Women & Hi Tech invites members and non-members to save the date for our next Executive Women's Forum, "Missing on the Milk Carton: The Latina Voice in STEM." We will feature a virtual panel of Latina STEM professionals discussing their experiences and unique journeys.
Register today to save your spot! We are so honored to make space for these important voices and stories which are often excluded from conversations in STEM.
Join us virtually 11:30am-1pm on November 15 and hear from the panel below.
Paula Angarita Rivera
Paula Angarita Rivera is a Senior Scientist – Medicines Innovation Hub at Eli Lilly & Company. She is part of the Research and Development rotational program that focuses on developing diverse talent in technical roles. Paula supports the development of test methods that generate data for the FDA approval of Lilly’s medical devices. Paula has taken leadership positions within the company such as a member of the Event Planning Committee at the Organization of Latinx, has recruited talent at conferences, and has promoted diversity within her organization.
Paula was the first female, international, and Latina student in receiving a dual degree in biomedical engineering and mathematics from the partnership program between Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Marian University in 2019. Paula received her master’s in Mechanical engineering from IUPUI in 2021. Through her advocacy, leadership, and fierce determination, Paula has worked to make an impact through engineering in the community. Paula currently serves as the Vice President of Region 6 for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), whose mission is to empower the Hispanic community to make an impact in the world through STEM. She manages a team that oversees 9 states with 40 chapters including undergraduates, graduates, professionals, and high school students. Paula is a people-driven, charismatic, and ambitious professional who is focused on making a positive impact in our community.
Maria Alvim Gaston
Dr. Alvim Gaston graduated from UFRJ, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, in Brazil with a BS in Pharmacy in 1988. She continued her education getting an Industrial pharmacy degree in 1989 at the same University and joined the Chemistry Department of UFRJ to obtain her master’s degree in organic chemistry. Soon after, she was selected by CNPq, a Brazilian governmental institution, to come to the US to work as a visiting scholar for 2 years. Maria joined the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Science at the University of Mississippi to carry out a research program on the synthesis of antimalarial analogs of Artemisinin. Upon conclusion of her research, Maria was invited by the Medicinal Chemistry department of Ole Miss to stay and join their PhD. Program.
Immediately upon receiving her PhD in May of 2000, she joined Eli Lilly & Company where she held various positions in both computational chemistry and discovery operations. Maria worked as a Scientist in the External Innovation group providing medicinal/computational chemistry expertise to Lilly’s Open Innovation Drug Discovery program (OIDD). The OIDD was a program that expanded open access for external scientists to the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, Maria is a Senior Director of the Talent Development Academy - Medicines Innovation Hub at Eli Lilly.
Maria was selected as one of the TOP 100 innovators of Eli Lilly & Company in 2013, also Lilly recognized her with the 2020 LRL President's Diversity and Inclusion Award and the #iamIN 2021 LRL President’s DEI Award. She was recently honored with the Latino Legacy Award by the Indiana Latino Institute.
Maria is an Executive board member of the Organization for Latin Americans -OLA ERG within Lilly, a member at large in the local ACS chapter, and the President of Women & HI Tech.
Jasmin Gonzalez
Jasmin Gonzalez is a DE&I and community engagement enthusiast specializing in transformative consulting within the technology industry. Her most recent endeavors include leading the largest Latinx community of professionals, Techqueria, during their significant growth and transitions over the pandemic. Prior to her transition into technology, Jasmin worked closely to provide resources and education to underrepresented communities in the greater Philadelphia community. She serves as a mentor and leader in the industry, lending her time and expertise to organizations that support diverse professionals including Techsgiving, SHPE and Render Atlanta.
Dr. Amparo de la Peña
Dr. Amparo de la Peña is the VP of Pharmacometrics at Cognigen, a division of Simulations Plus. A native of Montevideo, Uruguay, she graduated as a Pharmaceutical Chemist from the University of the Republic, and then earned a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics (2000) from the University of Florida.
Amparo has over 21 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, both as a PK/PD scientist and as an Asset Manager; where she led cross-functional teams in diverse therapeutic areas (including diabetes, neuroscience, oncology and COVID-19) to design, optimize and implement integrated development plans for internal and external partners. As a scientist, her strategic pharmacometrics approaches have supported global drug development from the early stages to regulatory approval and post-marketing.
Dr. de la Peña has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals in several languages and presented at scientific conferences worldwide. One of her passions is to mentor and develop diverse people, and to foster inclusion. Besides work, Amparo divides her time between her family and her involvement in scientific and community organizations as a volunteer, peer reviewer, or Board member.
Moderator: Doneisha Posey
Doneisha Posey, JD is Vice President and General Counsel of Black Onyx Management, Inc., a management consultancy specializing in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion objectives within and external to for-profit, non-profit and government agencies. She is a bilingual civil rights attorney, public servant, and thought leader on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Doneisha served as the chief diversity officer for Ivy Tech Community College, the nation’s largest community college system, where she focused on creating access and opportunity for over 150,000 students and 7,000 employees. Prior to her tenure at Ivy Tech, Doneisha worked in state government with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission where she served initially as the Administrative Law Judge and then as the Deputy Director and General Counsel. Her background includes litigation before state and federal administrative agencies, particularly the Executive Office of Immigration Review within the Department of Justice, and state and federal courts.
Doneisha is regularly consulted on matters of higher education diversity, workforce equity and inclusion, civil rights, housing discrimination, race and the law, leadership, and multicultural competency. She received her BA from Marian University and her Juris Doctorate from Indiana University McKinney School of Law. She has returned to the law school as an Adjunct Professor of Law, teaching Social and Racial Justice courses. She is also co-founder of Women's Equity Brunch, or WE Brunch, to advance equity for all women in Central Indiana. Doneisha is a 2021 recipient of the Leadership in the Latino Community award by the Indy Chamber. A 2020 IBJ Forty Under 40 awardee, Indy’s Best and Brightest in Education/Nonprofit winner, Golden Laurel Rising Star and many more awards for her commitment to the community.
***By registering for this event, you acknowledge that you may be photographed, videotaped, and/or audio-taped during the course of this event and hereby give permission for your image, and/or voice to be used in education, training, promotion, advertisement, and/or trade and communications media by Women & Hi Tech in any and all media outlets throughout the world, without restriction as to frequency or duration of usage.***
****PLEASE NOTE: W & HT event registration is non-transferable. ****
