Women's History Month

Dr. Sian Proctor is a commercial astronaut, geoscience professor, artist, author, and science communicator. She became the first woman commercial spaceship pilot on the SpaceX Inspiration4 spaceflight. On September 15, 2021, as pilot of the Inspiration4's SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule, Proctor became the first African American woman to pilot a spaceship spending 3-days in orbit. She is also the first African American commercial astronaut and received her FAA commercial astronaut wings in 2021. She was also the education outreach officer for the first Hawai’i Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) Mission.

Post-Inspiration4, Sian Proctor has become a noted Afrofuturist artist, poet and author with her company Space2inspire. Proctor is the first African American astronaut to paint in space. She is a geoscience professor with the Maricopa Community Colleges where she specializes in teaching sustainability and the science of disasters. She is currently serving as a member of the National Space Council Users’ Advisory Group (UAG) under Vice President Harris and is assigned to the STEM workforce and Climate Change subcommittees.

Her motto is Space2inspire where she encourages people to use their unique strengths and passion to inspire those within their reach and beyond. She believes that we need to actively strive for a just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive (J.E.D.I.) space as we advance human spaceflight.

Kelly Ann Cicalese is NewsCenter 5’s Weekend EyeOpener meteorologist, joining WCVB’s StormTeam 5 in October 2016.

Before coming to Boston, Kelly Ann worked at WSAZ-TV, the lead television station for the Huntington-Charleston market in West Virginia, where she served as the weekday evening Meteorologist. There, she forecasted and reported on the January 2016 blizzard that brought over three feet of snow to the Appalachian Mountains, along with the June 2016 West Virginia flooding disaster.

Previously, she was a part of the weather team at KGWN in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she was awarded “Best Weather Broadcaster” by the Wyoming Association of Broadcasters. While in the Rocky Mountain region, she gained experience forecasting severe weather including tornadoes, frequent blizzards and was involved in around the clock updates during the September 2013 flooding disaster in Colorado.

Originally from New Jersey, Kelly Ann is a graduate of Rutgers University, earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Meteorology. While at Rutgers, she was involved in the university’s television program and was a member of the Rutgers Meteorology Club. She also has an Associate Degree in Mathematics.

Kelly Ann loves to know her viewers on a personal level, speaking at various social clubs and conducting kid-friendly weather experiments in local classrooms. Kelly Ann also has a passion for Irish Dancing, which she started training for at a young age. Through the years, she has performed in various venues including Carnegie Hall, P-N-C Bank Arts Center, and a small Broadway stage.

When not covering the weather at WCVB, Kelly Ann enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, usually at a local park. 

Kalaina Thorne is a PhD Candidate in the Hughes Lab at Northeastern University’s Marine Science Center. Her research interests are at the intersection between environmental and social systems sustainability. Much of her dissertation work so far has been focused on social responses to black mangrove expansion in the Gulf of Mexico. Her current research looks at the cognitive impacts of urban environmental education on youth in the Greater Boston area in partnership with the community based organization Eastie Farm. She has always had a passion for animals and wildlife but did not realize becoming an environmental scientist was a path she could take until her undergraduate research assistantship at Bryn Mawr College, where she majored in Biology as a Posse Scholar. After Bryn Mawr College, she completed her Master’s in Environmental Science and Policy at Northeastern University. Between her Master’s degree and starting her PhD in 2021, she worked as a sustainability science intern at Nature Conservancy, where she studied the health impacts of greenspace. 

A native of Concord, Massachusetts, Sarah Rudd is one of the pioneers of modern football analytics. She studied environmental science and computer science at Columbia University and earned her MBA from University of Washington. She spent several years working at Microsoft Bing as a software developer analyzing large datasets. After publishing one of the first papers on a pass value model in soccer, she joined StatDNA to head up their analytics and software development. StatDNA was acquired by Arsenal at the end of 2012 and became their in-house analytics department (Arsenal Data Analytics). During her time at Arsenal they won 4 FA cups and went to the Europa League Final. Looking for a new challenge, she left Arsenal in 2021 and after a brief stint at Blue Crow Sports Group, co-founded src | ftbl where she is CTO.

Nozama Dance Collective is a contemporary dance company and community of creators focused on collaboration and portraying intersectional experiences of identity through technical movement and dance. In addition to producing their own evening length concert performances, Nozama has a long history of participating in local community festivals and events, as performers and teaching artists. With movement described as “raw,” “technical” and “powerful,” this tight-knit group of creators utilizes gesture, athleticism, and partnering to move audiences and break boundaries. Founded in 2013, today, the company is led by visionary Artistic Director Dana Alsamsam.