Look Ahead

Intersectionality in STEM

Time and Date: 9:45–10:45 am on Saturday, May 4
Session Type: Panel
Panelists: Cicely Belle Blain, Tatyana Daniels, Danniele Livengood (moderator), Stevie Thuy Anh Nguyen, and Katherine Shadwick

There's a lot of attention paid to the issue of women's low participation in STEM fields, but the diversity that drives innovation is about more than gender. This panel will discuss some of the intersections of identity that further impact the participation of marginalized communities in STEM fields. Learn the impact of things like tokenism and microaggressions so you can advocate for a better culture in your field.

Cicely Belle Blain is a diversity and inclusion consultant, activist, and writer; they are one of Vancouver's fifty most influential people of 2018, as awarded by Vancouver Magazine, an award-winning co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Vancouver, and a member of the Canadian youth delegation to the United Nations. Cicely runs Cicely Blain Consulting—a social-justice informed diversity and inclusion consulting company with clients across North America, Europe, and Asia. Their work is informed by their professional and academic background at the University of British Columbia and their lived experience as a Black, queer artist, a community builder, an intersectional feminist, and a Black liberation activist.

Tatyana Daniels is from the Gitxsan First Nation and grew up in the rural community of Gitanmaax in northwestern British Columbia. She has spent her entire life fascinated by all things science. She had completed a Bachelor of Science in microbiology before realizing that her passion was to improve Indigenous health through diet and nutrition. She has experience with informal education through the organization of an Indigenous-focused science camp for youth in the southern interior of BC. It is one of her goals to promote, engage, and encourage more Indigenous youth to pursue STEM careers. 

As the Indigenous Outreach Coordinator at SCWIST, she founded IndGenius, a strategic action plan on supporting and engaging First Nations youth in STEM. Currently, Tatyana is the Indigenous Student Wellness Coordinator at the UBC First Nations Longhouse and is studying in the UBC Dietetics program. 

Danniele Livengood is the Program Manager of Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science and Technology (WWEST) at Simon Fraser University, operating under the NSERC Chair for Women in Science and Engineering (BC/Yukon Region). At WWEST, Danniele works to further the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. She is also the Creating Connections Conference Manager as part of her job at WWEST. Additionally, Danniele is the Director of Events for the Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST). She has volunteered on SCWIST's Board of Directors since 2014 and has represented the organization twice in addressing the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Danniele has a passion for advocacy and community engagement, and currently serves on 3 non-profit boards.

In all things, be kind. Stevie Thuy Anh Nguyen (they/them/their's) has designed their life to affect a future driven by their belief that individuals acting in sincerity and with radical generosity, sharing knowledge, skills, opportunities and time, in and with their communities, can change the direction of the world. In their roles, they work on manifesting their vision of a world where they, their child, family, friends, and communities are thriving: where there is equity, justice, and unquantifiable, accountable, love. They're really hard on themselves when they take actions contrary to their values and continues to practice putting their values into action and learning how to love harder with every moment.

Stevie has been a UX Designer by title for 4 years at a starting-up creative agency located on Unceded Coast Salish territories, primarily working with the internal learning teams within a global technology corporation. Previous to this, they spent 6 years in a leadership development firm practicing their self-taught design and creative production skills within consulting, marketing, and business development assistant roles. Along with a detour to give birth to a little person who would change the course of their life, they have also spent nearly 10 years attempting to complete an undergraduate degree in Communications and Interactive Arts and Technology, while also having been a co-teacher and co-learner in the same program, with their friend and mentor, Russell Taylor, for the past 5 years.

In their role as a UX Designer, Stevie excels in collaborating with internal project teams, co-creating product visions with client executives and stakeholders, and has a particular fondness for co-leading design-thinking workshops. With UX teams-of-one, or large, cross-disciplinary teams of interdisciplinary designers, developers, and content and media producers, they've been involved in delivering single webpages and forms using existing design systems, to launching and promoting organization-wide internal platforms and portals with thousands of pages, reaching global audiences using custom-built design systems and new brand identities. 

Katherine Shadwick currently works in the financial technology industry as a consultant for quality assurance and software testing. She has been in this industry for the past 2 years. As a woman and being neurodiverse, there have been challenges that she has faced that include misunderstandings about her neurodiversity. She has come to appreciate her differences and cherish all diversity.

She was previously educated at UBC as a geological engineer. In her spare time, she enjoys outdoor adventures, reading, and other fun activities.