MIT Media Lab is honored to host six statues from #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit

Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN® Initiative presents #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit. This monumental exhibit of 120 3D-printed statues celebrates contemporary women innovators in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and featured the most statues of real women ever assembled together. The individual stories of the women the statues represent, accessible through QR code-linked videos, images, and biographies, highlight how a more diverse, more inclusive workforce will strengthen the world’s shared future. If we support a woman in STEM, THEN she can change the world!

Anjali Chadha ’23

“As a girl, as a minority, and as someone from a state [Kentucky] that isn’t necessarily highly focused on education, let alone STEM education, I always find myself looking for more. I think it could be so exciting to be a representative for some of those groups, but also to be a helping hand [and] be someone who’s seen as accessible [for young girls] to reach out to for help or advice." (AAAS)

Get empowered! By MIT Bioengineering student and one of the youngest #IfThenSheCan Ambassadors Anjali Chadha. Founder of the non-profit Empowered launched in 2016 to help high school girls learn technology skills while also helping real businesses in the process. Each summer, 10 girls go through a seven-week training program to learn technical skills like designing and developing websites and managing social media for businesses for marketing purposes. The mission of Empowered is to train minority girl high schoolers in technological skills and pair these students with minority women entrepreneurs in their community. She was also one of 9 students in the acclaimed documentary Science Fair!

Ciara Sivels ’13

"Working with students is a highlight for me. Maybe if they see someone like me doing something they never knew was possible, it might change their lives." (MIT News)

Meet Dr. Ciara Sivels a nuclear engineer, elementary school math mentor, and almost pastry chef who became the FIRST black woman to earn a PhD from University of Michigan in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences. She now works at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where she looks at how radiation interacts with and changes the properties of various types of materials. Her work as a math mentor for children she says is one of her highlights, as she hopes if they see someone like her doing something they never knew was possible, it might change their lives.

Cori Lathan PhD ’94, SM ’95

"If you show girls the power of technology then they can invent the future."

Inventing the future! Dr. Cori Lathan is a neuroscientist, biomedical engineer, and tech entrepreneur who uses technology to help people do things better. So she co-founded AnthroTronix, a tech innovation firm which made a robot to help kids with disabilities, a sensor glove to train surgeons, a virtual reality system to study astronauts in space, and a computer game to track your brain health.

Dr. Lathan’s statue shows her holding one of her inventions, "String", which is a prototype electroceutical to heal the body through electricity instead of chemicals. You can listen to great music AND receive stimulation through the cymba concha part of the ear.

She is a social advocate for STEM (Science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education, global health, and LGBTQ+ inclusion and is on several not-for-profit boards including the Foundation for a Smoke Free World, The KID Museum, and Engineering World Health.

Katy Croff Bell ’00

What do you sea? We sea Dr. Katy Croff Bell! Our #IfThenSheCan ambassador and deep ocean explorer is changing the future of ocean exploration. Katy uses technology to investigate the depths of the ocean. She has been on more than 40 oceanographic and archaeological expeditions, finding shipwrecks, underwater volcanoes, and new species! She is the Founder and President of the Ocean Discovery League where she is building an ocean exploration accelerator to create faster, cheaper, and more accessible ways to explore the deep ocean, and training a diverse team to lead those global efforts. Innovation in lower-cost and open source solutions means expanding ocean exploration to historically excluded communities who can now be empowered to explore their own ocean environments.

Katie Croff Bell was previously the head of the Open Ocean Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. 

Assistant Professor Ritu Raman

Dr. Ritu Raman is an engineer who studies the dynamic ways in which biological materials sense and respond to their environment. She is passionate about introducing biohybrid (part biological, part synthetic) materials into the machines that engineers build. Her goal is to design biohybrid implantable devices that dynamically adapt to the human body and help us lead healthier lives. Ritu is currently a Professor at MIT, and her goal is to use STEM innovation as a force for positive social change.

Yamilee Toussaint Beach ’08

STEM can make your wildest dreams come to life! Yamilée Toussaint Beach knows this first hand as she used her knowledge in mechanical engineering, dance, and passion for teaching students to create her non-profit: STEM From Dance. As a Dance Technologist and the founder Yamilée wants to get girls interested in STEM and uses dance performances that incorporate technology to do just that. During her time as a high school algebra teacher she realized kids were missing out on opportunities. Now she shows girls how to make light up sneakers and create a dance routine around them or a project where they design their own projection through computer programming. She's showing that STEM is creative!