Dear John,

I wrote to you last month about how 2019 was a record breaking year for SACNAS. Our collective success was due to our dedicated and hard working staff. 

I want to take this opportunity to recognize the contributions of two staff people in particular: Jenn Vasquez, Director of Strategic Partnerships & Development and Eben Lindsey, Director of Education & Leadership. Jenn and Eben’s leadership was instrumental in stabilizing SACNAS’ funding and deepening the breadth and quality of our programmatic offerings. 

In particular, Jenn cultivated new relationships with STEM industry partners including Amazon, Google, and JP Morgan. She sold out the expo hall at 2019 SACNAS — The National Diversity in STEM Conference, generating $150K more in revenue— an increase of 20% from the previous year. Overall, her innovative management of sponsorships, partnerships, and exhibitors helped SACNAS surpass our stretch fundraising goals and secured a presenting sponsorship from the University of Hawai‘i system— the highest level of non-grant funding support in the organization’s history.  

To accommodate the significant fiscal and logistical considerations of hosting the 2019 conference in Hawai‘i, in addition to meaningfully and respectfully engaging with the culture of our Native Hawaiian hosts, Eben led the programs department to innovate the conference schedule and program. These changes included creating more opportunity for additional speakers and events, expanded opportunities for partner and internal programming, and the development of the “Featured Tracks” for sessions programming to deepen discussion on climate change, indigenous perspectives on STEM, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Eben concluded a successful search for a Native Initiatives Manager who was able to significantly increase Indigenous programming at this year’s conference. Under Eben’s leadership, his team was able to launch a new online judging platform which modernized the presentation system and reduced friction for judges, ensuring more students received mentorship. The Programs Department also overhauled the chapters programs with updated procedures and policies and launched the new Postdoc Leadership Institute at the Conference.

In recognition of these tremendous accomplishments, I am proud to announce the following promotions and new titles: