Engineering World Health

It's STEM Education Month in our home state of North Carolina, and to celebrate, EWH has asked four talented engineers and scientists from around the world to join us for a conversation about they forged a path in STEM.

Our panelists have worked on exciting projects from medical device design to software engineering for NASA and delivering critical medical supplies across Africa via aircraft. In this conversation moderated by EWH CEO Dr. Tojan Rahhal, they discuss what sparked their interest in STEM, exciting projects they've worked on, mentorship, imposter syndrome, and more.

Panelists:

• Deanna Hood, Australian Young Engineer of the Year 2022
• Patience Niyigena, Flight Operator at Zipline
• Glen Rabito, Director of Engineering at NXT Biomedical
• Jennifer Moody, Head of External Innovation, Genomic Medicine at Danaher Corporation

Learn more about Engineering World Health at www.ewh.org.

To celebrate International Women in Engineering Day on June 23, 2022 Engineering World Health President & CEO Dr. Tojan Rahhal sat down with four inspiring women in STEM for a conversation about how they've forged paths in their respective industries. They shared personal stories about what sparked their interest in science and who helped them along the way, challenges they've faced as women and women of color in historically male-dominated sectors, and offered advice for girls and women interested in STEM careers on mentorship, communication, adopting a change mindset, and more. 

Dr. Melissa Young-Joyner is a Senior Clinical Strategy Manager at Smith & Nephew (S+N) in the Orthopedic division of Trauma and Extremities. In this role, she provides clinical support for both new medical devices in development and existing products on the market. Before joining the clinical team at S+N, Melissa has also worked as a Clinical Scientist and Medical Affairs Manager within the MedTech industry, where she has had the opportunity to support medical devices throughout the entire product life cycle from ideation and innovation to device retirement. Before working in MedTech, Melissa worked in various roles within the Pharmaceutical Industry and academia in the areas of Neurodegeneration, developing preclinical studies for new dementia therapeutics and R&D for oncology drug discovery and vaccine development. Melissa holds a bachelor of science in Biochemistry and a minor in Bio-manufacturing from NC State University and a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Science from the University of Georgia. She also holds several post-graduate credentials, including GCP for Clinical Trials certifications, and is a Certified Medical Device Auditor through ASQ. 

Anny Liao has been with Gilbarco Veeder-Root since April of 2018. She is serving in the Forecourt Engineering division as Director of Engineering for various functions. Currently, she and her team shape architecture for electronic hardware and software design consolidation of different platforms. Anny is currently on assignment to Vontier’s internal incubator initiative, where individuals from various operating companies inside of Vontier come together to form a start-up venture backed by Vontier. Anny has a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Keller Graduate School of Management.

Nicole Learn is responsible for managing IT's portfolio of projects and initiatives at Vontier. Prior, she served as Director in the Talent Center of Excellence at Red Hat responsible for workforce planning, employment branding, social media, events, diversity and inclusion, and early talent programs. Nicole also held various roles in HR, Services, Sales, Consulting and Marketing throughout her 18-year tenure at Cisco. Nicole was a software consultant leading projects in North America, Europe and Asia. She earned her MBA in International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing from the University of Iowa.

Sara Lozano-Sanchez Originally from Austin, TX, Sara developed an interest in construction from a young age while watching her dad work as a civil engineer. She eventually attended the University of Missouri where she graduated with a Civil Engineering degree in 2019. After college she joined the Southwest District of Hensel Phelps, where her first assignment was the Kalahari Resorts location in Round Rock, Texas - the largest indoor waterpark in the country at the time. She is currently assigned to the Round Rock Public Library.