Dr Green Speaks

Dr. Samaad Wes Keys is an experiential educator, coach, facilitator, connector, and fierce advocate for education equity. In his current role as Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Samaad manages a portfolio of over $50 million of investments that seek to scale institutional transformation to eradicate race, ethnicity, and income as predictors of success on the Foundation’s postsecondary success team.

Before joining the Foundation, Samaad has worked in several capacities, both in the philanthropic sector and at a number of higher education intermediary organizations.

One notable accomplishment was the work Samaad did while at the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) as the strategist at UNCF’s Institute for Capacity; Samaad advances cutting edge research and innovative approaches in support of UNCF’s Career Pathways Initiative, a $50 million grant-funded initiative by the Lilly Endowment, and leads a grant portfolio of $20M to improve post-graduate success for students attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Predominately Black Institutions (PBIs).

Samaad helped develop and implement core competencies across UNCF’s network of institutions by guiding capacity development, human capital, leadership, governance, educational innovation, and student success.

Samaad has contributed to the success of 100’s of multi-disciplinary projects included working with the Southern Education Foundation, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education, and Achieving the Dream. Samaad earned a Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Georgia, a Master of Arts in education from Central Michigan University, and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Morehouse College.

Dr. Jalaal Hayes published a dissertation entitled, “Thermodynamic and Kinetic Studies of Alkali-Metal Doped Lithium Amide-Magnesium Hydride Hydrogen Storage System” in Applied Chemistry. He was 22 years old. The degree was conferred on December 20, 2015, at Delaware State University winter commencement as he was lauded as “the youngest-ever Doctoral Candidate” in the university’s 130-year history.
Since that historic milestone, Dr. Hayes has been featured in various publications including AfroTech, AfroPunk, Marquis Who’s Who, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and many others. He also was featured on a Disney Junior’s “Be Inspired” Black History commercial.
On March 28, 2017, Dr. Hayes was granted his patent entitled Rubidium-Catalyzed Alloys (US Patent No. 9,604,847). In the same year, he gave a TEDx Talk entitled, “The Chemistry of Community Building”, which discuss strategies on how communities can come together to build using chemistry principles. In addition, he is the Founder and CEO of Elyte Universal Network, LLC, a for-profit entity that focuses on STEAM and curriculum development for nonprofit organizations and corporations.
In 2018, Dr. Hayes has been noted as the “Top Influential Chemist of the Year” by the International Association of Top Professionals. The gala was held at the Plaza in which he was one of the youngest awardees in the audience.
In March 2019, he served as a keynote speaker for the Innovative Applied Energy Conference held at the University of Oxford, one of the oldest English-speaking institutions in the world. Later that year (August 2019), he accepted an appointment as a tenure-track Assistant Professor at his alma mater, Lincoln University.
In June 2021, Dr. Hayes released a documentary, Exploding Dreams: A STEAM Story, that discusses his journey in STEM and his plans beyond education.

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