Race in STEM

Nic Farmer grew up in South London with Ghanaian parents, trained as a sprinter alongside Olympians, and now leads race equity work at the Medical Research Council. He's also a trans-masculine professional who transitioned in the workplace. In this conversation with Steve Fuller, Nic unpacks what it means to sit at the intersection of being Black and trans — where trans spaces can still hold anti-Blackness, and Black spaces can still be uncomfortable with his trans identity. He shares the dai...

After 40 years in pharmaceuticals - from a medical rep at Roche to global leadership across mergers, acquisitions, and his own ventures — Sanjeev Pooni retired. Then he came back, driven by something personal: his mother's battle with Parkinson's, and the chance to work in precision neuroscience where that experience means something. He calls this chapter his "last shabam." Steven Fuller AfCGI sits down with Sanjeev to discuss how pharma shifted from product-centric to patient-centric, why b...

In this episode, Steve Fuller sits down with Oluwayemisi Corinaldi, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs in pharma, to explore the tension between authenticity and perception in the workplace. Yemisi shares candid stories about code-switching, being misread, and the exhaustion that comes from performing a version of yourself to fit the room. From being labeled aggressive for simply asking a colleague about a deadline, to learning how to show up unapologetically as a Black woman in a pre...

RACE in STEM founder Steve Fuller sits down with Kelsey Powell, a fiery, strong, and resilient Native American founder, mother, and clinical research leader, for a raw conversation about identity, exclusion, and rewriting the rules of an industry. From losing a college softball scholarship at 17 to building BioResearch Partners, Kelsey shares how she's challenging the systemic gaps that leave Native communities out of clinical trials. She also opens up about her daughter, whose illness revea...

What does it take to leave the safety of a career, back yourself, and build something from scratch? In this episode of the Race and STEM Podcast, Steve Fuller sits down with Kanwal Batia - engineer, technologist, and founder of Aival, a healthcare AI startup helping NHS hospitals adopt trustworthy AI in radiology. Kawell shares her journey from a childhood shaped by travel and multicultural influences, through engineering and computing, to becoming a CEO disrupting one of the most...