More than a decade old, the faith-based STEMcx conference at Baltimore's New Psalmist Baptist Church connects students of color with STEM professionals of color
Students fill lip gloss tubes during a hands-on activity at the 2023 STEMcx Conference. Baxter is not pictured. Photo: AFRO American Newspapers
Dr. Raven Baxter gave the opening keynote at the 2023 STEMcx Conference on Saturday, March 11, 2023. The all-day STEM conference for students ages 9 to 15 met at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore.
Her 9:30 am keynote in the church's banquet hall was the first session of the day, according to the conference agenda. Small-group workshops, lunch, large-group workshops and a parent panel followed, with dismissal at 4:15 pm. The official flyer billed her as "Raven the Science Maven."
The official flyer for the 2023 conference. Image: STEMcx
Students chose from more than a dozen sessions, WJZ reported that night. They ranged from forensics and paleontology to robotics. In the robotics session, each student programmed a robot to drive itself, and robots earned more points the farther they went. "I love doing robot things and tech," fifth-grader Hannah Green told the station.
Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller moderated the parent panel, which the AFRO called one of the highlights of the conference. Miller had been sworn in in January as the state's 10th lieutenant governor. The AFRO counted 250 middle school students and parents.
The day came six weeks after a National Science Foundation report on diversity in STEM. It found that Hispanic, Black, and American Indian or Alaska Native workers made up 24% of the STEM workforce in 2021.
"What we do is try to show them the fun and the science and show them that this is a long-term opportunity for them," STEMcx chair Sandy Adams told WJZ. "What we hope is that kids will join, they will join the camps, they will come to the sessions, but they will continue with STEM as they grow."
STEMcx, short for the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Conference and Expo, is the education arm of Transforming Lives Community Development Corporation, a Baltimore nonprofit that grew out of a partnership with New Psalmist. Its mission is to inspire underrepresented minority students to pursue STEM careers through academic support, hands-on learning and contact with "STEM professionals of color." Founder Sandy Adams and technology director Tyrone Adams say they owned a software engineering company for more than 25 years.
Former NASA astronaut Robert Curbeam gave the keynote at its second annual conference in March 2012, before more than 400 students. Today the group also runs free tutoring, summer camps, a book club and summer internships for high school students. Kaiser Permanente and the T. Rowe Price Foundation were among the 2023 conference's sponsors.
Baxter is a molecular biologist and science communicator who completed her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo in 2022. She is known online as Dr. Raven the Science Maven.
WJZ's report on the conference is on YouTube, and the group's programs are at stemcx.org.
Dr. Raven Baxter joined National Fair Housing Alliance President and CEO Lisa Rice on June 28, 2026, for a fireside chat on housing discrimination at the alliance's national conference in Washington.
Dr. Raven Baxter joined three fellow University at Buffalo alumnae on the UB Distinguished Keynote Panel at the 4th Annual WNY Leadership Summit on May 29, 2026.
Dr. Raven Baxter gave the interactive closing keynote of SCIENCE TALK '26, the Association of Science Communicators' 10th conference, in Portland, Oregon, on March 27, 2026.
