Meet the 2021 STEMMy Award Honorees

WISTEMM EDUCATOR

SANDRA BILLINGER

University of Kansas Medical Center

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Dr. Sandra Billinger embodies what it means to be an advocate, educator, and mentor to women in STEMM. She empowers women in science by cultivating a supportive and inclusive learning environment in her laboratory as well as in the classroom. Additionally, she supports the professional development of her trainees by guiding and challenging them to reach their highest potential through networking, advocacy, and mentorship.”

SANDRA IN THREE WORDS:

Advocate, Mentor, Inspirational

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Kisa Caruthers describes the 2.5% of African American women who have worked in the engineering profession. With over two decades of experience, she has often been the only woman and woman of color that has been instrumental in the design and construction of electrical building systems. Not only is Kisa dedicated and committed to engineering and passionate about exposing women to the engineering profession, she has a passion for educating and tutoring young girls from K-12 to College in math so that they can become proficient and excel in higher STEMM courses.”

KISA IN THREE WORDS:

Overcomer, Committed, Passionate

WISTEMM CHAMPION

KISA CARUTHERS

Burns & McDonnell

ENTERPRISING INNOVATOR

DR. SHELLEY COOPER

Diversity Telehealth

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Dr. Cooper saw the future of telemedicine long before COVID-19 hit our country. She understood that not all working individuals were able to leave work for a doctor’s appointment. She not only looks out for families and individual patients, but she also looks out for the professionals rendering the medical services. She’s improving the medical industry from all angles and her futuristic thinking has saved many lives.”

SHELLEY IN THREE WORDS:

Fearless, Charitable, Selfless

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Una is a transgender woman that came out in 2012 while in a senior leadership position in engineering. Since then she has been a champion and mentor, educating many on the gender inequity in STEMM and how bridges can be built to cross the divide. She has a unique perspective “walking the walk” on both sides of the gender divide in STEMM and lectures on the dangers of male privilege, the marginalization of women, microaggressions in the workplace, and has lectured on inequity in pay, promotion, professional expectations, and advancement, and presented workshops on how companies can end this discrimination.”

UNA IN THREE WORDS:

Fair, Faithful, Fearless

WISTEMM CHAMPION

UNA NOWLING

Black & Veatch

WISTEMM STUDENT ACHIEVER

RUBY RIOS

UMKC

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Throughout her academic career, Ruby has been an incredible ambassador for STEMM education in Kansas City. Ruby has both created and supported a great number of educational opportunities, and she has personally encouraged hundreds of KC-area girls to consider STEMM majors and careers of their own. For her work, Ruby was recognized at age 17 as Kansas City’s youngest-ever “30 Under 30” by Inc KC magazine and the Kansas City Star, and she has continued her work through her college years.”

RUBY IN THREE WORDS:

Dedicated, Compassionate, Engaging

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“What stands out most to me about Mariah is her leadership and positive impact in the area of STEMM and beyond. Mariah has high standards for her own involvement at work, in the industry, and STEMM Outreach, and she encourages and motivates people around her to do a great job too. Mariah can be found all over the KC metro showcasing STEMM. Whether that is presenting about clean drinking water at a Society of Women Engineers (SWE) professional development conference or presenting about STEMM Outreach to K-12 students or writing in the KC Business Journal about the importance of professional licensure. At work, Mariah has personally mentored many junior engineers and is leading a program to provide career advancement opportunities to engineers.”

MARIAH IN THREE WORDS:

Passionate, Servant, Leader

RISING TRENDSETTER

MARIAH SCHROEDER

Burns & McDonnell

GROUNDBREAKING LEADERSHIP

JASMINE SIMMONS

Hallmark

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Jasmine embodies the strengths of a strong leader, who understands how her actions can influence others to enable and enrich careers for women in technology. In this way she is selfless in her relentless pursuit of opportunities for others. She also has a vision for the recruiting, retention and growth for women that is having a very positive impact inside Hallmark. Jasmine uses innovative ways to leverage the services and support of others to further the purposes of growing the opportunities for women within the Hallmark Technology division.”

JASMINE IN THREE WORDS:

Intelligent, Relentless, Resourceful

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“In addition to the passion she holds for her students and her field, Professor Smith is the first black female and black person to become a tenured math professor at KCK Community College.  She always receives high scores and remarks from her student evaluations, her classes always reach maximum capacity, and students regularly make requests to be added to already full classes. In addition, Professor Smith was recruited to work on a nursing grant to integrate academics into technical courses to improve the math content and teaching methodologies primarily related to drug and dosage calculations, and now teaches this course to nursing students.”

TANYA IN THREE WORDS:

Passionate, Dedicated, Innovator

WISTEMM EDUCATOR

TANYA M. SMITH

Kansas City Kansas Community College

RISING TRENDSETTER

KRINA SNIDER

T-Mobile

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Krina is the voice that incites women and other genders to pursue STEM careers, specifically in technology and cybersecurity. She is the founding member of the International Association of Security Awareness Professionals (IASAP). When asked why she selected this organization, she explained it allows her to reach the masses by sharing the importance of awareness programs for organizations and the community. She is a member of Women in Security where she is an instrument of change for inclusivity through career development, engaging with communities, and mentoring. As a thirty year member of the Kansas City American Business Women’s (ABWA) association, she demonstrates her desire to close the gap with women in all areas, from economics, to STEM programs, to social programs she rallies for diversity and inclusivity demonstrated by diverse groups on her committees.”

KRINA IN THREE WORDS:

Visionary, Risk-taker, Inspirational

FROM HER NOMINATORS:

“Rosalyn has always been a go-getter both in her laboratory work and in her leadership positions. She has trained multiple new scientists in her lab while managing her own experiments. When experiments don’t work or have unexpected results, she is both innovative and persistent to develop new ways to address the issue. Prior to graduate school Rosalyn worked at Cerner where she developed an interest in health biostatistics/informatics. She has since tailored her PhD to be interdisciplinary studying both cancer biology and informatics.”

ROSALYN IN THREE WORDS:

Innovative, Enthusiastic, Resilient

WISTEMM STUDENT ACHIEVER

ROSALYN ZIMMERMANN

University of Kansas Medical Center

CORPORATE HERO

FISHTECH GROUP

FROM THEIR NOMINATORS:

“Fishtech Group CEO Gary Fish is a visionary that understands we cannot meet the demands of the STEM/cybersecurity workforce without women. He is
dedicated to closing the employment gap and committing to diversity of employees in the cybersecurity industry. Fishtech supports through actionable causes women organizations such as Women in Technology, Women in Security Mentors, and Women in Security Kansas City, We Code KC, and organizations with a vision to increase equal inclusivity and accessibility in STEM.”

FISHTECH IN THREE WORDS:

Community Orientated, Progressive, Innovative