Jennifer Hayes 

Why continuing an education is so important to her:

"I am involved in computational studies related to drug discovery and development and medicinal chemistry. This field requires interdisciplinary knowledge, skills and abilities, and can have a high impact on marginalized and underrepresented populations in terms of development of medications and treatments that disparately affect minorities and women, but there are few of the affected minorities and women working in this research field. I feel that it is important to increase women and minorities in the related interdisciplinary technological areas to improve the chances of  driving equity in treatment and medicine for those diseases and disorders that disproportionately affect my community. I also feel that it is important to provide representation and mentorship to young women interested in pursuing related STEM careers."

Jennifer proudly supports:

I Am Kept Foundation

Top Ladies of Distinction 

Premature Widows

Volunteer, Edith P. Wright Breast Cancer Awareness Foundation

Jennifer, what does the term “Golden Women” mean to you?

“I believe “Golden Women” refers to many of the women that I have known in my family, church, schools, community, and with whom I have served in various organizations over the years. These women are leaders and serve the community, they are often professional women who also hold important positions in corporate, academic, civic, and/or religious or community organizations. They are experts at multitasking and often have families that the serve, care for, and support in addition to other jobs and/or while furthering their education. These women are continually giving back and making a way for others. They have faced adversity and hardships, and although they may have had moments where they thought they couldn’t make it, they kept going and persevered through it. They are often women with strong faith and they know where there help comes from. They know they are blessed and use those gifts and blessings to help others and to strengthen and improve their communities.”

Jennifer, describe something that is plaguing young women today and explain what can be done to turn it around? What can you do to help?  

"One thing that plaques many young women is a lack of services and recognition of the need for mental health services and consideration. There are a lot of things going on in the world and young women often bear the burden of a lot of it for themselves and their children, younger siblings, or others they may have the responsibility of caring for, with high inflation, high cost of education, higher interest rates, and lower pay, fewer opportunities particularly in the fields of law and science, and historically and institutional sexism requiring women to work harder and do more than make male counterparts, while making less. These factors can have real psychological, mental, physical, and emotional effects that can lead to severe depression, anxiety, and stress and affect one’s personal, academic, and professional performance. I personally experienced this after the sudden loss of my spouse, leaving me with three teenage children who were also devastated, saddened and traumatized by their father’s murder. Yet, I was expected to continue going on and so were they. My son, our oldest child, was a senior in high school and he had college applications to complete, essays to write, entrance exams to study for and take, all of which was hard for him to do. I suddenly became the only parent and responsible for the college education of all of my children, which was never part of the plan. Many of the effects are long lasting and it's not something you can just get over in a few weeks, months, or even years. I can’t solve that problem, but I have taken steps to help in founding a non profit organization with my children which seeks to help students who have lost a parent and their families by providing college scholarships and resources to help with some of the financial issues, and we intend to build a community for our scholars and their families to be able to help and support each other and to share information about resources to help with the psychological, and emotional effects to help them keep going."