Dr. Pierre Theodore, Vice President, Scientific Innovation, Johnson&Johnson


Kim D. Saunders, President, National Bankers Association

Dr. Timnit Gebru, co-founder, Blacks in AI

Angelo Riddick, New York State CIO

Silicon Valley giant killer receives Roy Clay Technology Pinnacle Award during 20th annual 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology

Lezli Baskerville, President/CEO/Counsel

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dr. Timnit Gebru, co-founder of Blacks in AI, received the Roy L. Clay Sr. Technology Pinnacle Award on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Friday, Jan. 15 during Pandemic to Prosperity: Innovation&Equity20: 50 Most Important African-Americans in Technology, the annual scientific proceeding of the Journal of Black Innovation.  Derek Peterson, CEO of Soter Technologies and inventor of Symptom Sense, also received the Clay award, named for the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame member.


She called for federal and philanthropic investment in basic artificial intelligence research by scientists like the 3,000 member strong Blacks in AI so they can create new products instead of "cleaning up the mess."

 The program also featured Col. Angelo Riddick, (RET, USA) Chief Information Officer of New York State; Dr. Christopher Boone, Global Head of Population Health at AbbVie; Dr. Pierre Theodore, Vice President, Scientific Innovation at Johnson&Johnson; Dr. Michelle Y. Williams, Executive Director, Clinical Trials, Stanford Healthcare; Dr. Lila Collins, Director of Therapies, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine; Kim D. Saunders, President of the National Bankers Association; Lezli Baskerville, Esq., President of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education; Dr. Marcus Martin, CEO of 2M Research; Colleen Payne, COO  of MCI Diagnostics.  The discussion will assess the impact of the American Rescue Plan revealed by President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and already approved 2021 budget and COVID-19 relief plan.  It is also the opening for the Dr. T. Nathaniel Burbridge Center for Inclusive Innovation, a life science magnet designed to commercialize research generated by HBCU students and alumni to build global scale companies.

State of Black Technology in January Journal of Black Innovation with state by state analysis of the 450,000 African-American technologists

Journal of Black Innovation Publisher John William Templeton testifying about African-Americans in tech to Congress