The Team

Natalie Self,
Executive Director

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Natalie Self brings an extensive background in building a more equitable St. Louis through cross-sector collective leadership, operationalizing equity frameworks for regional change, and national grant-making.

Most immediately prior to this role, Natalie served as a Program Officer in Entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she managed a national grant portfolio totaling more than $24M in investments made to organizations implementing novel approaches to supporting entrepreneurs from communities systemically left behind. In this role, she facilitated diversity, equity, and inclusion learning conversations with 34 member foundations of the national Entrepreneurship Funders Network.

Prior to her work at Kauffman, Natalie served as a Program Manager at BioSTL, where she was responsible for the operations and evaluation of the BioSTL Inclusion Initiative. In this role, Natalie also drafted the framework we used to launch STEMSTL. She also founded the St. Louis Equity in Entrepreneurship Collective.

Natalie has a Masters in Social Work from Washington University in St Louis, and is a graduate of the Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs.

Kate Polokonis, 
Program Manager

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Kate is a former teacher with experience in St. Louis public schools and out-of-school STEM programs. Her experiences in the classroom led her to return to graduate school to study social and economic development and social policy as a way to foster change in the systems surrounding education and child wellbeing.

Kate received her MSW from The Brown School of Social Work at Washington University. During her graduate career, Kate focused on workforce development. She project managed the launch of Starkloff Disability Institute’s DREAM BIG program, a career-exploration camp for teens with disabilities, from pilot program to full implementation. At Ready by 21, she supported the Regional Youth Employment Coalition and led the research on regional short-term credentialing programs that formed the basis for the online portal Blueprint4Careers. Kate has led community-organizing efforts to end the school-to-prison pipeline and implement anti-racist and restorative disciplinary policies in districts throughout the St. Louis area.

Kate is a Tomorrow Builder Fellow at WEPOWER where she focuses on improving governance and coordination in St. Louis’s early-childhood system.

Kate is a life-long St. Louis resident and passionate about promoting racial and economic equity in her hometown.

Haley Wilson,
AmeriCorps VISTA

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Haley serves as an AmeriCorps VISTA supporting STEMSTL. Haley’s role is to support the overall operations of the STEM Ecosystem by establishing and facilitating a management system for Salesforce, the ecosystem workgroups, and the ecosystem’s communications strategy.

Haley has a diverse background of experiences. Prior to STEMSTL, Haley worked as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Psychology at Missouri State University. During her time at MSU, she was involved with the Brain and Behavior Lab working on investigating the relationship between dispositional Mindfulness and Sensory Gating, measured via EEG. In addition, she also worked on projects to assess Kindergarten Readiness in Springfield Public Schools, and the prevalence of outlier reporting in psychological journals between 2012 and 2017. Haley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology with minors in Chemistry, Biomedical Science, and Music from Missouri State University in 2018 and is currently working toward finishing her master’s thesis in Experimental Psychology.

She is passionate about STEM and STEM education and is always looking for opportunities to help others.  When not working for STEMSTL, Haley loves to sing in choir, crochet, and take care of her two cats.  

Sarah Kolberg-Shuler, 
AmeriCorps VISTA

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Sarah serves as an AmeriCorps VISTA supporting STEMSTL. Sarah’s role is in managing the ecosystem’s communications and storytelling strategy, including STEMSTL’s social media content, website, and newsletter. 

Sarah completed her Bachelor of Science in Biology at George Washington University. During her undergraduate experience in Washington, DC, she gained a wide variety of experience. At GW, she worked as an undergraduate Research Assistant in the Sustainability Department researching oyster population decline in the Chesapeake Bay. Outside of school, Sarah interned at Earth Day Network, where she worked on a variety of projects that involved anything from writing and editing content to facilitating outreach and communication with government officials. After Earth Day Network, Sarah spent her summer with August Jackson where she gained digital marketing experience and contributed to AJ’s social platforms. 

Sarah is a born and raised St. Louisan and is passionate about creating a more equitable St. Louis. As someone who chose a STEM education path, Sarah is dedicated to STEMSTL’s mission and hopes other St. Louis kids from any and all backgrounds have the opportunity and support to get involved in STEM as well.

Deborah Patterson, 
STEMSTL Champion

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Deborah Patterson serves as Champion for BioSTL’s STEMSTL initiative. Deborah recently retired as Vice President of Global Contributions and Employee Engagement at Monsanto (now Bayer). Prior to joining Monsanto, Deborah was CEO of the American Red Cross of Eastern Missouri. She also previously served in St. Louis City government, holding two cabinet positions concurrently: Executive Director of the St. Louis Agency on Employment and Training and Director of the Community Development Agency. As director of development, Deborah was the mayor’s top advisor for housing and economic development.

 

Deborah attended the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has participated in the Harvard Kennedy School Senior Executives in State and Local Government program and the Leadership St. Louis program. Her past community service includes board involvement on several local organizations, including the United Way of Greater St. Louis, President of the Board of FOCUS St. Louis, and member of City+Arch+River Design and Construction Committees. She currently serves on the boards of directors for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis Public Library Foundation, St. Joseph’s Academy, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and the Board of Delta Dental of Missouri.

Who We Are

Learn more about STEMSTL.

Our Partners

See our current list of community partners.

Employment

See current job opportunities.