Our Team
The Latino STEM Alliance (LSA) was born out of the vision of a group of STEM professionals who witnessed the lack of diversity in the tech sector and the challenge that corporations faced with filling highly qualified positions. These professionals seized on an opportunity to broaden the career perspectives of under-served youth by developing STEM programs in marginalized communities.
Karen Chacon, Executive Director
Karen joined the Latino STEM Alliance as Executive Director in October 2018 after serving in many non-profit leadership roles in Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York. As Executive Director, Ms. Chacón is responsible for the strategic and operational oversight of the organization. She serves as a member of Boston Public Schools’ STEM Advisory Group as well as an advisory member of BoSTEM, a United Way of Massachusetts Bay-led initiative to inspire the next generation of STEM professionals in Greater Boston. Ms. Chacón also serves as Co-Chair of the Greater Boston Latino Network, a network of 9 Latinx-led and Latinx-serving non-profits in the Greater Boston area.
Lauren Cooke, Director of Programs and Partnerships
Lauren has extensive background in working to leverage educational technology solutions to reduce learning and opportunity disparities in educational institutions. She is responsible for leading program development and initiating and supporting strategic partnerships.
Raul Porras, Co-Founder and Board president
Co-Founder and Treasurer. Enterprise Architect, Office of Innovation, SAP America. He works with customers across industries to help them articulate enterprise architecture decisions, build long-term road maps to support business innovation and leverage existing investments in IT.
Emily Shamieh, Board treasurer
Emily has a deep passion and commitment to educating underserved children. She has dedicated her life to “evening the playing field”.
Joe Monroy, Board Member
Joe is a strategic, results driven technology executive with over 20 years of experience leading high performing IT organizations in financial services and real estate. He has extensive experience leading transformational programs that improve collaboration, enable growth, and increase revenues. Joe’s passionate about investing in platforms that can provide under served children with exposure to STEM programs that can help broaden their career perspectives.
Delasie Dela-Seshie Jr, board member
Delasie is a biotech professional from the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston, MA. Knowing first hand how difficult it can be to break into the STEM field without an early introduction.He is committed to providing students of underserved communities with the early learning opportunities, and support needed to pursue their STEM passions.
Eugenia Moreno, board member
Eugenia has 20 years of experience in the Information Technology field. Originally from Argentina, Eugenia moved to the US 20 years ago with her family. With effort and education, Eugenia learned English and was able to pursue a Masters degree at Bentley University. A degree allowed Eugenia to work as a Solution Architect consultant in the most prestigious companies in the data field, such as Apple, Facebook, Uber, and Twitter. Currently, Eugenia is a Solution Architect at Databricks, where she expects to bring her experience in the US to companies in Latin America, focusing on solutions of Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.