The Evidence Collective elects Dr. Raven Baxter as a member
Members of The Evidence Collective, a network of scientists, clinicians and communicators, elected Dr. Raven Baxter to the group on March 4, 2026.
In Buffalo, Raven Baxter leads STEM for Alpha Kappa Alpha's ASCEND youth program
Founded at Howard University in 1908, Alpha Kappa Alpha counts more than 390,000 members, and ASCEND was its signature youth program from 2014 to 2018
Raven Baxter served as the volunteer STEM program leader for ASCEND, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority's youth enrichment program, with the Gamma Phi Omega chapter in Buffalo. She held the role from October 2015 through 2018.
Baxter joined Alpha Kappa Alpha in 2015 through Gamma Phi Omega, the same year the STEM role began.
ASCEND stood for Achievement, Self-Awareness, Communication, Engagement, Networking and Developmental Skills. According to the sorority, the program set out to "motivate, engage and assist high school students in reaching their maximum potential." It offered academic enrichment and life skills training to support students on the way to college or vocational work.
In March 2015, seven months before the role began, the White House announced more than $240 million in new STEM commitments. They included a pledge by Boys & Girls Clubs, Girls Inc., 4-H and the YMCA to bring more under-represented students into STEM. Black workers held 9% of STEM jobs but 11% of all U.S. jobs, Pew Research Center reported in January 2018.
Alpha Kappa Alpha was founded on January 15, 1908, at Howard University in Washington, D.C., by nine college women. It now counts more than 390,000 initiated members in over 1,122 chapters. ASCEND was the signature program of its 2014 to 2018 international program, Launching New Dimensions of Service. In 2016 the sorority said members of its 997 chapters would carry out that program in five target areas, with educational enrichment first.
Baxter was then a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo State, where she earned her M.A. in Biological Sciences in 2017, before beginning her Ph.D. at the University at Buffalo. In 2018 she also launched her own science education web series, Raven the Science Maven. Her website at the time said, "it is especially important to me that I help minorities feel welcome to learn in any educational space, particularly in STEM."
Alpha Kappa Alpha's archived program page describes ASCEND and the 2014 to 2018 program.
