A message from our first Executive Director

“I can vividly remember the moment that the idea for boundless brilliance emerged.”

I was an undergraduate at Occidental College, sitting in the student center skimming the news. I came across a headline buried at the bottom of the New York Times daily briefing. The headline read “Girls believe brilliance is a male trait, research into gender stereotypes shows.” This study shook me to my core. By kindergarten, young girls are already internalizing the harmful and inaccurate belief that men are smarter than women. This has severe implications that begin to explain why women stray away from fields such as physics or philosophy. Studying biochemistry, I witnessed first hand the tendency for women to exhibit reservedness in both class and work settings. I have acted this way myself. It can be intimidating to speak up in a space that you do not feel represented or supported in.

But why?

Beginning at a very young age, skewed media representations, microaggressions, and generations of sexism in the workplace have convinced girls that they are less capable than their male counterparts. At Boundless Brilliance, our message is simple: you are brilliant and your potential is boundless.

Our team is working to dismantle biased notions of brilliance before they are ingrained. Our hope is for all people to grow up believing with absolute certainty that they are capable of succeeding in whatever field sparks their interest. I invite you to join our movement. Thank you for your support.

Audrey Shawley

Audrey Shawley

Audrey Shawley co-founded Boundless Brilliance in 2017 while studying biochemistry at Occidental College. She served as the first Executive Director from 2017-2019. During that time, she grew the nonprofit to three college chapters in Southern California, recruited a team of over 130 volunteers, impacted over 6,000 elementary school students, and wrote a STEM workbook. Audrey enjoys exploring nature, globetrotting, and playing her saxophone. Her drive and compassionate leadership are the result of supportive parents, brilliant friends, and a lot of synchronized swimming. Audrey is now living in New Orleans as a third year medical student at the University of Queensland-Ochsner Clinical School. 

Hannah hayes

Hannah Hayes began as the Vice President of Programs at Boundless Brilliance, developing curriculum and training new presenters. While at Occidental, she studied biology and researched the effects of urbanization on native bee diversity. She was lucky to have a strong community and female role models. She works to ensure that students everywhere have those resources and opportunities in STEM fields. Hannah is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of San Francisco, researching how habitat restoration affects the population genetics of wild bees. Since beginning graduate school, she has taken a step back from her role at Boundless Brilliance, but she is happy and proud to represent Boundless Brilliance when she can. Hannah hopes to continue to work in restoration and conservation of wildlife, while inspiring and mentoring young scientists in the process.

nina doeff

Nina Doeff is a longtime advocate for women in STEM and a co-founder of Boundless Brilliance. Up until 2019 she served on the development team assisting with campus recruitment, social media and organization expansion. Nina studied math at Occidental College and now works in media analytics as a Data Quality Analyst. In her free time she enjoys cooking, watching movies and spending time with friends.