2024 Dottie Lamm Leadership Award Winner Gitanjali Rao
If I can do it, she can do it, and SHE can do it, and WE can do it.
Every year the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award honors a young woman’s commitment to advancing and accelerating opportunities for women all across the state. We celebrate her resilience and leadership. Our 2024 Dottie Lamm Leadership Award winner was Gitanjali Rao! Recognized as one of Forbes’ “30 Under 30 in Science” and TIME Magazine’s 2020 “Kid of The Year,” Gitanjali embodies the spirit of innovation and leadership that the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award celebrates. Here is her speech from our 2024 Annual Luncheon.
“I firmly believe that those of us who have more need to give more. Thank you to everyone who supported me along my path, especially my teachers, parents, and mentors who took a chance on an 11-year-old with a dream.”
Hello everyone! Thank you all so much for this incredible honor, it truly means a lot to me. First of all, I want to thank The Women’s Foundation of Colorado for making this event possible. It’s a privilege and an inspiration to share this space in my hometown with powerful women who are here to lift up other women. Hopefully I’ll make even a fraction of the impact that you all have. Thank you all so much for being here and sharing this with me.
What started out as a humble journey to learn about science and technology, turned into a responsibility to motivate others to be part of it.
Through the workshops that I run that teach my 5 step innovation process, I’ve had the opportunity to bring it to over 90,000 students across 47 countries – from curious minds in a refugee camp to educators wanting to see their students succeed. I’m looking towards building an innovation movement and I’ve been very fortunate to see budding ideas across the globe.
Now, the biggest question I get is: you’re 18, you’re a sophomore in college, where do you find the time to build a movement of introducing innovation and scientific thinking in early education?
Simply, I believe that we are living in unprecedented times where newer technologies are shaping our future. There are also opportunities for innovation like never seen before.
In other words, not only are these technologies powerful by themselves but increasingly they are coming together to develop solutions we couldn’t conceive just a generation ago. The optimism is that when used the right way, they free us from the mundane and allow us to focus on solving society’s greatest challenges.
However, as fascinating as the future looks and all the choices we have, I’m here to talk about something more basic. I want to talk about the importance of taking simple steps to recognize and empathize with the problems around us and solve them with innovations in our daily lives.
My generation has grown up in a place where we’re facing brand new challenges alongside these new technologies that we’re seeing. I tend to get asked what the best thing about my generation is, and I always say it’s our ability to think without the constraints of “practicality.” And if we’re going to inherit the problems of today, we need to be a part of tomorrow’s solutions. Each of us have our own individual responsibility as we work towards Colorado’s vision of equity.
Breaking Barriers in STEM
Considering this is an event focusing on women, I do want to mention that being a relatively young South Asian female in the field of science and technology has its perks, but also has a plethora of consequences.
Finding support hasn’t always been easy but I am proud to say that I have failed more times than I’ve succeeded.
At this point, I can no longer count how many times I’ve walked into a room where I was the only young person, only South Asian, or most importantly “only girl.” But I very quickly realized that the reason I’m in that room or that camp or that classroom or that lab or that lecture hall is to be a trailblazer for the other girls who would follow. Because if I can do it, she can do it, and SHE can do it, and WE can do it.
I firmly believe that those of us who have more need to give more. Thank you to everyone who supported me along my path, especially my teachers, parents, and mentors who took a chance on an 11-year-old with a dream.
I know not every girl has this. But my hope is that every single girl out there gets to experience what I did when I walked into a lab for the first time and knew what I wanted to do for the rest of my life- and one day hopefully I’ll become that biotech CEO that 5-year-old me was amazed by.
A Call to Action
Today, we have the opportunity to try new things without having anything to lose, new perspectives matter, especially those we haven’t taken into account in years prior, so seize it and take advantage of it. Because as powerful young women, the risk is almost always worth it.
As I wrap this up, I see this award not only as a recognition of my achievements; but as a call to action to do so much more. As I said, those of us who have more need to give more.
I want to be clear: This moment on this stage isn’t just mine. It belongs to every heart out there that beats for change and every individual that is looking forward to a better future.
Supporting Innovation in Philanthropy
As I have learned more about The Women’s Foundation of Colorado these past few months, I am most impressed by how many women benefit from its innovations in philanthropy.
First, WINcome is a grantmaking program in which The Women’s Foundation funds 17 partner organizations to provide holistic resources to women, one of which is flexible cash assistance.
Also, there’s the Women & Girls of Color Fund. It invests explicitly in women, girls, and gender expansive nonprofit leaders of color who traditionally and historically receive less funding, but who are leading an innovation movement to better their communities and move women and families forward.
Gitanjali’s words remind us that innovation isn’t just about technology—it’s about recognizing problems, empathizing with those affected, and taking action to create solutions. Her commitment to bringing scientific thinking to early education and her dedication to being a trailblazer for other young women in STEM embody the spirit of the Dottie Lamm Leadership Award.
Meet our 2023 Dottie Lamm Award winner
Meet our 2022 Dottie Lamm Award winner
Meet our 2021 Dottie Lamm Award winner
