Dr. Leshell Hatley is the director of STEM programs at the American Association of University Women (AAUW). As a researcher and entrepreneur, she also leads Uplift, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit STEAM education and consulting organization. Her more than 20 years of research and teaching expertise includes topics such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and culturally relevant computer science/computer engineering education.
Uplift designed and facilitated YOUTH APPLab, the first mobile app development course for teens in the US, funded by the MacArthur Foundation (Winner of the 3rd Annual Digital Media & Learning Competition in 2009-2010) and is one of the first organizations to offer after school courses in Lego Mindstorms Robotics in Washington, DC over a decade ago.
Leshell is a passionate computer engineer, educator, and researcher who continuously combines these three attributes to create innovative approaches to teaching STEM concepts to students between the ages of 3 and 73. With over 20 years of teaching experience, Leshell leads teams of enthusiastic students, dedicated volunteer instructors, and teams of engineering to achieve award winning success, national news coverage, and innovative technology product designs. Prior to joining AAUW, Leshell was an associate professor of computer science at Coppin State University. She and the students in her research lab, the Lab for Artificial Intelligence and its Applications (LAIA), won the 2016 USA White House HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) Maker & Innovation Challenge.
Leshell was recently recognized as one of the 50 Women in Robotics You Should Know in 2021 by RoboHub in celebration of Ada Lovelace Day, and in 2020, Leshell was recognized as one of the 20 most influential technologists in Baltimore by technical.ly.
Leshell received a Ph.D. from George Mason University and a master’s in Library Science from the University of Maryland. Leshell is a proud two-time graduate of Howard University, earning a master’s in Computer Science and a B.S. in Computer Systems Engineering.