Desmond Drummer
Desmond is a part-time master’s student. He was initially drawn to the School of History and Sociology to explore how scientific and technological advancements inform developments in religious thought and practice. Intrigued by the variety of religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, he shifted his attention to the ways individuals and communities either leverage or ignore scientific evidence and expertise as they make religious assertions. Acknowledging the impact religious assertions have on public health, Desmond is focused on religion, vaccine skepticism, and related entanglements.
Carla Kabwatha
Carla Kabwatha is a middle school teacher in DeKalb County. She currently teaches at one of the most diverse schools in the nation; fifty-four languages and 100+ countries are represented within the student body. Carla has successfully infused STEAM concepts into ELA content for the past twenty-five years. She is convinced that a "third curriculum," one embedded in science, art, engineering, and robotics, is the most effective agent of empowerment for marginalized students. It has elevated purpose, one beyond the acquisition of book knowledge. Carla further believes that exposure to STEAM during formative and adolescent years will increase STEAM representation in minority populations. Finally, a third curriculum serves as the best weapon to fight the battle against illiteracy. As a graduate student in the HSTS program, Carla continues to reconceptualize traditional ELA curriculum to meet the evolving needs of 21st-century students.
Errika Moore
Errika is the inaugural Executive Director for the national STEM Funders Network. Previously she was the Senior Program Officer at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta leading the education portfolio. She has also served as the Executive Director of TAG-Ed focused on K-12 STEM Advocacy Vice President of Member Services and External Affairs for IT Senior Management Forum - the only national organization focused on increasing the representation of black professionals at senior levels in technology, the Vice President of Operations for the Gifted Education Foundation, Southwire, BMC Software, and IBM. Currently, she serves on FIU’s Honors College Dean’s Advisory Board, as the Georgia co-lead for the National Million Women Mentors initiative, the Vice Chair for Project Scientist’s Board of Directors, the Vice Chair for Sankofa Montessori’s Board of Directors, the University of Texas’ Parent Advisory Council Executive Committee, the steering committee for the National Center for Family Math, Georgia DoE’s Computer Science Advisory Council, Junior Achievement of Georgia’s Leadership Council, and Inspiredu’s Board of Directors. She is a member of ITSMF and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Executive Education and Distinctions: Georgia Tech Management and Supervisory Education, ITSMF Executive Academy, Institute for Managing Diversity Leadership Academy, Atlanta Regional Commission’s Regional Leadership Institute, and Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education’s Education Policy Fellows Program.
Katy Pusch
Katy is the VP of Product at Leap, delivering software for home improvement contractors to improve their sales and operational processes. With a background in research, she brings data science and market intelligence flavors to every aspect of her work. Katy is passionate about data privacy and tech ethics, and is pursuing an MS in History and Sociology of Technology and Science at Georgia Tech. When she’s not working with her team to deliver top solutions, Katy enjoys spending time with her husband, building Lego models, and walking her dogs.
Sharon Rachel
Sharon Rachel, MA, MPH is a part-time MS student in the School of History & Sociology at Georgia Tech. She is also an Associate Project Director and Principal Faculty in the Morehouse School of Medicine Department of Physician Assistant Studies. Sharon has 20+ years’ experience in collaborative public health education, research, and leadership development. She directs an NIH-funded study on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) entitled Building Biobehavioral Goal-Directed Resilience Among African American Women (Project GRIT). She also oversees the curricula for two HRSA-funded primary care training enhancement programs: Community Health Advanced by Medical Practice Superstars (CHAMPS) and Physician Assistant Leadership Superstars (PALS).
Sharon is trained in peer-to-peer counseling, has supported and advocated for sexual assault survivors, led women’s support groups, and coordinated resources at women’s community and crisis centers and substance abuse treatment facilities. Her research focuses on sociopolitical determinants of intersectional health disparities and women’s leadership and innovation in response and adaptation to the climate crisis.
Sharon earned her BA in Women’s Studies and Sociology from the University of South Carolina, her MA in Women’s Studies from The Ohio State University, and her MPH in Health Education from the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health. She has co-authored several publications, created a number of teaching aids and tools, and conducted education and training sessions across the United States. She enjoys traveling, attending cultural events, skiing, stand-up paddleboarding, and running; she has competed - and placed - in 5K, 8K, 10K, 15K, half marathon, full marathon, and obstacle races. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Sharon currently lives in Atlanta with her partner and cats.
Brenetta Smith
Brenetta earned a BS in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2000 and received her MBA from Clark Atlanta University in 2009. She has 20 years of professional experience in project/program management, process improvement, management consulting, risk management, and technology implementations. Brenetta’s interests in advocacy and equality informed her community engagement. This led her to join organizations such as the League of Women Voters of Atlanta-Fulton County where she served as VP of Program from 2015 to 2019 and on the Board of Directors from 2019 to 2021.
Brenetta is currently a master’s student in the School of History and Sociology. Her research interests include inequality in sport and the intersection of sport, race, social class, and technology.
Benjamin Wills
Ben is a MS candidate in the School of History and Sociology under a Kranzberg Fellowship. He is interested in equity implications of emerging technology in medicine, such as telehealth; , data privacy and surveillance, masculinities, and labor and the future of work. Before coming to Tech, Ben worked for three years as a project manager and research assistant at The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in New York's Hudson Valley. At Hastings, Ben worked on a wide variety of topics in bioethics, health, and emerging, technologies, including ethics of public deliberation over the release of genetically modified organisms into the wild, the ethical implications of next-generation genomic testing, the impacts of returning genetic test results about autism, public reaction to NIH funding of human-animal chimera research, and access to healthcare for undocumented citizens, among other projects. He was proud to co-found and -lead the Center’s first DEI working group in its 50-year history.
Before Hastings, Ben spent a year at the University of Melbourne as a Maguire Fellow studying public perceptions and constructions of sex and gender differences, as well as how everyday people interpret words and phrases that express probability. He has also worked as a legal assistant for a disability law team, an AmeriCorps servicemember in Juneau, Alaska, where he co-facilitated psychoeducational groups for men who committed domestic violence; an assistant in the lab of MacAurthur grant-winning cognitive neuroscientist Damien Fair, and as a quality assurance technician for a salmon cannery. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, where he studied cognitive science with a focus on moral cognition and a minor in Hispanic Studies/Spanish.
In his spare time Ben likes to cook, bike on-road and off, and dance.
Publications can be found on his Google Scholar page.