2026 Knight Campus Graduate Internship Inclusion Symposium Speaker Lineup

Opening Remarks

Kimfer Flanery-Rye

Kimfer Flanery-Rye (She/Her) founded Inclusion Equals and served as an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University. She holds an MBA in Executive Leadership. A sought-after speaker, Kimfer has presented locally, nationally, and internationally for audiences ranging from The Gates Foundation to the World Economic Forum.

 

Keynote Speaker

Leo Caldwell

Leo Caldwell (He/Him) is an educator, speaker, and communications strategist working at the intersection of storytelling, design, and organizational culture. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a Master’s degree in Digital Storytelling.  He teaches in the School of Journalism at Ball State University, where he served as a Faculty Fellow in the Office of Inclusive Excellence. Leo also works with biotech startups and pharmaceutical organizations, helping teams think more clearly about communication and audience.Drawing from his experiences as a transgender man raised in rural Indiana, Leo brings a unique perspective to conversations about identity and resilience.  His work has been featured in national media, and he is the creator of the Trans Collective, a storytelling project documenting transgender lives and migration across the United States.  Through keynote presentations, workshops, and facilitated dialogue, Leo helps organizations create cultures where people feel seen and valued.

 

Student Speakers

Portrait of Evalyn Smith

Evalyn Smith (She/Her) finished her Bachelor of Chemistry degree at the University of Oregon. In her undergraduate work, she furthered research involving osteoarthritis, as well as using a 3D-printable polymer for drug delivery. Born and raised in Oregon, Evalyn enjoys riding her bike, cooking, and playing video games.

Portrait of Varsheni Vijay

Varsheni Vijay (She/Her) is a graduate in Biological Sciences and Structural Biology from Nanyang Technological University. She is now a master’s student in the KCGIP Bioinformatics track. She has worked on projects involving the modelling of metabolic pathways kinetics, as well as the study of pathways involved in lung cancers and lymphomas. In her free time, she enjoys sleeping and beading tiny trinkets.

Portrait of CJ Bradford

CJ Bradford (They/Them) is a current KCGIP student in the Optical Materials & Devices track. They're originally from Los Angeles, County, California, but they currently live in Eugene with their fiancé Rose. When they're not studying, CJ enjoys practicing aerial silks and getting involved in theatre.

 

 

Inclusion Leadership Panel


Moderator:

Portrait of Jess Nelson

Jess Nelson (She/They) graduated from the semiconductor track in 2022 and then learned to manage high volume ion implant manufacturing process development for Microchip Technology as a Process Engineer. This year they moved on to a role in Technical Product Support for metal deposition products at Applied Materials supporting the field team in Oregon. Jess made a significant career transition into the semiconductor workforce after a decade in public service. Completing a bachelor's degree in Neuroscience in 2011, she served two years in AmeriCorps and then worked for nearly eight years for a Colorado community foundation, Chinook Fund, which moves money to the front lines of social justice organizing. During this time, Jess also got a second undergraduate degree in Physics while learning from Colorado community about the nuances and brutalism of systems of oppression (and the ways to dismantle them) and carries this knowledge into their work today.

Panelists:

Portrait of David Degnan

David Degnan (He/Him) graduated from the 2018-2019 bioinformatics cohort. His professional work has been in developing and integrating the fields of mass spectrometry-based omics (proteomics, metabolomics, lipidomics), and extending them to spatial, single cell, and microbial (meta) spaces. At the University of Oregon, he teaches Bi623, and co-teaches the biostatistics courses.

 

Portrait of Maria Dulay

Maria Dulay (She/Her) earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin with Prof. Marye Anne Fox and completed an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford University with Prof. Dick Zare (Chemistry). She is a senior research scientist and lab manager in Prof. Joe DeSimone’s lab at Stanford’s School of Medicine (Radiology). Maria is also the Director of the Center for STEMM Mentorship at Stanford, which champions team-based mentorship. She is also an active member of the American Chemical Society’s Chemists with Disabilities Committee, advocating for inclusivity within the scientific community.

Portrait of Midhat Farooq

Midhat Farooq (She/Her) is the Careers Senior Program Manager at the American Physical Society. Within this role, she develops career and professional development programs and resources for students and early career physicists. Midhat manages the APS Career Mentoring Fellows program, through which academic and industry-based physicists receive training on and have the opportunity to mentor the next generation of scientists. She also organizes research sessions and career events at APS conferences to support students attending the meetings. Midhat's favorite part of her role is interacting with students and staying connected to the physics community.    Midhat holds a PhD in physics from the University of Michigan, where her research focused on building an optical magnetometer for a particle physics experiment. 

o logo

Bashar Haidar says education has been the most transformative determinant of their success. It has allowed them to confidently pivot to a role in industry and work through many barriers to entry. "Let's connect if you would like to learn about my journey and brainstorm how I might be helpful for yours," Haidar says.