Frank Robinson, Jr. is Director of Operations – After School Programs at Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Medicine (STEM2) HUB. As former deputy director of the Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, he assisted the department director with providing reliability, quality assurance and system safety management, and expertise to support Glenn technical divisions, project offices and contracted programs.

Robinson earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University and received a Master of Science degree in industrial engineering, with a focus on engineering management, from Cleveland State University. He also completed a one-year executive training program.

He has received many awards from NASA including the Exceptional Service Honor Award Medal, the Equal Employment Opportunity Medal, and the Special Achievement Award. In 2009, he was given the Black Engineer of the year Award in Professional Achievement in Government. Robinson also holds the Space Flight Awareness Honoree Award, the James C. Jones Humanitarian Award, the USDA Graduate Leadership Academy’s Community Service Award, the Outstanding Young Men of America Award, and the YMCA’s President’s Award for Leadership and Service. He is an inductee into his John F. Kennedy High School’s Gallery of Excellence.

Robinson is active in the community. He is a past president of the National Technical Association and the founding chairperson of the Consortium of African American Organizations in Cleveland, Ohio. Robinson is also a co-founder of the New Approach to Self Achievement Project, which is a career awareness program for inner-city youth focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

Ms. Shareefah Mason has innovative ideas for revolutionizing education, focused on teacher diversity, designing culturally-affirming schools and creating ‘UNimpoverished’ first-generation graduates, attaining college degrees without extreme student debt. She’s a knowledgeable voice in education, with extensive personal and professional experiences. She’s an Associate Dean of Educator Certification at Dallas College and lead author of the trailblazing Teach Plus and Center for Black Educator Development collaboration paper, To Be Who We Are: Black Teachers on Creating Culturally Affirming Schools.

Her recent TEDx Talk on diversifying America’s teacher pipeline has ignited the necessary discussion around teacher recruitment and retention efforts. She is the Executive Producer of the internationally award-winning film, From the Block, emphasizing the impact of Black teachers on ALL students. A decorated State of Texas Master Teacher, she has earned numerous local, state and national awards for her work and performance in education. As a governor-appointed member to the State Board for Educator Certification, she provided a tremendous voice in the educator preparation and ethical governing space to increase the quality of educators across the state.

Ms. Mason is an author, writing empowering Op-Eds and books on education and is revered in the professional development space. She is driven by this work because she grew up as an impoverished student, in New Orleans, Louisiana. She is well-aware of the undeniable impact a quality education has on our most disenfranchised children. Her goal is to provide access to the most exceptional educational experiences for Black and Brown students across the country!

Mrs. Clarice Phelps is an American nuclear chemist researching the processing of radioactive transuranic elements at the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. She holds a MS degree in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Nuclear and Radiation Engineering from the University of Texas, Austin and is currently pursuing a PhD.

She was a part of the team that helped to purify the isotope, Bk-249 that would be used to confirm the discovery of element 117, Tennessine (Ts), on the periodic table and was recognized in 2019 by ORNL and The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as the very first African American woman involved in chemical element discovery. Clarice has lent her technical expertise to the Plutonium 238 (Pu-238) program for NASA in spectrophotometric determination of plutonium (Pu) and neptunium (Np) valence states in aqueous and organic solutions.

Phelps is a violinist, Phelps began her interest in science early, including watching the American educational children’s television program, Beekman’s World. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Tennessee State University and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. A US Navy veteran, she maintained the chemistry and radiological controls on the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

Clarice has taught, as a special instructor, at the Project G.R.A.D. (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) Summer institute for high school students involved in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) programs. She has served as a guest instructor on the basics of Nuclear Engineering and radiochemistry at Pellissippi State Community College’s Academic Summit and is working towards the development of a radiochemistry technician career pathway there as well.