Tamara E. Brown

The girls who sign up for Tech Savvy day in Buffalo get to take hands-on science classes like using gumdrops to learn about polymers, meet women who are doctors and engineers, and learn essential life skills, such as negotiating. “Sometimes all you need to do is give girls their options, tell them that they can, and provide an environment where they are free to explore,” says Tamara Brown, who founded the program in 2006 to bridge the gap between girls and STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] careers. In the past year Tech Savvy has expanded to 10 additional cities. No wonder the White House has cited Brown, the first person to graduate from Vanderbilt with a double major in biomedical engineering and chemical engineering, as a “Champion of Change”.