Girls Interested in Real Life Science (GIRLS) Speaker Series
Date: Every Wednesday in March (March 6, March 13, March 20, March 27)
Time: Doors open at 5 pm, talk begins at 5:30 pm
Place: Ocean Explorium, 174 Union Street, Downtown New Bedford
Lead: Ocean Explorium Education staff
Price: Free of charge, courtesy of the
Women’s Fund of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts
Our fifth annual speaker series aims to promote the “STEM” fields of science, technology, engineering, and math to all students and particularly girls and young women, and features inspiring women who share stories of overcoming obstacles and achieving success.
This year’s speakers include:
March 6 – Kim Francis, Director of Engineering, Acushnet Company
March 13 – Carolina Nobre, Research Associate, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
March 20 - Marya Gabriel, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Assonet Animal Hospital
March 27 - Melissa Walsh and Jessica Chery, PhD Candidates, Brown University Institute for Brain Science
March 6 – Kim Francis
Kim Francis is currently the Director of Engineering for the Acushnet Company in New Bedford. She earned a B.S., Electrical Engineering from M.I.T., a M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and obtained a Professional Development Certificate in Business from Simmons College.
Ms. Francis is responsible for the management of engineering and maintenance personnel and projects in an environment of constantly changing operational priorities, projects and resource requests. Ms. Francis manages 16 engineers or technicians and, indirectly, 56 manufacturing employees in a plant that produces over 325,000 golf balls per day in over 15 different process steps. Among the issues she deals with daily are safety, equipment performance, and product quality.
March 13 – Carolina Nobre
Carolina Nobre is a research associate at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She earned a B.S. in Oceanography from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil and a M.S. from the UMass Dartmouth School of Marine Science and Technology.
Being an Oceanographer permits Ms. Nobre to explore not only the key issues related to our planet, such as climate change and animal habitats, but also provides her with the opportunity to go on ocean cruises and travel to many different places. Ms. Nobre recently traveled to the Arctic, where she saw polar bears, seals and whales.
March 20 – Marya Gabriel
Marya Gabriel is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Assonet Animal Hospital. She received her B.S. in Biology from Swarthmore College and, after earning her DVM from Cornell University, Dr. Gabriel passed the Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania state board exams.
Dr. Gabriel knew she wanted to be a veterinarian from an early age, and was inspired, in part, by reading “All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriott. While in high school, Dr. Gabriel worked as a kennel helper and at a horse stable. She studied hard and challenged herself with A.P. science courses. Today, Dr. Gabriel feels privileged to be able to apply the knowledge and the experience she has gained to help her patients stay healthy.
March 27 – Jessica Chery and Melissa Walsh
Jessica Chery and Melissa Walsh are Ph.D. candidates at Brown University.
Jessica graduated from the University of Rochester, New York, with a B.S. in Chemistry and a
B.S. in Biology. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Biochemistry
Department at Brown because she has always been curious about deeper mechanisms behind
scientific problems, and always asking “Why” and “How”.
Melissa earned a degree from Lafayette College in neuroscience and a master’s from Montclair
University in biology. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in the Brown Institute for Brain Science, where
she is studying the neurodegenerative disease Spinal Muscular Atrophy and a specific gene
that has been identified as one of the only human genetic modifiers of the disease.
After each speaker series through the month of March, continue the conversation at Brick Pizzeria Napoletana to receive 20% off food and soft drinks, exclusive to global voice attendees.
