TEAM
Dr. Shadi Farhangrazi
Dr. Farhangrazi is an educator having worked on K-12 education as an advisor and innovator focusing on use of technology in education, improving education for girls, and integration of STEM, health and art education into a broader education curriculum. Dr. Shadi Farhangrazi, PhD., MS., MBA is a biochemist, neuroscientist, infectious diseases expert, and an expert in the area of future and emerging technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship. Dr. Farhangrazi is the CEO and Co-Founder of biotechnology company, S. M. Discovery Group. She formerly was the founder of management consulting firm Biotrends International. She is also an adjunct professor at University College, University of Denver, teaching classes on entrepreneurship, innovation, strategy and non-profit management. In 2015, Dr. Farhangrazi was a Visiting Guest Professor at Università Degli Studi Di Padova (Italy). Internationally recognized speaker, Dr. Farhangrazi teaches and works globally, and is an advisor and consultant to major multinational companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations and biotechnology companies in such diverse areas as strategy and business development, product placement and introduction, international development as well as global health. Dr. Farhangrazi has worked on multi million dollars to multi billion dollars projects with multinational companies and organizations including Boeing Co., The US State Department, USAID, The Home Depot Foundation, ALS Foundation and over 45 companies (small and early stage enterprises to companies which are now publicly traded) and organizations worldwide. Dr. Farhangrazi has advised numerous companies globally and her work has taken her over the last decade from back-country remote towns and villages in Rwanda, slums of Kenya and Mumbai, Research Parks in India and Malaysia, high tech companies in Silicon Valley, US and Europe to working with international companies and organizations and meetings with global leaders.
Dr. Gayle Knapp
Dr. Gayle Knapp occupies a space where the realms of STEM and general literacy merge. She is trained in the sciences with a specialty in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, She has run a Molecular Biology research lab and taught that subject at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Upon leaving higher academia, she continued teaching at the middle and high school levels—specializing in both math and sciences (Earth Systems, Biology and Chemistry). As an avocation, she has trained to understand dyslexia and to tutor children and adults who struggle with basic literacy. It is her philosophy that early intervention with general literacy difficulties makes all the difference in children’s enthusiasm for learning. Once a child can read with facility, she/he can access the information that expands his/her knowledge and interest in a subject. This is particularly important when it comes to science. Each science requires a student to learn the new “language” of that science. Without a firm grasp of basic language skills, a student with learning disability will flounder. Dr. Knapp received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College, and her PhD from University of Illinois.