Carmen Amaral, Academic Coordinator, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School
Carmen Amaral (she/her/hers) is the Academic Coordinator at Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High school and has been a resident of Southeastern MA since immigrating from the island of St. Michael, Azores. Growing up in an immigrant family, the importance of education was always at the forefront of her consciousness and ultimately led her to make a departure from pharmaceutical R&D and begin her career as an educator.
Ms. Amaral holds an EdS in Educational Leadership from Bridgewater State University, an MAT in Biology Education from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and is a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellow. She earned her Bachelor's in Biology and Chemistry from Bridgewater State College where she was also the recipient of the Leonard T. Kelly Excellence in Chemistry award and received published recognition of her undergraduate work in bioorganic chemistry.
Prior to her current role, Carmen served as the Science Department Chair for the Southeastern Regional School District and as a classroom teacher at Southeastern and the Cape Cod Collaborative. In addition to her work as an educator, Carmen also engages in advocacy work in her community and serves as Vice President of the Board at the Women's Fund SouthCoast.
Chris Clapp, Enterprise Program Manager at HII Technical Solutions, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries
Chris Clapp is an Enterprise Program Manager at Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) Unmanned Systems Group (UMS) in Pocasset, MA. He leads the Naval Expeditionary Warfare Systems (NEWS) enterprise in the development, production, and support of the US Navy MK18 FoS AUV program. The autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) provisioned by this program supply the US Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Mine Counter Measures (MCM) teams an unfair advantage in their mission to locate, identify and neutralize adversaries undersea mines.
In his prior role as senior program manager for HII UMS Naval Undersea Warfare Systems Enterprise (UWS) he managed autonomous undersea vehicle (AUV) prototype development for an undersea payload delivery system and low rate initial production (LRIP) of an advanced bathymetry mapping system. Mr. Clapp has over 20 years of engineering program management expertise ensuring timely delivery of complex high-performance solutions for military platforms and commercial products in compliance with federal acquisition regulations (FAR) and commercial industry regulations. Past programs span first of a kind prototype development for DARPA, low rate initial production systems for various land, air, sea and space applications, and high-mix low-volume production solutions for various commercial markets.
Prior to joining HII UMS, Chris established the first cross-functional rapid-response team at Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, MA) chartered with the development of microelectronic embedded systems for mission-critical rapid fielding needs of the U.S. Government. Two-time winner of the Draper distinguished performance award, the team conceptualized, designed, developed, tested and deployed systems on critical timelines of 6 weeks to 6 months in a high-mix low-volume production center. The group routinely worked upwards of 12 delivery orders simultaneously.
From 2000 to 2010 Chris worked in commercial industry. He led a cross-functional team of engineers in the system design and integration of dozens of rugged open-architecture electronic computing systems and managed the complete re-design of a serial communications product family for SIE Computing Solutions Inc. (Brockton, MA). He was also a project manager for the verification and validation of automated test products for Teradyne Inc. (Boston, MA).
Mr. Clapp holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts ('96), a master's degree in engineering management from Tufts Gordon Institute ('09) and has nine years' combined service in the Massachusetts Army National Guard's Signal and Artillery Corps.
Michael Crones, Draper Labs, Chief of Staff - Head of Corporate Strategy & Communications
Mike joined Draper as the Chief Information Officer in September 2015 to enable and support an overall corporate transformation. In his role as CIO, he strategically addressed the people, process and technology aspects of IT as it related to the overall corporate vision for change and modernization.
Mike led the IT department through a transformation to a high performing, leading-edge team. Operational excellence, compliance, security and innovation were key themes in building out this new organization. He has developed strong relationships throughout the corporation in an effort to truly understand the mission and customer perspective. This has enabled Mike to build a clear vision for Draper's Im IT future ensuring that it is closely tied to business outcomes. Mike is a champion for delivering superior customer service while balancing the need for appropriate information security and enabling the business.
Additionally, Mike led the creation of the new Program Operations department, which is focused on delivery of facilities, security and IT resources for Draper's programs. He has most recently taken the role as Chief of Staff overseeing Draper's strategy development, execution as well as corporate communications.
Prior to Draper, Mike was with MIT Lincoln Laboratory serving in roles from technical staff, to program management, and eventually culminating as the Deputy CIO. During his time with MITLL, he helped run the Laboratory's central IT services and was intimately involved all aspects of supporting research and development activities. Additionally, Mike has held technical IT implementation, management and architecture roles across various industries including consulting and technology companies.
Jill Dixon, Sales Firestarter & Social Entrepreneur*
Jill Dixon is a Sales Firestarter and Social Entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in the tech world, President & Co-Founder of Taly (talyfoundation.org), and Senior Account Executive for Lenovo US (Lenovo US).
Jill and her husband Phil launched Taly after experiencing firsthand the struggles that many families face when searching for quality, affordable preschool opportunities for their children. Taly's vision is bold; to ensure that all children will have access to high-quality preschool education.
Since launching Taly in 2015, Jill has immersed herself in understanding the challenges and opportunities that exist in solving the early childhood dilemma. She has developed pilot programs in partnership with community providers to provide access to underserved children, supported training opportunities for early education staff and leaders, built a network of motivated and engaged advocates, entrepreneurs, innovators, educators, policymakers and families of young children. Her work with Taly has convinced her of one thing. We have all the tools we need to solve this problem if we work together to create a sustainable systemic solution.
Jill is fusing her passion and lifelong devotion to children with the skills she honed over 20 years as a successful multimillion-dollar high-tech sales professional to solve the early childhood crisis. She understands both from a personal as well as professional perspective how critical it is for children to have an opportunity to achieve their full potential. She believes that giving children a strong foundation results in long-term benefits for the child and immediate economic and social benefits for their families and communities. Jill is committed to helping children experience excellence in early childhood education, express themselves, and develop a deep love of learning.
Jill is proud to serve on the Board of Directors for Strategies for Children (strategiesforchildren.org), the MetroWest Y (metrowestymca.org), and as an appointee to the Massachusetts Early Education and Care Workforce Council (MA Early Ed & Care Workforce Council)
*As of September 2020
Diana Kelley, Co-Founder and CTO of SecurityCurve
Diana Kelley's security career spans over 30 years. She is Co-Founder and CTO of SecurityCurve, Chief vCISO at SaltCybersecurity and donates much of her time to volunteer work in the cybersecurity community, including serving on the ACM Ethics & Plagiarism Committee, on the Executive Board at Sightline Security, as Executive Board and Inclusion Working Group champion at WiCyS, Executive Advisory Board member at Cyber Future Foundation, Cybersecurity Committee Advisor at CompTIA, Advisory Council member Bartlett College of Science and Mathematics, Bridgewater State University, and RSAC US Program Committee. Diana produces the #MyCyberWhy series and is the host of BrightTALK's The (Security) Balancing Act and co-host of the Your Everyday Cyber podcast. She was the Cybersecurity Field CTO for Microsoft, Global Executive Security Advisor at IBM Security, GM at Symantec, VP at Burton Group (now Gartner), and a Manager at KPMG. She is a sought-after keynote speaker, the co-author of the books Practical Cybersecurity Architecture and Cryptographic Libraries for Developers, has been a lecturer at Boston College's Masters program in cybersecurity, the EWF 2020 Executive of the Year, and one of Cybersecurity Ventures 100 Fascinating Females Fighting Cybercrime.
Gary Miller, Senior Institutional Sales at Sawgrass Asset Management, L.L.C.*
Gary Miller is an Investment Sales Director for Great-West Investments™. In his role, he is responsible for GWI funds sales and servicing from the defined contribution investment only (DCIO) and corporate perspectives.
Gary joined the organization in 2016. Prior to Great West, Gary worked at Fidelity Investments for 18 years, where he served as a Vice President and as an Investment Account Executive in the corporate and government markets.
Gary holds a bachelor's degree from Northeastern University. He currently maintains the FINRA Series 6 securities registration and the Series 63 state securities license as well as insurance licenses in all states.
*as of September 2020
Chiderah Okoye, Executive Director of Venly Institute*
Chiderah Okoye is the Executive Director of the Venly Institute, a Cambridge-based applied learning and certification organization that helps local businesses grow through social media, cloud based applications and cybersecurity best practices. The Venly Training Service provides person-to-person training and support for local businesses delivered through recent graduates and returning veterans as part of a 1-yr fellowship. Venly's platform allows local businesses to collaborate across their products and services for joint innovation.
Chiderah earned her B.S in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. She began her career in industrial controls with Rockwell Automation, the world's largest automation company. She held roles ranging from account management to sales leadership while in that industry. Her passions lie at the intersection of business, education, and technology. In keeping with those threads, she currently serves as the President Emeritus for the Boston Professionals chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers in addition to serving as Chair Emeritus for Boston's Affinity Leadership Consortium – a forum of Greater Boston minority affinity leaders to advance diverse programming initiatives for the region. Chiderah was selected by the World Economic Forum to join the Boston Hub of the Global Shapers in 2015. In February 2017 Chiderah was appointed by Governor Charlie Baker to serve on the newly commissioned Black Advisory Commission for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In 2020 she joined the board of directors for the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts (BECMA).
*as of September 2020
Joseph St.Laurent, Head of Industry Relations & Regulatory Expert at Chemic Laboratories LLC, A Solvias Company and President, CSO at Koda Therapeutics LLC.
Mr. Joseph St.Laurent ("88 biology/ bio-chemistry) was the Co-founder, President, and CSO of Chemic Laboratories Inc. (www.chemiclabs.com) and now serves as the Head of Industry Relations & Regulatory Expert at Chemic Laboratories LLC and the Co-Chief Scientific Officer for Olatec Therapeutics LLC (www.olatec.com). Mr. St. Laurent has more than 25 years of executive management & technical experience in the area of pharmaceutical chemistry operations. Under Mr. St. Laurent's direction, Chemic Laboratories evolved into a distinguished & mature full-service cGMP pharmaceutical development contract facility conducting business globally. His expertise consists of defining and executing strategic resources to support drug candidate identification and development. Mr. St. Laurent is expertly trained in the field of analytical chemistry and pharmaceutical product development and has been awarded more than 50 US and international patents. Mr. St Laurent participates in several industry work/lobbying groups including serving as the second Vicechair of the Bio-Process Systems Alliance (www.bpsalliance.org), a Washington DC-based industry advocacy group. Mr. St. Laurent currently serves as the BSU Foundation board Chairman and participates in BSU activities whenever possible. In Joseph's off time he enjoys spending time with his loving wife Linda ("88 & "16) and his family. He enjoys hunting, fishing, golf, and travel.
