Tag: 3BL

Originally published on 3M News Center

Imagine a roll of tape as big as a car – that’s how 3M products arrive on the manufacturing floor at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, or CABVI, a nonprofit that employs people with vision loss. It’s here that the tape is converted down to individual- sized rolls that can be purchased by the government.

“Eighty-eight percent of our direct labor is visually impaired individuals or those with significant visual loss.” said Teri Shirk, president and CEO for CABVI.

As a leader in manufacturing, 3M is uniquely positioned to help individuals with disabilities and has been doing so for decades thanks to the AbilityOne program.

Shirk has recently teamed up with 3M to revitalize its AbilityOne program and expand their offerings. By early 2024, CABVI hopes to add 50% more kinds of tape, co-branded with 3M.

“That’s the thing about having a great partner,” Shirk added. “This allows us to reinvest back into our mission – our vision services get funded by the manufacturing operations where we partner with 3M.”

AbilityOne

Since 1938, AbilityOne has helped thousands of people who are blind or have significant disabilities learn skills and self-sufficiency by producing products for the government. By empowering these individuals, the AbilityOne program is changing lives, breaking down barriers and promoting a more inclusive society.

During its more than 30 years of participation in AbilityOne, 3M has worked with numerous nonprofit agencies, including the National Industries for the Blind, to create pathways to success for hundreds of people with disabilities.

3M was recently named 2023 Large Supplier of the Year by the National Association for the Employment of People Who Are Blind. The award recognizes 3M’s support and dedication to finding new and innovative ways to provide jobs for people who are blind.

“We have a long history of supporting the AbilityOne program,” said Troy Gerry, vice president of 3M Government Markets. “We will continue to look at ways to grow that relationship to create more opportunities for individuals who are visually impaired.”

With 36,000 employees, including over 2,500 veterans, AbilityOne operates nationwide through approximately 450 nonprofits at over 1,000 locations, serving 40 government agencies. These dedicated individuals work on various contracts, including an estimated 25,000 employees engaged in Department of Defense contracts.

In 2022, AbilityOne supplied the federal government with $3.9 billion of products and services. Its partnership with the DOD is particularly noteworthy, as it provides more than $2.1 billion in products and services yearly, making it AbilityOne’s largest customer.

A relationship that continues to evolve

CABVI’s mission is to build brighter futures for children and adults with vision loss. The organization offers vision services and employs individuals in its office supply company, base supply center, transportation company and manufacturing plant.

3M has sold products to CABVI for over 15 years – they currently convert 65 different kinds of tape, many of which utilize 3M products. The machinery in the plant is adapted with vocal prompts, buzzers, and other safety features.

“Not every industry is going to be prepared to do that,” said Shirk. “Here, they’re getting the tools, resources and respect as individual workers that they need to be successful. The AbilityOne program is the avenue, and partners like 3M make that program work.”

The Life Science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany was named a World Sustainability Awards 2023 winner at the World Sustainability Awards 2023. The awards, sponsored by Sustainability Leaders, spotlight visionary leaders and companies who have demonstrated courage and resilience by placing sustainability at the very core of their strategic endeavors, leading to astonishing results.

The Life Science business received the Sustainability Excellence Award. According to the judges, “the impact of their vision and strategy is seen in the product design, eliminating waste in their efforts to increase the use of renewable energy and on the social aspects, supporting less-resourced students and communities, as well as future scientists and employees through different programs.”

More specifically, the judges cited the team’s accomplishments—reducing scope 1 & 2 emissions by 33% in two years, engaging the scientists of tomorrow through its SPARK™ volunteer program and introducing a customer sustainability dashboard to track impact.

To learn more about the company’s sustainability initiatives, please visit its Sustainability & Social Business Innovation webpage.

AllianceBernstein hosted our fifth annual Global Day of Understanding with over 700 AB employees joining live events across each region, in partnership with our commitment to CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion. This year’s discussions span from Gender Identity and Social Mobility to exploring diversity from an Asian perspective. At AB, we are committed to facilitating insightful discussions with diverse perspectives.

AllianceBernstein

AllianceBernstein (AB) is a leading global investment management firm that offers high-quality research and diversified investment services to institutional investors, individuals, and private wealth clients in major world markets. We believe corporate responsibility, responsible investing and stewardship are intertwined. To be effective stewards of our clients’ assets, we strive to invest responsibly—assessing, engaging on and integrating material issues, including environmental, social and governance (ESG), and climate change considerations in most of our actively managed strategies. We also believe that being a responsible firm allows us to be more responsible investors. Our stewardship practices, investment strategy and decision-making are guided by our purpose, mission and values.

Our purpose—pursue insight that unlocks opportunity—inspires our firm to act responsibly. While opportunity means something different to each of our stakeholders; it always means considering the unique goals of each stakeholder that go beyond the desire for financial returns. AB’s mission is to help our clients define and achieve their investment goals, explicitly stating what we do each day to unlock opportunity for our clients. We became a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2011. This formalized our commitment to identify responsible ways to unlock opportunities for our clients through ESG integration in most of our actively managed equity and fixed-income client accounts, funds and strategies.

Because we are an active manager, our differentiated insights drive our ability to deliver alpha and design innovative investment solutions. ESG and climate issues are key elements in forming insights and in presenting potential risks and opportunities that can have an impact on the performance of the companies and issuers that we invest in and the portfolios that we build.

Our values provide a framework for the behaviors and actions that deliver on our purpose and mission. Values align our actions. Each value emerges from the firm’s collective character—yet is also aspirational. Each value challenges us to become a more responsible version of AB.

Invest in One Another means that we have a strong organizational culture where diversity is celebrated and mentorship is critical to our success. When we invest in one another, we empower our employees to reach their potential, so that they can help our clients realize theirs. This enables us to partner with clients to design and deliver improved investment outcomes.Strive for Distinctive Knowledge means that we collaboratively identify creative solutions to clients’ economic, ESG and climate- related investment challenges through our expertise in a wide range of investment disciplines, close collaboration among our investment experts and creative solutions.Speak with Courage and Conviction informs how we engage our AB colleagues and issuers. We seek to learn from other parts of our business to strengthen our own views. And we engage issuers for insight and action by sharing ideas and best practices.Act with Integrity—Always is the bedrock of our relationships and has specific meaning for our business. Unlike many other asset managers, we’re singularly focused on providing asset management and research to our clients. We don’t engage in activities that could be distracting, or create conflicts—such as investment banking, insurance writing, commercial banking or proprietary trading for our own account. We are unconflicted and fully accountable.

As of December 31, 2022, AB had $646B in assets under management, $445B of which were ESG-integrated. Additional information about AB may be found on our website, www.alliancebernstein.com.

Learn more about AB’s approach to responsibility here.

Dr. Shringar Rao’s inquisitive nature and dedication to addressing health inequities drive her eagerness to help advance innovative scientific breakthroughs. Even as an early-career researcher, she has a distinct and ambitious mission – to not lose anyone to a preventable HIV-related death – and is working with numerous other researchers in support of this goal.

“If we really want to make a difference, then we need to collaborate with people all over the world,” says Shringar, a virologist at Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, who’s trying to develop interventions that can eliminate latent HIV in populations worldwide. “As a scientist, this involves engaging with diverse communities.”

Shringar is one of 50 early-career investigators supported through Gilead’s Research Scholars Program (RSP) who are focused on advancing scientific knowledge in areas of unmet medical need for people affected by HIV. This year marks nearly a decade since the launch of the program, which funds junior researchers in a variety of areas and works to reduce barriers to entry for underrepresented applicants. The RSP also continues to facilitate connections between scholars globally to encourage collaborative research approaches in the effort to help end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.

Fueling HIV Research Through the Research Scholars Program
For many early-career HIV investigators, funding from the RSP comes at a crucial point in their research journey. With the support, the scholars can explore ideas outside of the box and potentially further establish ideas that might not typically receive funding, laying the foundation for their careers.

“The Research Scholars Program is important and beneficial to junior faculty because it opens doors that they may not be able to enter otherwise,” explains Dr. Gaea Daniel, a 2021 RSP award recipient whose work focuses on HIV prevention research and strategies to advance health equity in support of Black women.

Addressing Unmet Needs in HIV Research
Dr. Kristine Erlandson, an infectious disease clinician and researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, says her research area is under-resourced. However, as an RSP investigator in 2015, she has been able to explore innovative intervention and clinical care models to improve the physical function of people with HIV as they age.

“The long-term success of my research would mean that people with HIV can experience life to the fullest,” says Kristine. “The Research Scholars Program really strives to help meet unmet needs in research.”

Originally published by Gilead Sciences

Published by Las Vegas Sands on August 15, 2023

As part of Sands’ efforts to create a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture as well as drive workforce development opportunities, corporate Team Member resource groups play an important role in bridging career-building avenues with community and connection for group members and their allies.

In 2023, the EmpowHER Team Member resource group for women and their allies, as well as the Uni+ed Team Member resource group for LGBTQ+ community members and their allies, have accomplished several initiatives. Outlining activities and benefits from networking and volunteering to mentorship and executive engagement, two resource group members share their experiences:

MARTA ALVAREZ GONZALEZ
Manager, Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance and Control Initiatives
EmpowHER

Alvarez Gonzalez started her professional career as a graduate assistant in the accounting department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Upon graduation, she worked for Ernst & Young’s Las Vegas office in the assurance practice. After three years of travel, primarily auditing casinos, Alvarez Gonzalez joined Sands’ Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance and control initiatives team. She began as a senior analyst three and a half years ago and now serves as a manager in the department.

Why did you join EmpowHER?

“I thought it was a really cool initiative to help women build their careers and themselves. I think it’s really powerful to have the support of your peers. I joined the company in January 2020, right before COVID-19 hit, so I was only here for two months before we began working virtually – I really didn’t know my peers yet. If you don’t know your peers, how are you going to find support? EmpowHER was a great initiative to find that support.

What EmpowHER activities have you enjoyed most this year?

“I’m one of the volunteer coordinators, and those are some of my favorite activities because you get to see the impact that you make in helping people. By sharing a little of your time and optimism, you can brighten their day or even help in making a deeper change via mentoring or career coaching.

“I also really liked the EmpowHER overview presentation during our event at the end of last year. We received a very warm welcome from our members, which was special. We were also honored to have some executives attend, showing their support to our group and mission, which we really valued and appreciated.

“We also do these “net-walking” events where we go hiking together. Usually, it’s about 10 people who participate each time. With that size of group, you really get to have richer conversations and get to know your peers and leaders. Those have been great as well.”

What benefits have you gained from participating in EmpowHER?

“I think you gain a lot of perspective because we all have different views. When we talk about how we can help each other and other women in the organization, it’s so interesting to see how people respond. It opens up your perspective. It’s also been so gratifying to see the women executives in the company devote their input and time to this group. It shows their commitment to our success.”

How does EmpowHER help Team Members?

“I think it’s so important to have this channel to connect with your peers to get to know each other, as well as provide and receive mentorship. Connecting women with each other to help them define how they want to develop themselves is such a powerful tool. Now, when I walk around the office, I see so many familiar faces. I think that’s been very important to everyone as we transitioned back from a remote environment.”

CHRISTIAN LIVINGSTON
Manager, Corporate Accounting
Uni+ed

Livingston joined Sands’ corporate accounting team three years ago after serving in the U.S Navy and working in the financial audit industry. He began as a supervisor and was promoted to manager last year.

Why did you join Uni+ed?

“I wanted to be involved in a group where everyone feels their voice is heard and their individuality is recognized and supported. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community and as a veteran, I feel it is important to bring your authentic self to work, because everyone has a story to tell and unique experiences that bring fresh perspective to an organization.”

What Uni+ed activities have you enjoyed most this year?

“My favorite event so far was our volunteer activation with The Just One Project, which is Southern Nevada’s largest mobile food pantry. I have a passion for community service, involvement and giving back, so being able to support one of their food distribution events was amazing. It’s a great charity, very focused on ensuring that people who are food insecure get what they need to survive.

“We also did a walk to raise funds and awareness for Aid for AIDS in Nevada (AFAN), an organization that provides services and support for people living with AIDS throughout the state. After the walk, I got to do a site visit at AFAN to meet their executive team and gained a better understanding of what they do and the services they provide to the community. That was a great experience.

“I also was able to be part of the group that represented Sands and Uni+ed at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for The LGBTQ+ Center of Southern Nevada’s new pharmacy, which will be an incredible addition to the Arlene Cooper Community Health Center.

“Then last month, we did a training with The Safe Zone Project, which provides education on issues facing the LGBTQ+ community. Our educator provided us with some insights on the current status of the community, as well as historical figures who have made a difference. We’re aiming to have a second part of that training to give us more perspective on the situations and issues that our community members can face.”

What benefits have you gained from participating in Uni+ed?

“The biggest benefit of Uni+ed has been internal networking. It’s really great to be in an environment to meet people you wouldn’t normally interact with in the organization and get to know them, their stories and their backgrounds. That’s been really helpful for me in the context of my job and what I do. Internal networking is so important for how we work now, especially after COVID.”

How does Uni+ed help Team Members?

“Everyone has a voice, everyone is heard, and everyone is recognized for their uniqueness. That enables people to bring their authentic selves to work. I think that’s so important, for everyone to feel comfortable being themselves around their colleagues and professional family. It also shows value for diversity, because it brings fresh ideas and perspectives that should be recognized and celebrated.”

To learn more about Sands’ diversity, equity and inclusion and workforce development initiatives, read the 2022 ESG Report: https://www.sands.com/2022-environmental-social-and-governance-report/

This post was written by Cecilia Nilsson, a biologist currently based and working as a researcher at the Department of Biology at Lund University. Her work focuses on using different kinds of radars and data science to monitor animal movements at scale, with a focus on migration systems and bird population conservation. She also uses these research techniques to investigate conflicts that arise when humans encroach on aerial habitats, such as wind power installations and bird strikes at airports.

Join us on October 26, 2023 to hear Cecilia Nilsson present on Cisco Networking Academy’s Women Rock-IT program, and to learn how analyzing weather radar data and utilizing machine learning for biological purposes is saving the lives of birds.

The Women Rock-IT Program addresses the gender gap in STEM-related subjects. Established in 2014, the program has reached an audience of over 2 million people, featuring 156 female speakers, 91 live TV broadcasts and 78 blogs. As a result, more than 974,000 people have enrolled in technology courses.

The loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest threats facing humanity. By destroying habitats and threatening the survival of species, we are pulling out threads from the web of life that sustains us, and supplies us with food, oxygen, and clean water. By weakening it we are also reducing nature’s resilience to long-term changes and extreme events – with less genetic variation and fewer individual organisms, ecosystems become more vulnerable to threats such as droughts, flooding and disease.

A new approach to conservation

The complexity of the web of life around us, with all its variation, fascinated me from a young age and made the choice of studying biology an obvious one. However, while studying at university I soon realized that I was more drawn to technical methods and theoretical aspects in the field of biology, and I strayed far from practical conservation applications. As a PhD student in Lund, Sweden, I used tracking radar to study the details of bird flight. Using a discarded military tracking radar, we could track the movement of free-flying birds in the sky with very high precision, registering every wing beat. We used this data to test evolutionary predictions of bird movements and bird flight. I loved learning about radar technology and delving into the details of bird flight–but I was bothered by the feeling of documenting something we were slowly losing.

“I wanted to contribute, to learn more and to protect it.”

After finishing my PhD, I stayed in the academic world and started working as a post doc, and later a university researcher, focused on the use of weather radar networks for biological applications. The more I learned about weather radars, the more I could see their potential as a conservation tool. Weather radars constantly monitor the sky, registering everything, not only weather, but also birds and insects. This had been known for a long time, but the complexities of extracting from the huge datasets weather radars produce had limited its use in biology.

Advancements in technology unlocked opportunities

About 10 years ago, computer processing power and storage had advanced to the point that large-scale use of weather radar data for biology started to be possible. Since then, I have been working in the small–but rapidly expanding–academic field of analyzing weather radar data for biological purposes. Weather radars emit radio waves (usually in C or S-band) and then listen for the echo of objects in the sky reflecting the wave back to the radar antenna.

All objects in the sky return echoes, from tiny raindrops to large aircraft. Weather radars are mainly built for detecting rain droplets, which are used to map and track precipitation systems. But by focusing on specific characteristics of the returned echo, as well as information on the movement of the object creating the echo, we can separate out biological objects such as birds, insects, and bats from other data. Machine learning classification algorithms have allowed us to fine-tune this segmentation and analyze large datasets.

Weather radar data offers several advantages for biodiversity monitoring that are very difficult to obtain by other means. First of all, they monitor a habitat that we know little about and have few other ways of mapping: the aerial habitat. Many flying animals spend large parts of their life in the air, making it a crucial part of their habitat. Secondly, weather radar data provides something that is very rare in the field of conservation biology: long time series of more or less standardized data. By using long time series of archived data we can identify changes in the amount and movement patterns of flying animals, and by using networks of stations we can do this across large scales, identifying areas with decreasing populations.

Applying new techniques to protect wildlife and their habitats

Some of the practical applications we have developed are predictive models that can show when large numbers of birds are on the move during migration. This is currently being used to set up different automatic warning systems to limit dangers for migratory birds and humans alike. For example, turning off lights on high rise buildings to avoid bird crashes, and pausing wind turbines in migration corridors to avoid bird collisions with rotor blades. Another application alert in development warns poultry farmers when large numbers of wild birds are flying over their farms, allowing them to take action to protect their livestock against avian influenza and other pathogens the birds may carry. I have also been involved in using large-scale information from weather radars to map bird movements around airports, increasing knowledge of how bird migration patterns affect the risk of bird strikes between airplanes and birds.

I feel very lucky to have been a part of establishing the use of weather radar data as a biodiversity monitoring tool over the last decade, and I believe this technique has tremendous potential for the future. I am happy that I now contribute to the monitoring of at least one small part of the diverse web of life, and I will continue exploring the ways we can use this tool to assess and address threats to biodiversity and the natural world around us.

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By Annmarie Wetherbee | illumination Contributor

Neida Lopez is more than a college student. She’s part of the next generation workforce.

A South Florida native, Lopez is a first-generation college student set to graduate next year from the University of Central Florida with a civil engineering degree. She’ll graduate debt-free, thanks in part to the Hispanic Heritage Scholarship Fund (HHSF). This is her second year receiving a $5,000 scholarship.

The fund supports college students in Central Florida, providing scholarships, workshops, networking opportunities, internships, and life and financial skills to Hispanic and Latino students. Students from those communities have historically been underserved when seeking higher education.

Duke Energy invests in the fund to help students realize their dreams of a degree by providing more than just money.

“They’re way more than just a scholarship organization,” Lopez said. “They offer their students a lot of resources.”

That array of resources is one of the things that make the fund different from other scholarship foundations.

It’s a community, said Executive Director Carolin Requiz Smith. That’s the idea. “We are trying to build the HHSF family more than anything. So as soon as you get into our programs you are part of this family.”

Since 2000, the scholarship fund and its partners have awarded 494 Hispanic Heritage Scholarships totaling more than $2 million. For nearly a decade, Duke Energy Florida and its Foundation have provided about $230,000 in scholarships and sponsorships to support the scholarship fund.

Isabel Nieto, a Duke Energy talent acquisition manager, is on the executive committee of the scholarship fund’s board of directors and chairs the scholarship selection committee. Part of what makes HHSF special is the relationships between donors like Duke Energy and scholarship recipients. “This organization isn’t a go-between,” she said. “Instead, it brings us together.”

Bringing them together with the goal of making generational change. “As those students are able to pursue degrees and find employment and careers that will lift not only themselves but their families as well, that in turn will lift the community.”

Her family led Lopez to civil engineering. She watched her father work in the construction industry for decades. Now she wants to plan and build infrastructure that’s functional, accessible and convenient.

“It is definitely a full-circle moment,” she said. “A big part of why I’m majoring in civil engineering is because of my dad. He’s very proud that I’m doing this.”

Lopez’s goal is to take her skill, talent and drive abroad, and help other underserved populations thrive, like HHSF has helped her.

Requiz Smith said she’s glad Duke Energy is a collaborator. “Their support speaks to the importance of the value of education, mobility, and quality of the people they are investing in for the future of the community.”

The number of people benefiting from the HHSF set a record this year. The scholarship class of 2023 is the largest at 50 students.

Requiz Smith and Nieto agree their favorite part of the scholarship process is notifying recipients.

“Those phone calls are hard to beat,” Requiz Smith said. “When you call a student to tell them that they got the scholarship, it’s just so amazing. You cry with them; you are celebrating with them.”

Duke Energy’s decision to invest money, time and talent in HHSF and its people shows its commitment to improving the communities it serves.

“It would be so easy to write a check and walk away,” Nieto said. “But the level of how we engage is really telling of our commitment to our community.”

Lopez embraces that commitment. In another full-circle moment, she plans on supporting HHSF, eventually joining other scholarship alumni who serve as mentors or on the board.

“It really inspires me. I plan on doing the same when I become a professional, try to give back to this scholarship community because they’ve done so much for me, and I want that for future students.”

Duke Energy supports workforce development training at colleges and universities in its service territory in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and the Midwest. One of the company’s employee resource groups – Latinos Energizing Diversity in Charlotte – supports the Latin Americans Working for Achievement scholarship program to help Latino youth in the Charlotte area. Learn more.

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Dr. Amber Wellman, Chief Sustainability Officer at Chemours, recently joined leaders from Mars, CDP, and Moody’s Analytics at Financial Times’ Moral Money Summit Americas to discuss navigating the complexities of Scope 3 emissions reporting and why beginning to develop a Scope 3 reporting framework is critical.

The conversation was energizing and cemented how vital collaboration is for true transformation. Whether it’s sharing data, knowledge, or value, working together across the public and private sectors to drive meaningful change and a low carbon future is necessary. It’s also critical that sustainability is integrated across internal organizations, from procurement and engineering to IT and product development. Everyone has a role in enabling greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions.

Dr. Wellman’s advice after participating in the Financial Times panel was clear: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of progress. Jump in and get started understanding your Scope 3 emissions and driving engagement with suppliers and customers. Don’t let imperfect data be the reason for delay.”

At Chemours, we’ve put this advice into action, pushing ourselves to achieve more when it comes to sustainability. Our dedicated team works continually to strengthen our climate goals, improve our processes, and set an example for the broader industry. For instance, in 2021, we moved to make our initial GHG reduction goal more ambitious, setting a higher bar–committing to a 60% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and putting us on a path to net-zero by 2050. Then, in 2022, we committed to setting science-based targets for Scopes 1, 2, and 3 with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) – we were among the first group of chemical companies to do so. We aspire to influence reductions in Scope 3 emissions by partnering with our suppliers and customers and bringing low-carbon products to market.

Chemistry plays a critical role in advancing a low-carbon economy by enabling the sustainable technologies of the future. These essential products must also be manufactured responsibly, which is why we’re focused on delivering against our sustainability goals. Learn more about Chemours’ ongoing commitment to sustainability and progress at: www.chemours.com/en/sustainability

JaQuisha Gray (third from left) stands with Booker T. Washington students (from left) Tamiya Scott, Melissa Perez and Carlajah Banks, who are members of Gray’s tech team.

As a student at the historic Booker T. Washington (BTW) Middle and High School in Memphis, JaQuisha Gray felt loved and supported by her teachers. “The teachers poured into me. They showed me that I could be great,” Gray says.

In part because of that support, Gray became a teacher herself. In 2015, after earning a B.A. in anthropology, she returned to BTW as an educator, and later a Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Coach — roles in which she aspired to pay forward her experience at her alma mater by inspiring a new generation.

“I want to let [students] know you can be successful. It does not matter about your background,” Gray says. “It didn’t matter for me, so it shouldn’t matter for you.”

Founded in 1873, BTW was the first public high school for Black students in Memphis. In 2011, President Obama delivered the commencement address at BTW, after the school won the national Race to the Top Commencement Challenge, during which graduation rates dramatically increased. The school is also located in the poorest zip code in Memphis.

Gray’s own history at BTW runs deep. “My great-grandmother actually graduated from BTW in 1943,” she says, as did her grandmother in the ‘60s and mother in the ‘80s. “We all have children, me and my sisters, and we’re sending our kids here,” Gray adds.

As a Verizon Innovative Learning Schools Coach, and current instructional facilitator, Gray helps BTW teachers integrate new technology into their classrooms in order to improve academics. “I love teaching teachers how to get our students involved and engaged with technology,” Gray says.

She also took advantage of free micro-credentials through professional development courses available on Verizon Innovative Learning HQ. The “Transformative Technology” micro-credential, Gray explains, “taught me how to edit lessons, how to go into the classroom and model lessons, how to observe my teachers in a different light, to provide feedback so that I could grow my teachers.”

Gray’s commitment to professional development is apparent around the school community. “Ms. Gray is the walking embodiment of growth and development,” says Paige Stubbs, assistant principal at BTW, noting that Gray shares the knowledge learned from the professional development she acquired from Verizon Innovative Learning with her colleagues. “She takes information and she runs with it,” Stubbs says.

By continually gleaning new knowledge, Gray helps the entire school community move ahead. “It’s important to continue learning and growing because this world never stays the same as a teacher, as a coach, as a person: the world will change. So either you change with it or you get left behind,” Gray says. “And so when we’re introduced to these new opportunities, these new ways to get better, new ways to grow our kids, take advantage of it.”

To access free learning apps, lesson plans and professional development courses aligned to micro-credentials, visit Verizon Innovative Learning HQ.

“I love teaching teachers how to get our students involved and engaged with technology.”

JaQuisha Gray, Instructional Facilitator at Booker T. Washington Middle and High School

In the quiet darkness of the Amazon night, a broad boat deftly navigates a tributary of the Madeira River, making its way towards a tiny village of wooden houses and thatched shelters nestled on the shoreline. But the boat’s approach does not take the village by surprise. As it nears the riverbank, the cheers of children excitedly herald its arrival: “The doctors are here! The doctors are here!”

And so begins a new day of service for Ana Khouri, manager for Partner Delivery Management of SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Khouri was a member of the 2023 expedition of Doutores das Águas (Doctors of the Waters), a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Brazil that provides medical and dental care, alongside essential socioenvironmental education, to the isolated communities of the Amazon River Basin. “We had such a welcome,” Khouri says, reflecting on her experiences in the villages the expedition visited along the Acari and Canumã rivers from July 31 to August 12. “We arrived there at night. The boat had not yet docked and everything was dark, and then all these kids were already at the edge waiting for the boat. They were screaming and cheering. It made me kind of emotional.”

Healthcare for Isolated Communities

For these communities, the annual visit of Doutores das Águas, now in its twelfth year, is often the only occasion people are able to see a doctor. Their villages are so remote that they would otherwise need to travel many days by boat just to reach the nearest health center. Many have been looking forward to the NGO’s visit. Beforehand, families receive a password to access the services onboard the boat, which include health checks, vaccinations, vital medicines, dental care, and new dentures.

Doutores das Águas sends one expedition per year into the Amazon, divided into two successive stages with each taking either a northern or southern route. Khouri’s expedition traveled south, navigating the Acari and Canumã rivers for 12 days to deliver services to six villages. The boat, 21 meters long and seven meters wide, has sleeping berths for 32 team members plus 12 crew members. It travels at an average speed of 15 kilometer per hour, powered by a 300 HP propulsion engine and has capacity to carry 13,000 liters of fuel, enough to last an entire month. Two generators are also onboard. Built specially for Doutores das Águas, it is equipped with modern medical equipment, including an ultrasound machine, four dental chairs and a dental lab, and a portable wash basin for lessons on teeth brushing. It carries enough stockpiles of vaccines and medicines to support communities for one year, until the boat’s next visit.

In 2023, the expedition provided services to 36 communities in 23 days to deliver 2,081 medical treatments or vaccines and perform 1,890 dental treatments and 62 micro-surgeries. And the onboard dental lab produced 265 dental prostheses or dentures, giving many people their smiles back.

Hidden Skill Set Reveals Passion for Healthcare

In the Amazon, even winters are intense, as daily temperatures reach 37 degrees Celsius with high humidity and frequent rain. The shrill buzz of mosquitos is ever present. Creatures of the rainforest move about invisibly, eager for a free pantleg or untucked shirt to crawl into.

For Khouri, who joined SAP in 1999, life on the hospital boat is a long distance from her workspace at SAP Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, where she ensures that partners have the enablement tools and support that they need to deliver successfully to customers. Her energetic, affable interpersonal skills and tenacity for problem-solving – the same qualities that help her succeed in her work at SAP – enable her to thrive in dynamic environments.

But there is another side to Khouri that few colleagues know about. She has a background in nutrition with a master’s degree from Michigan State University. This hidden skill set, which is an integral part of Khouri’s whole self, qualified her to join the expedition as a socioenvironmental and nutritional health expert. “I always liked the healthcare field,” she says. “So, to be there and to be able to provide this benefit to these people and to be part of the team, that’s my motivation. We are giving the people healthcare.”

Learning by Doing for Health and Hygiene

In the early morning, villagers gather to listen to the doctor, dentist, and the socioenvironmental and nutrition team, who discuss the importance of nutrition and hygiene for long-term health. Afterwards, the adults go to the line to be called in for treatment. “We stay with the kids and teenagers. We play games about food, nutrition, garbage disposal, and recycling,” Khouri says. This year, 750 children received instruction in socioenvironmental and nutritional activities.

One game is a competition to see which team can collect the most garbage in a big bag. “The kids are all running, and we run after them, in this intensive heat,” Khouri says. A prize is awarded for the most garbage collected. There are lots of batteries and plastic drink bottles. “This is one exercise we do to tell them they shouldn’t just throw things on the ground because it’s going to be washed away to the river.”

Twice a day, the children receive instruction on how to brush their teeth. They each receive a dental examination aboard the hospital boat. “We teach them with games and music how to brush their teeth,” Khouri says. “In the boat, we bring a huge sink with eight places so we can have eight kids at once and we give them a small toothbrush and toothpaste.”

Children who have no cavities at their annual dental checkup receive a badge. In communities where the boat has visited previously, the number of children with no cavities is increasing – evidence of the NGO’s impact on healthcare in the region. “We have lots of little kids, 5 years old or 6 to 7. They have the badge ‘Zero Cavities,’” Khouri says. “We also teach them how to wash their hands and to always wash their hands before they eat.”

“The kids somehow get attached to you,” Khouri says. “They don’t know you, but then at the end of the day, sometimes you sit quietly somewhere to have a break and they come and hug you. They stay with you. This is something that touched me.”

Tapping Natural Resources to Satisfy Global Markets

People in the communities along the river live simply from the land and the water. They sometimes sell the fruits, cashew nuts, and mandioca (basis of tapioca) that they cultivate. Many have begun to earn money by selling copaiba oil, used in traditional medicines. The oil is extracted using traditional, sustainable methods to tap tree resin. The oil is popular in high-end cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, including sunscreen, because of its anti-inflammatory properties. “Some of the communities extract the oil,” Khouri says. “Unfortunately, they sell it very cheap to the middleman, who sells it to cosmetics companies for a lot of money.”

The NGOs that work in the region, including Doutores das Águas, are encouraging the communities to create a cooperative so they can sell copaiba oil directly and receive more money, because the oil “is really cheap and it is very ‘in’ at the moment,” Khouri explains.

One Boat Is Not Enough

Khouri wants to participate in the next expedition of Doutores das Águas, scheduled for April 2024. Also, the communities change over time, as she notes, “Some of the communities disappear. They are so small that they migrate.” One community has become more developed since becoming connected to the region’s main road, making healthcare more accessible to community members.

“What I expect for the future of these communities is that they get more access to healthcare, improve hygiene, and take care of the river by adopting the garbage collection practice that we teach them,” says Khouri. “I would like people to know that this issue exists and that the need in the Amazon is huge. One boat is not enough.”

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Top photo courtesy of Ana Khouri