Rise Up: Women in STEM Conference

The first annual Women in STEM conference was held on April 23, 2024. It was hosted at our partner school the Ignite Institute. We had an amazing group of women who were excited to share their advice and stories to young women. Our theme was around controlling your own narrative and write your own story.

Learn more about our guest speakers below

Getting us started: a Message from the CEO / Co-Founder, Luke UpChurch

Natasha Wade

Natasha Wade Soul Coach Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of Natasha Wade, Your Black Women’s Soul Coach, a life and career coaching practice exclusively for Black women.

Natasha leverages her 10+ years of recruiting, talent management and coaching experience to empower Black women to achieve their deepest soul desires in life, love, work and play.

In her lifetime, she has coached hundreds of professionals, especially historically underrepresented leaders, on the art of:

- Interviewing in an authentic and compelling way

- Cultivating business and social relationships that are impactful and mutually rewarding

- Acknowledging, activating and articulating their greatest superpowers

Natasha aspires to not only help you grab a seat at the table – but to build a table of your own.

Shilpa Kale

Lead Cloud Architect

Shilpa is a Lead Cloud Architect at Humana Military, leading Cloud migration for Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence. She is also an IT Business Liaison and leads Tools, Technology, Infrastructure needs for Data Governance in collaboration with IT and other business stakeholders. In addition, she also serves as Product Owner collaborating with senior leaders, stakeholders gathering user stories for

business while leading a cross-platform team in executing and implementing the product.

Shilpa is passionate about giving back to community and currently serves as Co-President for Humana’s Women’s Network Resource Group (WNRG). She has also served as Co-President for Humana’s Asian and Pacific Islanders (HAPI) Network Resource Group (NRG) previously. In March 2021, Shilpa was

appointed to Women Influencing Louisville (WIL) Board of Directors and Co-Chairs Conference Team.

Prior to joining Humana, Shilpa ran successfully her own software consulting firm and has led various initiatives in Information Technology space with different industries like Transportation, Logistics, and

Software. She also worked as a Software Consultant prior to entrepreneurship.

Shilpa graduated in Professional MBA, Managerial Analytics program at University of Louisville and graduated as the valedictorian with Masters in Computer Applications (MCA) in Computer Science & Business Administration from Government College of Engineering, India. She is a Bachelor of Science in Electronics from Shivaji Science College, India. Shilpa and her husband Ashutosh are the parents of two sons,

Mihir and Mroogank. She and her family share passion for travelling. Shilpa is a published author of poetry book: Nature’s Blessings.

Dr. Misha Rhodes

Internal Medicine physician

Dr. Misha Rhodes is an Internal Medicine physician with greater than 20 years’ experience. She

graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine and completed her residency in Internal

Medicine at the University of Michigan. She has spent most of her career caring for acute and

hospitalized patients, before transitioning into value-based care. Prior to joining CenterWell Senior

Primary Care, Dr. Rhodes managed the KY & IN markets for a value-based care, full risk Medicare

Advantage program, before going on to serve as a Regional Medical Officer for CareMore/Aspire where

she oversaw the North Central region comprised of teams dedicated to primary care for both Medicare

and Medicaid patients, as well as teams providing in-home palliative care.

Dr. Rhodes is a native Kentuckian, from Louisville. In her spare time, Dr. Rhodes enjoys spending time

with friends and family. Traveling, working out, and remodeling homes are her passions outside work.

Anne-Britton Arnett

Vice President, integrated data engineering advancement

Anne-Britton Arnett is the Vice President of Integrated Data Engineering Advancement at Humana. In this role, she leads the IT component of enabling various types of operational and analytic reporting using enterprise data. Her development teams lead new initiatives across the enterprise in areas that include data warehousing, enterprise data product development, data movement and submissions from both cloud and on-premise data environments, low code enablement, visualization and reporting, data mastering, and other areas. The vision of the organization is to be able to present the right data to the right people at the right time, enhancing key decision making.

Prior to her current role, A-B held various roles at Humana since 2007, including Director, Manager, and developer within the EDW space. She led Associate Engagement for IT for many years and is very passionate about volunteerism and the opportunities that engage associates across the org, as well as reaching out to those in our community who come to us for help. Some of her passions in this role have been work with the homeless in Louisville.

Prior to her time at Humana, A-B held positions at various companies in the Financial and Insurance sectors, including Database Administrator, Developer, Manager, and Project Lead. She received an Undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond, in VA and a master’s degree from Bellarmine University. She has two children that attend Xavier University and Washington University in St. Louis, and her husband teaches special needs children at Field Elementary. She is the third generation at her church, Crescent Hill Baptist Church, where she continues to hold various leadership positions.