Penrose "Women in S.T.E.M. Careers" Presentation

Join the Penrose Neighborhood Association on Thursday, October 10th (6:00PM - 8:00PM) at Trinity Episcopal Church to hear from local STEM professionals about their careers and inspiring personal stories!

This event is geared towards middle & high school students but all ages of students and neighbors are welcomed!
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*Please inquire if parking is needed*

PLEASE RSVP TO: alvordstraubs@verizon.net

                                                                                                  OUR PANELISTS:
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Millie Osborne:

Dr. Millie Osborne has a BA in Biology from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she also completed the first two years of medical school. She finished her last two medical school years in Richmond at The Medical College of Virginia, since re-named Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and has been a Diplomat of the National Board of Medical Examiners since 1989. Dr. Osborne received postdoctoral training in Washington, DC at Providence Hospital, Saint Elizabeth's Psychiatric Hospital, George Washington University Psychiatry Program, and Georgetown University Psychiatry Program. A recognized expert in Integrative-Holistic Health, Administrative Healthcare, and Geriatric Psychiatry, Dr. Osborne brings more than 30-years of expertise to readers who want to optimize enjoying long, healthy lives. Dr. Osborne is a Gold prize winner of the 2020 Life Challenges Human Relations Book Award, a Bronze prize winner of the 2022 Reader’s Choice Award, and a Finalist in the 2023 International Book Award.

Jennifer Ellis, Ph.D.

Dr. Ellis is currently serving as a Program Director as part of the National Science Foundation’s Rotator Program. Dr. Ellis is a Professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s (UTC) in the School of Education where she also serves as the director for the STEM Education program. She has a doctorate of philosophy in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on Science Education and Educational Technology from Louisiana State University, a master’s degree in Information from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Tuskegee University. Her passion to enhance inclusive STEM Education from PreK to graduate school STEM education is evident in her research portfolio. In her role at NSF as the Lead Program Director for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and supporting other programs in the Division of Undergraduate Education, she is able to be on the cutting edge of these intersections and is able to serve as an advocate for the missing millions in STEM via supporting STEM teacher candidates/pre-service and in-service teachers.

Vidisha Parasram

Vidisha Parasram is an Epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control, at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Prior to that, she was an Epidemic Intelligence Officer at CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Physical Scientist at the Environmental Protection Agency and a Chemical Incident Investigator at the US Chemical Safety Board.


Nancy Manahan, M.D.

Upon starting college in 1972, I started out majoring in Foreign Language but got sidetracked by the fabulous life science courses I was taking at the University of Colorado. In my Junior year of college, I decided to turn "Pre-Med" and transferred to Colorado State University where they offered a B.S. in Human Nutrition figuring that would be useful education for a doctor. It was quite competitive to get into medical school in the mid-1970s and I got accepted to a brand new school in Grenada - to which I happily accepted, not knowing the potential repercussions of such a venture. It was actually a very progressive and rigorous course but they had no graduates to point to, so after one year there, I forfeited that and started all over at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland — a medical school older than any of those in the USA! I did take with me a treasured hobby from my time in Grenada however — scuba diving! The medical students in Dublin consisted of 1/3 Irish; 1/3 from First World countries; and 1/3 from Third World countries — and we were with the same ~100 students of our class for the six year program. Little did I know that this experience (1978-1984) would whet my appetite -and sort of prepare me - for my ultimate career in Medicine — as a US Embassy Doctor. I did a three year Family Practice Residency in a community hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona and worked in that area and in Northern Virginia doing Family Practice and/or Urgent Care for several years before I got itchy feet to go overseas again. My quest eventually led me to the State Department where I joined the Foreign Service as a "Regional Medical Officer". I held that job for almost 25 years and it was fabulous because it combined my interest in health care with lots of travel, living overseas, and interesting dilemmas that arise and how best to solve them.

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Dr. Jennifer Gerbi

Dr. Jennifer Gerbi recently served as the Acting Director of ARPA-E, the ‘moonshot’ high-risk, high-reward R&D agency at the Department of Energy. Initially joining as a Program Director in 2015, her programmatic focus at ARPA-E included improving the energy efficiency and management of buildings via advanced sensing systems and storage, novel insulating materials for windows, and renewable energy generation via photovoltaics. Leveraging her experience from industry, her role grew to add responsibilities including recruiting, people management and culture, coordination both inside and outside the DOE, legal issues, and research security, culminating in leading the entire agency in 2021 for two years. Experiencing ARPA-E from multiple roles has given her a unique perspective into the opportunities and challenges of this type of agency, much of which she recently shared in an introspective discussion as the keynote speaker at the Spring 2024 Materials Research Society Women in Materials Science and Engineering Breakfast. Prior to joining ARPA-E, Gerbi worked at Dow Corning in multiple capacities, starting in 2011 as a Program Leader in the company’s Business and Technology Incubator, building a next-generation solar portfolio. She then branched out to include a business focus as a Business Builder, leading a global team for a lithium-ion battery program. Gerbi’s most recent role at Dow Corning was as an Applied Engineering and Technical Service Leader, where she led an electronics application engineering and development team, working directly with large global customers to enable technical solutions via silicones in consumer and crossover healthcare electronics markets. From 2007 to 2011, Gerbi served as a Senior Materials Scientist at The Dow Chemical Company, focusing on the copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) solar technology effort. Gerbi served her postdoctoral fellowship at Argonne National Laboratory, developing thin film diamond coatings for electronics and healthcare markets, and also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois on novel diffusion barriers. She holds several patents and publications from her earlier active individual contributor years. Dr. Gerbi holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a M.S. in Physics from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. in Physics from Bard College. Building on her experience at every step, from national laboratory to large industry to the federal government, she most recently received the DOE Secretary’s Honor Award (2022) and wrote an invited article for the National Academies of Science and Engineering Issues Magazine regarding enabling risk-taking workplace cultures (2023). She has a particular interest in sharing how she overcame personal challenges, understanding how people can best work together, and communicating about how workplace culture can make or break success.

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Mary Kvitashvili

Ms. Kvitashvili was born in the United States to émigré parents of Georgian and Russian decent. She is a native of Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC.Ms. Kvitashvili has a postgraduate degree in C3I Systems Engineering from the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia where she studied under Dr. Harry VanTrees at the George Mason C3I Center of Excellence. Some years later, she continued her post graduate studies at the University of Surrey, England where she studied satellite communications and RF theory, and more recently at Georgia Tech where she studied Antenna Engineering. Her undergraduate degree from James Madison University was in Geology, and she spent time early in her career as a field geologist working in Virginia on a uranium exploration project.

During her working career, Ms. Kvitashvili has worked primarily in the US Department of Defense (DoD) industry for large corporations such as McDonnell Douglas Aerospace (now Boeing) and General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). She has a strong knowledge of command and control systems, telecommunications and network engineering, and satellite communications. As a systems engineer throughout her career, Ms Kvitashvili’s primary technical focus has been designing, deploying, and supporting fielded VSAT satellite networks, and specialized wireless, and radio frequency (RF) systems for the US Government (USG), DoD, and Special Operations communities. Stepping away briefly from US Government work into the US private sector in the year 2000, Ms. Kvitashvili lived and worked in Europe for 5 and a half years; While in Europe she was employed by the Lucent Corporation and then The Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD) in Paris, France as well as with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Rome, Italy, and the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland. While working with the UN, Ms. Kvitashvili traveled and worked extensively in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia as a telecommunications engineer primarily building and deploying satellite (VSAT) networks for the UN offices. She also participated in the UN Emergency Response Telecommunications team efforts both as a design engineer and on field assignments supporting UN declared emergencies in Baghdad, Iraq. In 2006, Ms. Kvitashvili left Europe and the UN to return to the United States where her family resided and returned to working for the US Government sector as a contractor.

Working again supporting DoD and other USG communities, Ms. Kvitashvili traveled extensively overseas while employed as a satellite communications engineer. She traveled to Afghanistan four times in support of Operation Enduring Freedom supporting USG and US Military satellite communications capability working as a satellite field engineer; she led teams of junior technicians as well as worked side by side with her USG counterparts. Post Afghanistan, Ms Kvitashvili primarily worked building, deploying, and supporting specialized satellite, wireless, and tactical radio frequency (RF) systems for the Special Operations and US Government communities. Toward the end of her career as a senior member of the engineering staff, she was often asked by her employers to participate in business development efforts on large programs of significant cost value while collaborating cross-functionally with multiple USG and corporate organizations.

In the spring of 2022, Ms. Kvitashvili somewhat reluctantly retired as the Russian invasion of Ukraine began and weighed heavily on her sense of the need to fight tyranny and the reminders of her own family history. Ms. Kvitashvili is fluent in the French language and has Russian language skills. In her private life, Ms. Kvitashvili is actively involved with several American NGOs who work in the Republic of Georgia primarily in medical and social assistance programs, and medical education grants and exchanges. She enjoys equestrian pursuits, animals, yoga, and is an avid bicycler and outdoors woman.

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                                                                                                   OUR MODERATOR:

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Lazaro “Laz” Bosch

Lazaro leads strategic efforts for the Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition as an associate, focusing on stakeholder engagement, presidential transition, and external events for the Center. His love for public service work began as an intern for a political appointee at NASA. He developed an appreciation for federal workers as a project coordinator at NASA, FAA, Smithsonian, and at the National Institute of Aerospace. Laz also has worked for other organizations in the private sector as a Spanish translator, sales and marketing for the LEGO group, lobbying for Public Health, and STEM education. He continues his passions for emerging technology and STEM by frequently participating at the maker space in Arlington Central Library, D.C. MLK library, NoVA labs, and NoVA LEGO group. Laz graduated with a Bachelor's from Florida International University and was born and raised in Miami, Florida. Laz moved to the Penrose area in early 2024.

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