10th Annual STEMMys | Benefactor's Roundtable Discussion + Happy Hour
Now more than ever, those serving in STEMM fields are demonstrating how critical they are to our communities. While those in STEMM help us stay connected and fight for lifesaving cures, we continue to be inspired and proud of so many women in STEMM in our own backyard.
Each year Central Exchange celebrates the accomplishments and puts a well-deserved spotlight of all women in KC who are setting trends and breaking barriers in their STEMM fields at the Annual STEMMy Awards Benefactor’s Roundtable Discussion and the Awards Recognition Gala Luncheon.
Award categories include Enterprising Innovator, Corporate HERO, Groundbreaking Leadership, Rising Trendsetter, WiSTEMM Educator, Student Achiever, and WiSTEMM Champion. The winners of these awards make changes for a better today and brighter tomorrow. Their influence on a global and local level makes a difference, not just for our community, but around the world and for the next generation of STEMM leaders.
Join us on October 12th for a thought-provoking conversation focusing on women in STEMM, moderated by 2014 Enterprising Innovator, Maria Flynn, along with 2022 WiSTEMM Educator, Zdeňka Guadarrama, and 2023 STEMMy Honorary Co-Chairs, Jana Merfen and Dennis Ridenour. Followed by drinks and appetizers. Your ticket helps us raise awareness of the innovation, leadership, and success women bring to STEMM fields and the community!
Learn more about all the 10th Annual STEMMy Awards Celebrations
and Sponsorship Opportunities at CXSTEMMys.com
Leveraging her experience as an entrepreneur, executive, engineer, investor, and coach, Maria Flynn works with select emerging and high-growth leaders, companies, and investors, helping them to Make Opportunity Happen.
As CEO of Orbis Biosciences, Maria built a technology company that improved pharmaceutical manufacturing, won awards for its novel innovation, and was acquired by Adare Pharmaceuticals. As Managing Director of Techstars Kansas City, Maria invested in and coached companies across health tech, biotech, fintech, deep tech, and consumer tech. As a business growth guide, she has worked with founders from over 30 companies.
Maria was a Director at Cerner Corporation, where she held P&L responsibility for a life sciences business unit that provided drug safety software and services to pharmaceutical companies. She also created a new enterprise within Cerner for regional healthcare software.
Maria was named one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s Entrepreneurial Women to Watch and received the Pipeline Entrepreneurs’ Inspiration Award and Central Exchange’s first annual STEMMy Enterprising Innovator Award in 2014. Maria serves on the Board of Directors of BioNexus KC and earned degrees from the University of Chicago, Stanford University, and Kansas State University.
Dr. Zdeňka Guadarrama is a Professor of Mathematics and is a chair of the Department of Mathematics, Analytics and Technology, and Program Director for Applied Mathematics at Rockhurst University. Zdeňka is a co-founder and director of Mathapalooza, a mathematics outreach program that engages people of all ages in mathematical explorations outside the standard curriculum and provides professional development for teachers. She also co-founded Math Through Play, a social enterprise focused on creating mathematical spaces and experiences to bringing mathematical play into communities.
Zdeňka strongly believes that there is enough variety of mathematics out there for everyone to enjoy, and that play can help challenge conventions about what mathematics is and how it is taught. Her strengths are in being able to conceptualize and implement playful environments that naturally nurture mathematical exploration and thought. She has written and published inquiry-based mathematics curriculum, given talks nationally and internationally about mathematics and mathematics education, designed workshops for teachers to help them bring mathematical inquiry into their classes, and created a range of programs to introduce the community to meaningful, beautiful, and enjoyable mathematics.
Zdeňka was awarded the 2022 WiSTEMM Educator Award.
Jana Merfen, Chief Technology Officer, joined CrossFirst in January 2021. Jana has over 20 years of technology, innovation, and accounting expertise. Among Jana’s strengths is her ability to help usher companies into new phases of innovation and success at the convergence of legacy business and digital transformation. Jana’s career journey—one that has taken her from PwC and KPMG classic business training to her role as an executive linchpin—is a timeline of consistency, a commitment to excellence, and stewardship. Whether training for a triathlon or leading the transformation of a cross-functional business unit, her differentiating blend of holistic business perspective and detail focus has been pivotal in stretching company performance beyond previously accepted limits.Jana’s service and leadership contributions to the Kansas City community extends beyond her role as a C-level executive. She is a current Advisory Board Member and Chairperson for the Kansas City Sports Commission’s WIN for KC, a nonprofit that empowers women and girls through sports. Jana also serves and supports the Kansas City Sports Commission with her Chairperson role with WIN for KC. Jana is the Chair and a founding member of the Kansas City InspireCIO chapter.
Jana and her husband Brent have three children, James, Adam, and Cora and reside in Kansas City. Jana loves to travel with her family and spends her weekends cheering on her kids at their sports activities. Jana enjoys baking, running, biking, and relaxing with a great book.
Dennis Ridenour (he/him/his) is President and Chief Executive Officer of BioNexus KC, the coordinating body for the KC region’s life sciences research initiatives. In this role, Mr. Ridenour fosters regional collaboration while working to increase the concentration and capacity for life sciences and healthcare research in the region. His work makes the region more efficient at commercializing technologies being developed locally, improves the health of patients and animals across the region while reducing and eliminating health disparities, and positively impacts the regional economy by leveraging our strengths at the intersection of human and animal health. Mr. Ridenour is strongly committed to the vision of BioNexus KC, that Kansas City is a global leader at the nexus of human and animal health benefiting all our citizens and the economy.
Mr. Ridenour serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for RareKC, a non-profit whose mission is to accelerate the diagnosis, care and treatment of rare conditions, and as a member of the Board of Directors for the Alphapointe Foundation, a non-profit that works to empower people with vision loss to live, work and be independent. He also currently serves on several other advisory boards whose work is committed to workforce development and the fight to eliminate health inequities and the systemic barriers that cause them.
Date and Time
Thursday Oct 12, 2023
3:00 PM - 5:00 PM CDT
2:45 PM - Doors Open
3:00 PM - Welcome + Roundtable Discussion
4:00 PM - Happy Hour with Drinks and Appetizers
5:00 PM - Event Ends
Location
T-MOBILE CAMPUS
We will email all registrants the exact location prior to the event.
Fees/Admission
Secure Your Individual Ticket to the Benefactor's Roundtable by 11:59 PM on October 5:
• Non-Members: $50
• CX Members: $25
NO REFUNDS
*Interested in purchasing a combo ticket to the Benefactor's Roundtable Discussion + Happy Hour on October 12 and the 10th Annual STEMMy Awards Ceremony + Gala Luncheon on October 26? Click HERE to register.
Website
Contact Information
Kerry Gentry Hartnett, Signature Event Manager
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