Vanessa Raponi

In the second year of her undergrad, Vanessa Raponi founded McMaster EngiQueers, a student-led organization whose aim is to promote intersectional diversity and inclusion within the engineering profession. Now in her final year, she has led the organization to non-profit status and played a major role in opening 30 new chapters across Canada. Alongside this outstanding achievement, Raponi has become known as a voice of change for engineering across Canada, speaking at dozens of conferences and helping organize pivotal national events such as the Conference on Diversity in Engineering. She’s noted by colleagues for her ability to “open up dialogues from different perspectives” and conduct herself as a “leader amongst leaders.” With many more accomplishments to come, Raponi has already succeeded at developing partnerships and initiatives that will have lasting benefits for both the engineering profession and Canadian society as a whole.