Fifty-six women, from across Connecticut, were honored for their
innovation and leadership during the eleventh annual Women of
Innovation Awards Gala, held April 1 at the Aqua Turf Club in
Southington. This Awards Program recognized women innovators, role
models and leaders in the fields of science, technology,
engineering, and math as well as outstanding women at the high
school and collegiate level. Of these 56 women, 10 were recognized
as category winners.
Presenting sponsors of this year's event were Boehringer
Ingelheim USA Corporation, Covidien, Day Pitney LLP, and United
Technologies Corporation.
"The Council is honored to recognize Connecticut's most
extraordinary and talented women representing a cross section of
the state's most important technology companies and educational
institutions," said Bruce Carlson, President and CEO of the
Connecticut Technology Council.
Cecilia K. McKenney, Executive Vice President of Frontier Secure
and Administration, at Frontier Communications, was this year's
keynote speaker. McKenney is a member of The Leadership Council of
Franklin & Marshall College and a member of the Board of
Directors of The Child Care Council of Westchester County, Inc. On
May 15, 2014, she was honored with the HR Leader Award in the Large
Company category at the 2014 Fairfield County HR People of the Year
Awards.
The following are the 10 women chosen as category
winners; there are two winners in both the Research and Collegian
categories:
Academic Innovation and Leadership:
Medria Blue-Ellis, Principal, Engineering &
Science University Magnet School
Medria Blue-Ellis is the principal of ESUMS, a Magnet School of
Excellence and CT School of Distinction. Her curriculum expertise,
creative thinking, and persistence are shared with the female STEM
teachers she mentors. Her encouragement of female students to excel
in STEM manifests in accomplishments such as the 2014 Verizon App
Challenge State Finalist. Medria was one of 100 school leaders,
educational advocates, and researches convened at the Jack Kent
Cooke Foundation "Closing the Excellence Gap" conference.
Collegian Innovation and Leadership (two
winners):
Sapna Gupta, Ph.D. Student, University of
Connecticut
Sapna Gupta is a graduate research assistant at the Center for
Clean Energy Engineering and a Ph.D. candidate in materials science
and engineering at UCONN. Sapna's academic achievements, innovative
research and creativity are evident in the many fellowships,
distinctions, and awards she has received, including her honorable
mention for the 2014 Baker Student Researcher award. She is founder
and president of UCONN Keramos, and delegate of the ACerS PCSA.
Monika Weber, Ph.D. Student, Yale
University
Monika Weber is a Ph.D. candidate in electrical engineering at
Yale University and the co-inventor of Fluid-Screen, a small device
that detects bacteria in 30 minutes. She has won the Grand Prize in
the NASA "Create the Future" Design Contest 2011" and the Gold
Prize in MassChallenge and received over $200,000 in technology and
entrepreneurial awards. Monika combines leadership skills with
strong technical expertise, creativity and business acumen.
Community Innovation and
Leadership:
Keshia Ashe, Co-Founder & CEO,
ManyMentors
Keshia Ashe is a Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering at
UCONN and co-founder and CEO of ManyMentors. ManyMentors is a STEM
online and in-person mentoring nonprofit organization that connects
university mentors with middle and high school students interested
in STEM degrees and careers. She is a mentor, role model, TEDx
speaker, and an unwavering advocate for STEM education in
Connecticut.
Entrepreneurial Innovation and
Leadership:
Christina Lampe-Onnerud, Founder & CEO,
CLOTEAM LLC
Christina Lampe-Onnerud is known for her innovative work
developing high-performance, low-cost, safe,
environmentally-friendly batteries for portable electronics,
electric vehicles and energy storage. She is founder of
Boston-Power (IPO in 2016) and CLOTEAM, as well as holder of 80+
patents and author of numerous scientific articles. She was
recognized as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum
where she serves as an advisor on global innovation and renewable
transport.
Large Business Innovation &
Leadership:
Yu-Hui Rogers, Site Director, The Jackson
Laboratory for Genomic Medicine
Yu-Hui Rogers is leading the JAX-GM Administration and
Operations Team in establishing its new research institute in
Connecticut. She was the vice president of Core Technology
Development at the J. Craig Venter Institute where she was
responsible for technology development and a large-scale genomic
operation. She was instrumental in the development and
implementation of a high-throughput sequencing pipeline that
enabled the completion of the first human genome sequence at Celera
Genomics.
Research Innovation and Leadership (2
winners):
Serap Aksoy, Professor, Yale School of Public
Health
Serap Aksoy is a professor at the Yale School of Public Health
where she works on insects that transmit disease-causing microbes
to animals and plants. She lectures internationally, maintains
ongoing collaborative research programs, and has made landmark
contributions to the functional and evolutionary aspects of
insect-microbe interactions. Through her discoveries, she developed
innovative methods that use beneficial bacteria to render insects
inhospitable for disease-causing pathogens, thereby reducing their
disease transmission potential.
Radenka Maric, Connecticut Clean Energy
Professor in Sustainable Energy, University of Connecticut
Radenka Maric joined UCONN in 2010, where she focuses on
developing new materials and novel structures for energy storage
and conversion, structural ceramics and hydrogen production and
separation. Previously, she was group leader and program manager at
the National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Fuel Cell
Innovation, program manager at nGimat and senior scientist/team
ILeader at the Japan Fine Ceramics Center in Japan. Radenka has
published over 150 scientific papers.
Small Business Innovation and
Leadership:
Lisa Braden-Harder, CEO, Appen
Lisa Braden-Harder started her career in IBM's research
division, moving on to found the Butler Hill Group in 1993. There,
she leveraged her background in linguistic products ranging from
grammar checkers to search engines. In 2011, the company merged
with Appen, an Australian company also engaged in taking devices to
global markets. In 2013, she became CEO of the combined entity and
in January 2015, led the company through an IPO on the Australian
stock exchange.
Youth Innovation and
Leadership:
Anubhuti Mathur, High School Student,
Glastonbury High School
Anubhuti Mathur conducts research at the UCONN Health Center and
was a 2014 summer student fellow at The Jackson Laboratory. She was
an Intel ISEF finalist, American Chemical Society award winner,
National JSHS State Representative, Chemistry Olympiad
Semifinalist, and the Anna Harrison award winner for top female
scorer. Anubhuti captains Glastonbury's Debate and Science Bowl
teams, is president of the Medical Leaders Club, and runs a
charitable multicultural dance organization.
For a full list of this year's honorees, please visit the CTC
Website and this link.
About the Connecticut Technology Council
The Connecticut Technology Council (www.ct.org) is Connecticut's
industry association for the technology sector. CTC's mission is to
connect people, ideas and opportunities to the global technology
and innovation community. CTC provides members with business
assistance and specialized programs, in addition to promoting and
supporting public policies that globally position Connecticut's
"culture of innovation" that helps attract great ideas and
entrepreneurs to develop new jobs and wealth for the state.
CONTACT: Kaitlyn Mode, Connecticut Technology Council
(860) 289-0878 x338, kmode@ct.org