From Obstacles To Inspiration

Facing challenges is part of any journey. Learning how to transform barriers into motivators can help us succeed AND pave the way for those who come after us.

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Overview

Air Date: April 1, 2020

Season: 2020

Episode: 4

Speakers: Andronica Klaas (Facebook), Mahfuza Ali (3M)

Facing challenges is part of any journey. Learning how to transform barriers into motivators can help us succeed AND pave the way for those who come after us. Our featured speakers shared their stories of turning obstacles into inspiration and then joined us for a live Q&A session.

About the speakers

Andronica Klaas, Lead Quality Assurance Engineer
Facebook

Andronica Klaas is a graduate of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy and a career development mentor whose work targets empowering first generation students, minorities in Tech, and HBCU students through intentional and infrastructural programming. Andronica credits her own mentors, such as Oprah herself, for inspiring her along her incredible path; from growing up in a small, impoverished township in South Africa to eventually building a successful career in technology. Today, Klaas is committed to using STEM to improve life for students from underrepresented communities, serving as the Bank of America Charlotte Girls Who Code Alumnae Chapter Committee Co-Lead, a member of the Bank of America JCSU Alumnae Campus Recruitment committee, a Technology Analyst Program Mentor and Recruitment Partner, and speaking at various initiatives that are established as early talent recruitment pipelines for various diverse groups.

Mahfuza Ali, Corporate Scientist
3M

Mahfuza Ali joined 3M Materials Resource Division in 1984. She has been in a research and development for 33 years and is widely recognized in the global 3M technical community for technology and product development contributions across many business units.  She invented and developed several highly successful commercialized products for 3M and has co-authored more than 60 issued and pending patents that cover a large variety of product applications in multiple markets. Mahfuza has received many prestigious 3M Corporate Honors and recently won ACS Award in Industrial Chemistry, sponsored by the ACS Division of Industrial & Engineering Chemistry. 3M has over 93K employees globally where close to 9000 of them are technical employees. She is one of only 3 female Corporate Scientist in the company which is the highest possible level that any technical employees can reach. She enjoys teaching science classes for high school students, and mentors many young scientists world-wide whether they are inside and outside of 3M.