Hi! My name is Rikhi and you are listening to The Leadership, Equity and Wellness pod. Thank you for tuning in to Season 2. This season shared conversations that were recorded a year after the episodes from Season 1. Since then my understanding of leadership, equity and wellness for minorities across various industries evolved so much as did my understanding of recording, editing and sharing podcast episodes with the world. I am so honored to have had your time every Friday as new episodes released and it is my hope that together we grew through each episode and pushed ourselves to renew our commitment to taking care of ourselves first.  Thank you so much for tuning in.

Paola Terrazas was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Paola is a first-generation college graduate from The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) where she obtained a Bachelor's in Computer Science and a minor in Mathematics. During her college career, she completed 5 SWE internships including Disney, Facebook, Lucasfilm and Facebook. She created Lady Engineering, her blog, to share her advice, experience and learnings being a minority in tech. Her goal is to inspire, encourage and motivate gender-minorities in STEM to break barriers and achieve their career goals.

Kellie Gerardi is an aerospace and technology professional, a popular science communicator, and a payload specialist flying to space on a dedicated research mission with Virgin Galactic. Kellie is the author of Not Necessarily Rocket Science and the children’s picture book series Luna Muna. Kellie lives in Jupiter, Florida with her husband and their daughter Delta V. You can follow her on social media @kelliegerardi

Tammy is a Global Supply Chain Manager at Lucid Motors, working on electric vehicles to build a more sustainable future. She works with cross functional teams across finance, engineering, and quality to develop commodity strategies in her Supply Chain and Purchasing role. Previously, she was a Central Buyer at Ford Motors. Tammy  graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with her Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering.

In building a more sustainable future inside and outside work, Tammy enjoys participating in city task forces on their energy committees and in hackathons by using design thinking to identify and solve problems. Tammys first introduction to design thinking and problem solving was during high school robotics.

This was profoundly meaningful to her because it not only sparked her interest in STEM, but it unleashed her courage to blaze a trail for other minorities. As a first-generation low income college student, Tammy valued the mentorship she received through robotics and is deeply passionate about mentoring first generation college students, high school robotics teams, and minorities in STEM.

Antonella is a Computer Science student pursuing a Bachelor of Science, an incoming Software Engineer at Microsoft, a former illustrator and apparel designer from Argentina and a content creator. Beyond being a Computer Science student, she also works part-time as a Research Assistant studying the experiences of minorities within computer science education in order to broaden participation in computer science to all. Passionate about the impact that technology has on society, she's an advocate for diversity within STEM, and for justice-oriented design practices within technology that no longer continue to discriminate against people based on their ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or cultural background.

Hira is currently pursuing a Master of Engineering Science in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Western University’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration. As the President and Co-Founder of the Zenith Canada Pathways Foundation, she has worked with her team to develop the Zenith Fellowship which provides internship and mentorship opportunities to students and young professionals from underrepresented groups across Canada. Hira is an alumni of the Brooke Owens Fellowship program in the US from the Class of 2020, and was the first Canadian selected for the program. She had the opportunity to intern in the Manufacturing and Test Engineering department at Planet in San Francisco, CA.

Hira strives to create inclusive opportunities for underrepresented students across Canada who are passionate about space. Hira was on the Board of Directors of SEDS-Canada from 2017-2020 in varying roles including the Events Chair and President, where she worked on increasing outreach across Canada.

Her current research focuses on machine learning applications for autonomous robotic systems on future space exploration missions. She is currently a Mitacs Intern with Mission Control Space Services where she is developing a deep learning algorithm for lunar regolith particle classification. She is also the ADCS specialist for the Western Ukpik-1 cube satellite mission which is a part of the Canadian CubeSat Project with the Canadian Space Agency.

Sarah Lappin (she/her) graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2021 with a First Class Bachelor’s of Science in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. As a 2021 Brooke Owens Fellow Sarah interned at Loft Orbital in France, having faced the issues that come with being an international in aerospace. Sarah continued at Loft Orbital following her internship and currently works from the San Francisco office as a Machine Learning Engineer. Previously, Sarah was a software engineer intern at Pixalytics Ltd through the UK Space Agency funded Space Placement in Industry (SPIN) program.

With a passion for creating community and as a passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Sarah sat on the Edinburgh University Women in STEM Society committee for three years, the final year as president, co-founded a beginner-oriented hackathon, and co-authored two reports on DEI topics. In her professional career she continues to advocate for DEI in the workplace. Sarah is a passionate supporter of using technology for good and is excited about the impact she can have in the Aerospace industry.

Avani Gupta is from India. She was born in Uttar Pradesh and spent her childhood in Andhra Pradesh. Ever since she was a little girl, Avani took a zealous interest in anything related to airplanes and wanted to be an aerospace engineer when she grew up. She graduated high school from Delhi Public School, R. K. Puram, New Delhi in 2013 and started as an undergraduate aerospace engineering student at Georgia Tech in the fall of 2013. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in December 2016 and her Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering in August 2019. During her time as a graduate student, she interned in France within the Modeling and Simulation Department of Safran, Paris-Saclay and worked on the computational simulation of turbomachinery components, specifically axial compressors. She continued her research on the computational modeling of ice accretion, under the guidance of Dr. Lakshmi N. Sankar at Georgia Tech in collaboration with the US Army and NASA Glenn, for her doctoral studies and received her Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering in December 2021. She currently works as an aerodynamics engineer at the Turbomachinery Department at Linde Inc. in Tonawanda, NY.

Simran is a rising senior at The University of Alabama majoring in Aerospace Engineering and minoring in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics. She is a 2022 Brooke Owens Fellow interning at Planet in the Spacecraft Qualification and Systems Engineering teams. Previously, she worked at Wisk Aero, an eVTOL company designing the tilt rotor mechanism as a 2021 Zed Factor Fellow. She has been a part of Alabama Rocketry Association for 3 years and led the Spaceport America Cup team last year as the Project Manager. This year, she will be leading the entire team as the President. Being an international student in aerospace, and a minority in the Nepali aerospace industry, she is extremely passionate about building communities, uplifting, and empowering minorities, and DEI. She serves as a DEI Co-chair for Women of Aeronautics and Astronautics and founded WoAA chapter in Nepal to advocate for female representation in Nepali STEM fields.

Caroline is a Ph.D. Candidate and NSF GRFP Fellow at Columbia University in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, where she studies how climate change is leading to larger forest fires in the western United States, using remote sensing and big datasets. She is motivated by her passion to increase access to opportunities in STEM and dedicates her free time to mentoring students and volunteering for outreach and diversity initiatives in the aerospace and Earth science communities. She leads the Brooke Owens Fellowship as part of the Executive Team, a nonprofit program that matches young women and other gender minority undergraduate students with competitive aerospace company internships and mentorship annually. She is also a Steering Committee member of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Geosciences (AAPIiG), and co-founded SpaceInterns.org (a platform for aerospace-related resources and an opportunities database). She received her Bachelors of Arts in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University.