2023 CATALYST AWARDS HONOREES:

Dr. Latanya Sweeney

Professor of the Practice of Government and Technology at the Harvard Kennedy School and in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Editor-in-Chief of Technology Science, director and founder of the Public Interest Tech Lab and the Data Privacy Lab at Harvard, former Chief Technology Officer at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science, Technology and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, Dr. Sweeney has 3 patents, more than 100 academic publications, pioneered the field known as data privacy, and launched the emerging area known as algorithmic fairness.

Dr. Sweeney is a recipient of the Louis D. Brandeis Privacy Award, the American Psychiatric Association's Privacy Advocacy Award, an elected fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, and has testified before government bodies worldwide. She earned her PhD in computer science from MIT in 2001, being the first black woman to do so, and her undergraduate degree in computer science from Harvard University. Dr. Sweeney creates and uses technology to assess and solve societal, political and governance problems, and teaches others how to do the same. 

Dr. Emily Reichert

Dr. Emily Reichert most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Greentown Labs, the largest climatetech startup incubator in North America, headquartered in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Houston, Texas. Dr. Reichert has been appointed to leadership positions on innovation, economic development, entrepreneurship and clean technology commercialization at the city, state and federal level including Massachusetts Governor’s Economic Development Planning Council and the U.S. Secretary of Commerce's National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. 

Dr. Reichert has received the Northeast Clean Energy Council's “Decade of Influence Award” and the “Woman Who Mean Business Award” from Boston Business Journal. Most recently, she was named one of Business Insider's "100 People Transforming Business - North America." She holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and earned her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. 

2023 CATALYST AWARDS SPECIAL GUESTS:

Sumbul Siddiqui, Mayor of Cambridge, MA (speaking in-person)

Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui is currently serving her third term on the Cambridge City Council, and second as Mayor of Cambridge. Mayor Siddiqui immigrated to the United States from Karachi, Pakistan at the age of two, along with her parents and twin brother. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Brown University, Mayor Siddiqui served as an AmeriCorps fellow at New Profit, a then Cambridge-based organization dedicated to improving social mobility for families. Upon earning her J.D. from Northwestern’s Pritzker School of Law, she moved home to practice as a legal aid attorney with Northeast Legal Aid. As the Mayor, her priorities include increasing affordable housing, supporting local businesses, improving Cambridge Public Schools, and leading Cambridge through the COVID-19 pandemic.