Theme: Engineering for Personal and Community Growth

Wilbur Wright College's first TEDx Event will feature an array of speakers from the engineering field as they share how engineering has provided opportunities for personal and community growth. Speakers include the incoming president of the National Society of Black Engineers, an engineer who helps bring fresh water to Chicago, a higher education leader who will share five decades of overcoming obstacles to promote equity in engineering, as well as two Wright alumni blazing their own trails in the engineering field.

The event will be hosted by Stefany Cardenas, Wright Engineering alumna and Start Up Engineer for PLOT: The Plant Bot.

Limited in-person tickets are available at https://bit.ly/tedxwwctickets, or you can watch the live webcast at https://bit.ly/tedxwwclive.

Wilbur Wright College
4300 N Narragansett Ave
Chicago, Illinois, 60634
United States

Alexandra Medina

Software Engineering Associate at Accenture | AWS Educate Cloud Student Ambassador

Alexandra recently graduated with an Associate of Science in Computer Science from Wilbur Wright College. During her time as a student, she worked as a full-time apprentice for Accenture and acted as an Amazon Web Services Educate Cloud Student Ambassador. Completing a full-stack web development bootcamp at Northwestern University inspired her to pursue her computer science degree. Alexandra will transfer to the University of Oregon this fall to study Computer Science.

Benita Mordi

Senior Systems Engineer - Artificial Intelligence, Edge and Internet-of Things at Dell Technologies

Benita works as an Artificial Intelligence and Edge/IoT Strategist on Dell Technologies’ Data Centric Workloads & Solutions (DCWS) team - focused on delivering solutions by aligning AI and Edge technology to business operations and strategic vision. In her capacity at Dell Technologies, she works with customers to develop their strategy and implementation of AI and Edge technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of South Wales, and a master’s in Systems Engineering and Management from Texas A&M University. She also serves as Chief Technology Officer at Urban Array, where she leads the implementation of blockchain technologies and tokenization frameworks which support the organization’s mission as a restorative investment non-profit that invests in entrepreneurs of color by redirecting money, energy and creativity into divested communities.

Kevin Fitzpatrick

Civil Engineer at Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago

Kevin Fitzpatrick has been a professional engineer working in the water resources field for 25 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois and a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina. Mr. Fitzpatrick spent three years as a consulting engineer, designing drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities, before joining the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in 1999. In his current job as Managing Civil Engineer, Mr. Fitzpatrick oversees engineering for all the District’s collection facilities projects, which includes the $3.8 billion Tunnel and Reservoir Plan (TARP), as well as intercepting sewer rehabilitation work.

Vasilios Soupos

Regional Business Development Manager for the Americas - Appliances, HVAC and Refrigeration

Vasilios Soupos is a Regional Business Development Manager for the Americas at Underwriters Laboratories working on expanding and developing new safety guidelines for Appliances, HVAC, and Refrigeration equipment. He joined UL in 2006 as a Project Engineer with a focus on gas-fired appliances, received a promotion to a Senior Project Engineer in 2011 and in 2015 moved to an Engineering Leader position supporting a team of 10 engineers tasked with evaluating water system components for health effects. Vasilios holds an Associate Degree from Wilbur Wright College, Bachelor’s and Master's degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and recently completed an Executive MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Virgina Booth Womack

Director of Minority Engineering Program at Purdue University

Virginia Booth Womack is the Director of the Minority Engineering Program at Purdue University. Virginia has worked for Proctor & Gamble, Eli Lilly Corporation, RCA, General Dynamics, and served as School Administrator for Bibleway Christian Academy (Toledo, Ohio) serving grades Preschool through 12. Before coming to Purdue, she worked at DaimlerChrysler Corporation where she spent 10 years and served as Lean Manufacturing Manager for the Powertrain Division. As the Director of MEP, Virginia has worked to increase the number of engineering graduates who traditionally have been underrepresented in the fields of engineering and science. Virginia recently served as Interim Executive Director for National Society of Black Engineers.