DISTINCTIVE PURSUIT OF CULTURE, DIVERSITY, AND COMMUNITY

Featuring Antoinette Lee Toscano, MBA

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Antoinette Lee Toscano is a distinctive person that connects across cultures and communities. 

She is an American Adult Cross-Cultural Kid (ACCK) and Third Culture Adult (TCA) with family ancestry in Nigeria, Ireland, China, and Jamaica.

Antoinette’s distinctive background has led her to pursue career opportunities that were also distinctive. She began her career as an 11-year United States Army veteran, often being the first – first woman, first person of color, etc - in her various roles in the military. She served during the Gulf War era as a database administrator, dental clinic manager, Army recruiter, dental assistant, dental hygienist, and an air assault qualified, expert field medic throughout her military career.

After her military career, Antoinette became an IT executive, leading again in an environment and field with few women leaders. 

She worked as an Information Technology Chief Executive Officer (CEO), marketing executive, program manager, IT project manager, software designer, and a certified IT call center manager for several Department of Defense and other federal, city, and state agencies. 

Later, Antoinette pursued other opportunities that allowed her to use her creative and writing skills. She became a blogger at the New Normal Big Life blog, Producer of New Normal Big LifeTV for Culturs Global Multicultural TV. She also is a Contributing Writer at Paddling Magazine and Culturs, a global, multicultural magazine creating content for people living “in-between” cultures. She is both a fiction and non-fiction ghostwriter with more than ten years of creative writing, sensitivity editing, and character development experience.

In addition to her many writing roles, Antoinette is a transformational public speaker and an advocate for people living with traumatic brain injury health challenges and those diagnosed with anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress (PTS). She can speak into these issues as someone who had to overcome her own physical and health challenges and related trauma. 

More recently, Antoinette has combined her various career experiences with her interests in building diversity and community in the outdoors. 

She is the Producer of WhitewaterTV, where people, places, and products worldwide come together to create an adventure sports community. Antoinette is also a Team River Runner—Fort Collins, CO Assistant Chapter, and Coordinator as well as Badfish SUP Paddling Team Member Coordinator. She is a Contributing Correspondent on the Hammer Factor Podcast, a Kokatat National Brand Ambassador. And she is co-founder of Diversify Whitewater which is dedicated to bringing outdoor opportunities to more diverse and less advantaged communities. 

The range of distinctive cultures and experiences that Antoinette embodies has motivated her to pursue a range of opportunities that not only showcase her skills and creativity but provide opportunities for others to engage in the community. 

TECHNOLOGY FOR SOCIAL IMPACT

Featuring Emily Kennedy, President/Co-Founder, Marinus Analytics

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Emily Kennedy is a social entrepreneur who has made a significant social impact through technology.  As President and Co-Founder of Marinus Analytics, Emily is passionate about bringing AI and technology to bear on the most pressing social problems, like human trafficking.  She co-founded Marinus Analytics to create AI-for-good solutions to human trafficking and other vulnerabilities.

Marinus Analytics has grown rapidly since its 2014 founding. A spinoff from The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the company has grown to a team of 12, serving the public and private sectors across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada.  Emily has led Marinus Analytics’ national and international social impact, product deployment, and partnerships expansion

As a woman-owned and lead organization, Marinus Analytics is dedicated to creating AI solutions that equip individuals on the frontlines. Marinus Analytics team has become internationally-recognized technology pioneers whose mission is to protect the vulnerable and end systemic exploitation. They deploy SaaS applications in the public sector to disrupt human trafficking, child abuse, and cyber fraud.  Marinus offers information discovery solutions to get actionable insights out of big data for law enforcement, social workers, and cyber fraud investigators that enable data-driven, people-centric responses in the modern age. Their flagship tool, Traffic Jam, revolutionizes the way detectives are able to stop and prevent human trafficking, recover victims, and dismantle organized criminal networks, by deploying graph analytics to detect organized crime and purpose-driven algorithms to identify vulnerability indicators, informing frontline professionals to hidden exploitation. 

Marinus Analytics has expanded its mission into new areas, including building tailored tools to help social workers, enriching outcome analysis, and enhancing motivational interviewing in the field. They also empower government agencies that enforce cybercrime regulations with the information they need to identify the largest streams of cyber fraud and online scams. These new areas further their strong mission of protecting the vulnerable and ending systemic exploitation across the globe.

For her work in these areas of technology and advocacy, Emily was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneur, one of Entrepreneur's Most Powerful Women, Toyota Mother of Invention, and is a keynote speaker and podcaster. As host of the “The Empower Podcast,” she champions women entrepreneurs and creates meaningful dialogue around issues important to women.   She also has been featured at the United Nations, Fast Company, NBC News, CBS News, Vice, Mashable, Teen Vogue, and Scientific American. Her projects have generously received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Bank of New York Mellon, and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

Through Marinus Analytics, Emily has demonstrated her commitment to social impact through technology and entrepreneurship.  And through her leadership, she has shown how women leaders can make a tremendous impact on the cause of justice.