He is former national president of the Black Students Psychological Association and the Association of Black Psychologists. Jackson received a BS degree in psychology from Michigan State University in 1966, an MA in psychology from the University of Toledo in 1970, and a PhD in social psychology from Wayne State University in 1972. He currently serves on the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Psychological Science, Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information: The HIPAA Privacy Rule, and the Committee on International Collaborations in Social and Behavioral Research for the National Academies.
SHIRLEY MATHIS MCBAY is the president of Quality Education for Minorities (QEM) Network. Dr. McBay earned the BA in chemistry from Paine College (1954) and an MS in chemistry from Atlanta University in 1957. In mathematics, she earned an MS from Atlanta University (1958), and a PhD at the University of Georgia (1966). In 1972 she was director of the Division of Natural Sciences at Spelman College. After administering National Science Foundation programs for five years, Dr. McBay became Dean for Student Affairs at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1990 she left this position to become president of the QEM Network, a nonprofit educational organization that was the successor to the MIF-based QEM project. QEM is dedicated to improving education for minorities at all educational levels. She served on the Advisory Board for the National Science Resources Center and on the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission.
DIANA NATALICIO is president of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Prior to her appointment as president in 1988, Natalicio served as UTEP’s vice president for academic affairs, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and chair of the Modern Languages Department. She has written numerous books, monographs, and articles in the field of applied linguistics. Dr. Natalicio has served on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, the Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education, the National Science Board, and the board of directors for the Fogarty International Center at the NIH. She was also the chair of the HCBU/MSI Consortium on Environmental Technology. She is the recipient of the 1997 Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education, the 1991 Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the 1990 Conquistador Award from the City of El Paso, and the 2006 Distinguished Alumnus Award from U. Texas-Austin. She has been named to both the
El Paso Women’s Hall of Fame and Texas Women’s Hall of Fame. She completed her undergraduate studies in Spanish at St. Louis University and earned a master’s degree in Portuguese and a doctorate in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin. She chaired on the Committee on Partnerships for Emerging Research Institutions for the National Research Council.
JOHN C. NEMETH is vice president of Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). In this role, he is responsible for developing partnerships with government and the private sector on behalf of the 117-member science and technology based consortium of colleges and universities nationwide. ORAU invests nearly $2.5 million annually in activities that benefit the students and faculty of its membership. He also manages an ORAU National Security Experts Team, composed of academic experts, to assist elements of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the event of a weapon of mass destruction and its effect on the United States. Additionally, he has been heavily involved with ORAU’s Historically Black College and University/Minority Educational Institutions Council, which builds relationships between minority-serving institutions and research-intensive universities and federal labs. He also participated in Oak Ridge National Laboratory/ORAU HBCU/MEI Faculty Summer Outreach Program, which provides opportunities for faculty at HCBU/MEIs to build collaborations with Oak Ridge staff. Dr. Nemeth was head of the Environmental Science and Technology Program of the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Prior to this position, he was chief of the Environmental Health and Safety Division and was also program manager of Hazardous and Industrial Waste. Before joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Nemeth was director of Environmental Sciences-Eastern District and Senior Waste Management Specialist for CH2M HILL. Earlier, Dr. Nemeth was chief scientist and corporate environmental sciences consultant for Law Engineering Testing Company (Law Environmental). As senior ecologist for Coastal Zone Resources Corporation, he managed numerous environmental assessment projects. His project experience, national in scope, spans both the public and private sectors, including the complete spectrum of hazardous, industrial, and domestic waste management, environmental services and assessment work, baseline ecological and water resources management, environmental audit, land treatment of waste materials, and adjudicatory and expert witness consultation. He has served on numerous committees and councils and is an officer in a variety of professional organizations.
EDUARDO J. PADRÓN is president of Miami-Dade College (MDC), a learning-centered institution and the largest college in the nation, with a budget of over $500 million and 7,500 employees serving more than
168,000 students at six campuses. Dr. Padrón was named president of MDC in 1995. Prior to that, he was president of MDC s Wolfson campus from 1980 to 1995. Dr. Padrón received a PhD in economics from the University of Florida in 1970. He has drawn national respect for a broad range of innovations, beginning with successful programs for underserved and underprepared students. Dr. Padrón has also played key leadership roles nationally through his service with the Carnegie Foundation, American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), American Council on Education (ACE), The College Board, American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU), Higher Education Research and Development Institute (HERDI), League for Innovation in the Community College, and the national board of Campus Compact. He has been appointed to posts of national prominence by Presidents Carter, Bush, and Clinton and has received numerous honors throughout his career. His writings have appeared in many national journals, including his most recent on need- versus merit-based funding in The College Board Review. He is the recipient of the 2002 CEO of the Year Award from the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and has received numerous other national and international awards, including those officially accorded by the governments of France, Spain, and Argentina. Locally and nationally, Eduardo Padrón continues to pursue his passion for opportunity and excellence in community-based education.
WILLIE PEARSON is professor of sociology at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the faculty at Georgia Tech in July 2001, he held a distinguished appointment as Wake Forest Professor of Sociology at Wake Forest University and Adjunct in Medical Education at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Pearson received his PhD in sociology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1981. Dr. Pearson serves or has served on the editorial boards of Sociological Spectrum; Science, Technology and Human Values; Journal of Science and Engineering Ethics; and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Dr. Pearson serves or has served on committees, advisory boards and panels at the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, American Chemical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Graduate Records Examination Board, Sloan Foundation, American Sociological Association, Sigma XI, and the National Research Council. He was elected president of the Mid-South Sociological Association(1987); a member of the Executive Council, American Sociological Association’s Section on Science, Knowledge and Technology (1989-1991); and a governor of the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (1994-2000). Dr. Pearson serves on the advisory committee for the National Academy of Engineering Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education and
previously served as cochair of the National Research Council Committee for the Assessment of NIH Minority Research Training Programs.
SIDNEY A. RIBEAU is the sixteenth president of Howard University and the sixth African American to serve as its chief executive officer. Since taking office in August 2008, Dr. Ribeau has championed improving services to students through his Students First Campaign, strengthening research with emphasis in the STEM disciplines, enhancing the university’s international footprint, and building upon a legacy of service. He was president of Bowling Green State University (BGSU) in Bowling Green, Ohio for 13 years before coming to Howard. Under his leadership, BGSU was recognized for its residential learning communities, values-based education, and innovative graduate programs. President Ribeau began his career in 1976 as a professor of communication studies at California State University, Los Angeles and later became chair of the University’s Pan African Studies Department—a position he held until 1987, when he was named Dean of Undergraduate Studies at California State University, San Bernardino. He also held positions as dean of the College of Liberal Arts at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and vice president for Academic Affairs at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Dr. Ribeau serves on the boards of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), Worthington Industries, and the National Research Council Committee on Underrepresented Groups and the Expansion of the Science and Engineering Workforce Pipeline. He has served on the boards of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the United Way, the Regional Growth Partnership, the Andersons Inc. (Maumee, OH), and Convergys Corp. Some of his numerous honors include distinguished alumnus awards from Wayne State University and University of Illinois, scholarly recognition from the National Communication Association, and the President’s Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators. He received a BS degree from Wayne State University, and MA and PhD degrees in interpersonal and group communication from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
JOHN BROOKS SLAUGHTER is president and CEO of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), which provides leadership and support for the effort to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in engineering. A former director of the National Science Foundation, chancellor of the University of Maryland, College Park, and president of Occidental College, Dr. Slaughter has a long and distinguished background as a leader in the education, engineering and the scientific communities. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), where he has served on the Committee on Minorities in
Engineering, chaired its Action Forum on Engineering Workforce Diversity, and is a current member of the NAE Council. Dr. Slaughter holds honorary degrees from more than 25 institutions, is the winner of the 1997 Martin Luther King Jr. National Award, and was also honored with the first U.S. Black Engineer of the Year award in 1987. He is the founding editor of the international journal Computers & Electrical Engineering.
RICHARD TAPIA is a mathematician and professor in the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. He is internationally known for his research in the computational and mathematical sciences and is a national leader in education and outreach. Tapia’s current Rice positions are University Professor, Maxfield Oshman Professor in Engineering, Associate Director of Graduate Studies, and Director of the Center for Excellence and Equity in Education. The first in his family to attend college, Tapia went on to receive BA, MA, and PhD degrees in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1967 he joined the Department of Mathematics at UCLA and then spent two years on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin. In 1970 he moved to Rice University, where he was promoted to associate professor in 1972 and full professor in 1976. He chaired the department from 1978 to 1983. He is currently an adjunct faculty member of both Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Houston. Tapia has authored or coauthored two books and more than a hundred mathematical research papers. Professor Tapia is recognized as a national leader in diversity and has delivered numerous invited addresses at national and international mathematics conferences, served on university diversity committees, and provided leadership at a national level. Richard Tapia’s distinguished research accomplishments and service to the nation have brought him many honors. He was the first Hispanic elected to the National Academy of Engineering and one of the first appointed to the National Science Board, where he served from 1996 to 2002. He was also the first recipient of the Computing Research Association’s A. Nico Habermann Award for outstanding contribution to aiding members of underrepresented groups within the computing research community. He was named one of the 20 most influential leaders in minority math education by the National Research Council; listed as one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States by Hispanic Business magazine (2008); and given the Professor of the Year award by the Association of Hispanic School Administrators, Houston Independent School District, Houston, TX. In 2005, Tapia was elected to the Board of Directors for The Academy of Medicine, Engineering, and Science of Texas (TAMEST), which comprises Texas members of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine. He received the National Science Foundation’s inaugural Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math-
ematics, and Engineering Mentoring; the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the Distinguished Service to the Profession Award from the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics; the Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Mathematical Society; the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science; and honorary doctorates from Carnegie Mellon University, Colorado School of Mines, and Claremont Graduate University. Two professional conferences have been named in his honor, recognizing his contributions to diversity: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Conference, whose founders described Tapia as a seminal figure who inspired a generation of African American, Native American, and Latino/Latina students to pursue careers in mathematics.
LYDIA VILLA-KOMAROFF is the chief Executive officer at Cytonome. During her 20-year research career, Dr. Villa-Komaroff has held positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, University of Massachusetts Medical School and Harvard Medical School. As a science administrator, she has been vice president for research at Northwestern University in Illinois and the vice president for research and chief operating officer of Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA. She also served as chair of the board of directors of Transkaryotic Therapies. In the United States, Dr. Villa-Komaroff’s achievements have received national recognition. Profiled in the PBS special DNA Detective, Dr. Villa-Komaroff has been honored by the White House and is the recipient of three honorary doctorates. She is a member of the Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Hall of Fame and a fellow of the Association for Women in Science. She was named one of the 50 most important Hispanics in business and technology by Hispanic Engineer and Information Technology (2002) and one of the 100 most influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business Magazine (1997, 2003). As one of the country’s most prominent Hispanic-American scientists, Dr. Villa-Komaroff is deeply committed to the recruitment and retention of women and minorities in science. She is a founding member of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science and has been both a board member and vice president of the organization. Dr. Villa-Komaroff received her PhD in cell biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1975.
LINDA SUE WARNER is the president of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas. Warner is an accomplished educator. She was named winner of the 2001 Indian Educator of the Year Award by the National Indian Education Association for her lifelong dedication. Just last year, she was honored by the Pennsylvania State University’s College of Education
as winner of the Alumni Society’s Leadership and Service Award. Warner has devoted 30 years to American Indian education policy and leadership. She has spread her pedagogy to numerous locations throughout the United States, beginning her career in the public schools of Missouri. In 1974, she entered the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Alaska to serve as a teacher. She has been a faculty member at the University of Kansas, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Missouri. She also served as a program director at the National Science Foundation. Most notable are her appointments to the National Advisory Council on American Indian Education (White House appointed) and the Department of Interior’s Foundation for Excellence in American Indian Education. Her most recent position was with the Tennessee Board of Regents, the fifth largest university system in the country, where she served as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs.
