Hassana Q. Shaw is an elementary school teacher in East Orange, NJ. She has served as a teacher-mentor to many aspiring educators. Ms. Shaw also assists high school students as they navigate the college entrance process. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in Education Leadership at Seton Hall University.

Despite my teaching success, there were still very few members of underrepresented groups majoring in biology, so I thought if more could be done to spur interest in STEM fields earlier in children’s learning life, then possibly more of them might join STEM fields. 

That is when I started offering weekend and summer programs for elementary and middle school students, and the rest, as they say, is history. SciTech2U was born to meet the need for highly qualified STEM majors, especially from underrepresented groups.

Zainab Abbas is the founder and chief executive of SciTech₂U Inc. She received her B.S. from Knoxville College, and M.S. from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine.  Zainab lends her expertise to SciTech₂U as the CEO, managing all day-to-day activities, budgeting, volunteer and instructor recruitment, program  and resource development. She also develops curricula and instructs most SciTech₂U programs.

Kevin D. Bryant currently serves as the Treasurer of SciTech₂U's Board of  Directors and the Director of Programs. As Treasurer,  Kevin overseas all financial reporting aspects of SciTech₂U, and as Directors of Programs, Kevin assists in developing innovating OST and after-,school programs, including funds development to support them.

Danette Zaghari-Mask is an attorney, compliance and ethics expert. She is an honor's graduate from the University of Florida College of Law, where she published and earned a Certification in International and Comparative Law. She began her career as a Staff Attorney for Florida’s Eighth Judicial Circuit, and served NAFTA as a law clerk for a former U.S. Trade Representative. Danette volunteered on the Board of Directors for CAIR-Florida and later worked as a civil rights attorney in its Orlando office as Executive Director. Danette is an educator; she taught high school English & Composition; in addition, she co-founded a Central Maryland cooperative 'Al Ansar' for alternative education paths. Currently, Danette is the Nonprofit & Compliance Attorney at CAIR; she specializes in compliance & risk-management, board governance, business ethics, and conflict management. In her spare time she is an avid gardener, reader, outdoor adventurist, Girl Scout troop leader and Justice Leaders Fellow at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. Danette lives in Maryland with her spouse and three children. 

Ever since I started teaching adults more than a decade ago, I have always had a desire to create learning environments that made it easy for students to learn and to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups (racial and ethnic minorities) entering STEM fields. 

From day one as a biotechnology instructor at a local college, I noticed that there were very few students from underrepresented groups enrolled in my classes. I also had some students who were non-majors and who seemingly had little interest in learning biology.  Over the years, I was able to increase interest in learning biology in my classes among non-majors by exploring and refining ways to make learning easy and interactive, with some non-majors changing their majors to biology. 

Awsim is the Founder and Creative Director of The Actors Academy and the all-new D.M.V based streaming website, StreamDMV.com. He is an American born SAG-Aftra actor raised in Baltimore, Maryland. Since an early-age, Awsim has had a burning passion and desire for the performing arts. His talents have been showcased via stage productions, television shows, commercials, and
film productions internationally. Awsim is a Co-Partner of Iron Crown Productions where he works as a writer, director, and producer of productions such as Black
Therapy, Dad Gang, Voices of 21217, Cherch and many more. His heart lies in the success of the DMV area.

De Angelo Rorie is a native Washingtonian and DC Public Schools graduate. He earned his Bachelor’s Degree in English from Georgetown University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. Mr. Rorie has spent his entire 20+ year professional career a youth development practitioner and is in his 11^th year as the United Planning Organization (UPO) Youth Services Director.  Mr. Rorie possesses expertise in developing and evaluating program models that cultivate youths’ creativity in ways that produces results, both socially and academically, and is proud to lead the division in the strategic development and implementation of programs and initiatives that prepare youth for post-secondary educational opportunities and careers in the 21^st century workforce.

Ameenah serves as the Co-Chair of SciTech2U. She earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from Howard University and her Juris Doctor Degree from Howard University School of Law. Ameenah started her career as a prosecutor in New York and served as a Senior Assistant District Attorney for over 15 years. Ameenah currently works as in-house
counsel for a local construction company in Silver Spring, Maryland. Ameenah has always been active with programs that support the youth as a mentor and most recently has served as a Board Member for the PTA and PTSO for her children’s school.

Shawna Powell, native of Denver, Colorado, has resided in Nashville for 25 years and considers herself an adopted southerner. She was a Pathologist Assistant for 10 years prior to beginning a career in sales. Shawna sold for over 11 years in Molecular Diagnostics and 15 years in Cancer Diagnostics. Currently, she works in the pharmaceutical industry in rare cancer disease. Shawna enjoys home design projects, serving at her church, and spending time with her family and three children: Meciah, Danielle, and Thaddius.