Corlis D. Murray and Dr. Enid Montague to Keynote at Chicago's STEM Event for Girls

CHICAGO - Jan. 23, 2018 - PRLog -- Expanding Your Horizons Conference for 2018 announced today that Corlis D. Murray of Abbott Laboratories and Dr. Enid Montague of DePaul University and Northwestern University will deliver a keynote address at the event on March 24, 2018, at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park.


Corlis D. Murray is a 28-year veteran of Abbott, a $20 billion global health care company, where she is responsible for the company's engineering, regulatory, and quality assurance functions in more than 150 countries. Corlis has been named to Black Enterprise's 50 Most Powerful Women in Business list twice and been named Black Engineer magazine's Scientist of the Year. She was recognized by the Society of Women Engineers with its Advocating Women in Engineering award and by the Lions Academy for mentoring. She sits on the Clara Abbott Board of Directors and on multiple Abbott executive committees. Corlis holds a bachelor's in mechanical engineering degree from Southern University.

Dr. Enid Montague is currently an Associate Professor in the college of computing at DePaul University and adjunct professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. She is the director of the Wellness and Health Enhancement Engineering Laboratory (WHEEL). Dr. Montague has received numerous awards for her research including the Francis Research Fellowship for research that emphasizes "longer, safer and healthier lives" and a Kl2 early career award from that National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore trust in health care systems.


"We're thrilled to feature these two amazing and inspirational women of color in STEM as our keynote speakers, because they are making a huge impact in our community!" said K Supriya, Co-Director of Expanding Your Horizons Chicago. "Role models are very important, so we hope that after listening to the keynote speakers, the girls will feel that they too can pursue a career in STEM."

The nonprofit conference is one of Chicago's largest STEM event for middle school girls, attracting more than 250 attendees each year. This year will be the 6th year for the conference and will feature dozens of leaders in the STEM field. Workshops will cover STEM areas such as architecture, biology, medicine, physics, computer science, botany, architecture, computer science, and food science.

In the previous years, attendees have benefited from the insights of thought leaders such as Emily Graslie (Chief Curiosity Correspondent for The Field Museum in Chicago), Eugenia Cheng (scientist and author of How to Bake Pi), Dr. Laura Sanchez (BIRCWH Scholar), Dr. Camille Ginsburg (staff scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory-FNAL), NaShara Mitchell (SUCCESS advocate and founder of #Sassee B), and Dr. Nancy Sacco (Executive Director of Astellas Global Development Strategic Operations).

Exclusive to the Expanding Your Horizons Chicago conference, STEM workshops offer attendees the chance to engage in one-on-one conversations with local scientists, engineers, and community leaders, and the girls will participate in several hands-on workshops that will be led by scientists as well as industry professionals. These workshops will ignite their enthusiasm and creativity, and emphasize high-order thinking skills such as building Lego robots, extracting DNA, building bridges, and much more. The conference also features a parent program where parents learn about various STEM careers, high school and college prep and STEM resources available in Chicago.

Volunteer applications open on January 22, student and parent program registration opens on February 12. To register or learn more about the Expanding Your Horizons Chicago Conference 2018, visit our website at http://www.EYHChicago.com.