October Bond Briefs

Welcome to the October edition of Bond Briefs! We have a great selection of photos, announcements and personal experiences. Bond Briefs was conceived as a way for the St. Louis section membership to share small bits of news. Ours is a large section, and it can sometimes be difficult to connect to one another. As a section, we will succeed and bring value to our members by fostering personal connections.

This opportunity to reach out and share a bit of news about yourself remains open every month. Just drop us a line with a picture and a short blurb.

• Chanté Summers had two notable events in September. On September 9th she was named an IF/THEN Ambassador for the AAAS. IF/THEN Ambassadors are chosen to serve as role models for middle-school girls to spark their interests in STEM. In the “Proving Myself: Stories about Fighting Distrust” episode of The Story Collider podcast, she shared a personal story nominally about her response to every chemist’s nightmare: a lab explosion. While harrowing in its own right, her journey to and through that event highlights the constant fight to be recognized that chemists of color face.
• Eric and Lynnette Ressner checked off a huge box on their bucket list this summer, with several days of safari on the Serengeti. The tour also included National Geographic-worthy hotspots Ngorongoro Crater and Olduvai Gorge. Prior to arriving in Tanzania, they spent several days in Kigali and at Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda, learning about the 1994 genocide and its aftermath, and trekking in the footsteps of Dian Fossey to visit golden monkeys and mountain gorillas. An extremely tiny fraction of the photos they took can be seen here.
• Cynthia Chapple was recently named an EdHub STL Fellow. Over the next six months she will receive mentorship, insight and training from industry leaders to lead her Black Girls Do STEM program in the community, centered in building educational equity.
• Will and Charlotte Ridley celebrated with their son, Nathan Ridley who received his MBA from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah on May 3, 2019. Nathan holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois-Champaign Urbana and works for Albany Composite Materials in Salt Lake City manufacturing parts for commercial and military aircraft. Also enjoying the event is Nathan’s son. Liam Ridley, age 14 months.
• Natalie LaFranzo was promoted to Vice President of Market Development for Cofactor Genomics. Sadly (for us), this means she will be moving to Boston soon. Her farewell to the section can be read here.