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Lauren Donovan is Assistant Director for STEM Smart programs. After graduating from Stony Brook University with a BA in Anthropology, Lauren’s career in higher education began in the non-profit conservation organization within the Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University. This environment grew Lauren’s proficiencies for grant proposal and research, and program development. After a decade long tenure in Anthropology, Lauren transitioned to the Department of Technology and Society. She is currently the Assistant Director of STEM Smart programs, which include programs S-STEM ASSETS, LSAMP, and NASA NY Space Grant. Lauren has had the opportunity to participate in many professional development programs, such as the first cohort of the Research Foundation Leadership Academy, and Research Foundation Mentoring Program. Lauren received her Master of Arts in Higher Education Administration from Stony Brook University in May 2017. Her current research analyzes the gender equity in higher education, with a focus of females in STEM. With her research background, Lauren is a Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) affiliated member, and instructs the course, Society and Gender in STEM.

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Mónica F. Bugallo is the Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University. She received her B.S., M.S, and Ph. D. degrees in computer science from University of A Coruña, Spain. She joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Stony Brook University in 2002. Her research interests are in the field of statistical signal processing, with emphasis on the theory of Monte Carlo methods and its application to different disciplines including biomedicine, ecology, sensor networks, and finance. In addition, she has focused on STEM education and has initiated several successful programs with the purpose of engaging students at all academic stages in the excitement of engineering and research, with focus on underrepresented groups. She has authored and coauthored two book chapters and more than 185 journal papers and refereed conference articles.

Bugallo is a senior member of the IEEE, serves on several of its technical committees and is the current vice chair of the IEEE Signal Processing Society Signal Processing Theory and Methods Technical Committee and the chair of the EURASIP Special Area Team on Theoretical and Methodological Trends in Signal Processing as well as an elected member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society Sensor Array and Multichannel Technical Committee. She has been part of the technical committee and has organized various professional conferences and workshops. She has received several prestigious research and education awards including the State University of New York (SUNY) Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2017), the 2019 Ada Byron Award of the Galician Society of Computer Engineers (Spain) for a successful professional career path that inspires women to engineering study and careers, the Best Paper Award in the IEEE Signal Processing Magazine 2007 as coauthor of a paper entitled Particle Filtering, the IEEE Outstanding Young Engineer Award (2009), for development and application of computational methods for sequential signal processing, the IEEE Athanasios Papoulis Award (2011), for innovative educational outreach that has inspired high school students and college level women to study engineering, the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Clare Boothe Luce (CBL) Scholarship Award (2017), and the Chair of Excellence by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid-Banco de Santander (Spain) (2012).

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Thomas S. Woodson is an associate professor in the Department of Technology and Society at Stony Brook University. He investigates the effects of technology on inequality throughout the world and the causes/consequences of inclusive innovation. For the past several years he has studied the effectiveness of scientific funding to have broader impact, and ways to improve diversity in STEM fields. He is currently the director of the $4 million State University of New York Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (SUNY LSAMP) and the $1 million S-STEM Scholarship Academic and Social STEM Excellence for Transfer Students (ASSETS) programs. These NSF sponsored programs help low-income, and underrepresented minority students persist and succeed in STEM majors and careers. Dr. Woodson received his B.S.E in electrical engineering from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in Public Policy for the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).

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With over 25 years of experience in both the research and teaching communities on Long Island, Dr. Candice J. Foley endeavors to bring her perspectives of each of these realms to her STEM students at Suffolk County Community College. As the Principal Investigator for Suffolk County Community College’s three consecutive National Science Foundation S STEM scholarship grants, the the National Institute of Health IRACDA grant (Institutional Research and Career Development Award), the NSF LSAMP, the NSF SENCER/NYP, and Long Island Community Foundation “Removing Barriers and Strengthening STEM capacity at Suffolk County Community College” grants, Dr. Foley served as the STEM Coordinator for all SCCC NSF STEM Scholars on three campuses.
Dr. Foley has also served on national grant projects involving curricular reform for chemistry education. Her experiences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Suffolk County Community College, and Brookhaven National Laboratory has enabled her to focus upon the adaptation and implementation of innovations in classroom learning and undergraduate research through curricular innovation and technology based software for the community college application. Dr. Foley is a delegate to the SUNY Research Foundation Undergraduate Research Steering Committee, the Empire State STEM Education Initiative as well as the Interim Associate Dean for Curriculum Development.

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Dr. Shanise Kent is the Assistant Dean of The Graduate School at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Her efforts focus on providing support, oversight, and advocacy for graduate programs, faculty, and students, as well as, increasing the quality, diversity, funding, and integrity of graduate education. In her current role she leads graduate level diversity and professional development initiates. Prior to joining The Graduate School, Dr. Kent was the Director of Diversity Programs and Initiatives in the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University (BU). During her ten years at BU, she served as Co-Principal Investigator and Campus Director of the National Science Foundation funded Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate programs, Principal Investigator of the New York State Education Department funded Science & Technology Entry Program, and Associate Director of the U.S. Department of Education funded Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program. She has fourteen years of experience supporting first-generation to college, low-income and historically underrepresented students. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Master of Business Administration, and Juris Doctor (law degree) from the University at Buffalo, SUNY.

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Dr. Maurie McInnis is the sixth President of Stony Brook University, one of America’s leading public universities and an internationally recognized research institution. As chief executive for Stony Brook, McInnis also oversees Stony Brook Medicine, Long Island’s premier academic medical center, encompassing five health sciences schools, four hospitals, and 200 community-based healthcare settings. She plays a key role in economic development on Long Island and in Stony Brook’s role as a co-manager of Brookhaven National Laboratory.
McInnis most recently served as the executive vice president and provost for the University of Texas at Austin, a top public research university serving more than 50,000 students, where she acted as chief academic officer, led strategic planning for the university’s academic mission, and made significant advancements in equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives. Prior to that, she spent nearly 20 years at the University of Virginia in various academic and administrative appointments, including vice provost for academic affairs, associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Arts and Sciences, director of American studies, and professor of art history.
Her academic scholarship has focused on the cultural history of the American south. She has published extensively on American art history, including five books on the subject. She most recently published Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson's University (University of Virginia Press, 2019).
She earned her bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in art history from University of Virginia, and received her master’s degree and PhD in art history from Yale University.

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