Birth: March 19
Specialty: Systems Engineering
Major Contributions:
Team Leader, engineering projects, Boeing
Co-founder, Executive Director of Latinas in STEM
Co-founder, Make in L.A.
Noramay Cadena knows the importance of having good role models in your life. To show her what life would be like if she didn’t attend college, her mother took Cadena with her to work in a factory. Another of her early role models was an alumnus of her high school, the first in his family to go to college, who encouraged her to look at attending MIT.
After being accepted she was hesitant to go, as she had a given birth to her daughter at the age of 17, but with the support of the school and understanding classmates she was able to attend classes and be a single mother. She strived to give her daughter the most normal childhood possible and graduated with a BS in mechanical engineering.
The pair returned to California and Cadena began working as test engineer at Boeing. A few years later to learn more about the business aspects of engineering she earned a MS, in systems engineering and an MBA, both from MIT. She continued to work at Boeing, taking on more leadership positions in her projects. In an interview she stated that while she loved her job in aerospace it was discouraging to sit at meetings and realize that she was the only Latina in the room.
So with that in mind, in 2013, she and four other Latina MIT alumnae founded Latinas in STEM. These women were all the first in their families to attend college and knew the importance of being a strong voice to their community in order to inspire and empower others to pursue careers in STEM. In 2017 the organization was named the California Nonprofit of the Year.
In May of 2015 she was a co-founder of Make in LA, which was billed as Los Angeles’ first hardware accelerator. Cadena’s role as general manager of Make In LA focused on developing principal leaders with solid products and business foundations as well as developing partnerships that support the city’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. For five years MiLA helped build “tech you can touch” after working with over 20 technology companies. Cadena then partnered with another venture capitalist to found Supply Change, a firm that invests in early stage, high growth food tech businesses and culture first brands.
And while she is a role model to many through her work, her daughter has always considered Cadena her biggest role model.
Written by Angela Goad
Sources:
Attracting Latina Students To STEM Careers, One Role Model At A Time
Latinas Think Big: Noramay Cadena
See Also:
Chassitty Saldana and Noramay Cadena (StoryCorps)