The 2018 Women of Color STEM Multicultural Conference Awards

by Samana Sheikh

Women from various backgrounds received awards for their accomplishments on October 13, 2018, at the STEM Multicultural Conference Awards which was co-hosted by Women of Color magazine.

Women in cocktail dresses arrived at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. Many receiving awards while their family members came as support systems. The award ceremony recognized women who have made an impact in engineering, math (STEM) and technology.

The emcee for the night included Priya Kaur Mann, an Anchor at channel 4 WDIV Detroit, NBC.

Mann is an experienced story-teller, bilingual and also comes from a Punjabi background.

She announced every award recipient that came from vast educational backgrounds. Many of the participants were from the local area in Detroit.

Last year, over five million technology jobs were held by women with minority backgrounds. This background consisted of Hispanic and African American females.

Donna L. Bell, Director of research operations from the Ford Motor Company, won an award for technologist of the year.

The career achievement awards were held by Rekha Rao, Brenda Ellis, Jie Xue and Gena Lovett. They also awarded women in education including, Melanie Villatoro, assistant professor at New York City College of Technology, and Kathleen Johnson, associate professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Awards were also offered in areas of community service, managerial leadership, new media leadership, outstanding technical contribution, president’s award, professional achievement, student leadership, technical innovation and last but not least technical innovation.

This specific conference is hosted to honor and highlight challenges of gender harassment and other discouraging factors women have to face on a daily basis from their workplace.

Women coming together in unity and loving their personal achievements was a success. The STEM multicultural conference awards brought a mix of young, talented women in a room which is the definition of a melting pot.