Cigarroa Family Medical/STEM Lecture
AAHHE National Conference

Paradigm for the Development of Strategic Human Capital
Friday, March 7, 2025, 6:40-7:40 PM MST
AAHHE National Conference

Charles Vela was born in Central America and migrated to the United States at the age of 14. First, he lived in the Latino Mission District in San Francisco and later moved to the outer Mission, but continued to attend the Mission District Junior high, Horace Mann and attended Mission High School. Vela is best known for having conceived, between 1990-1992, the methodology and philosophy of Science, Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) as an educational concept to increase the number of Latinos in science and engineering, and to create the future technical and scientific leadership in the US. STEM integrates the disciplines into an educational body of knowledge. In 1992, Vela coined the term STEM and established the STEM Institute in the metropolitan Washington DC area. STEM is revolutionizing science and technology education in the world, particularly in the US, UK, China, Australia, Canada, some African and Latin American countries.  During the Covid pandemic, he led a team that developed a strategy and operational plan for an effective Covid vaccination in the United States. The team brought together scientists and engineers specialized in mathematical optimization, artificial intelligence, transportation and logistics; medical doctors specialized in public and military health including disease management; and a brigadier general, former Deputy Undersecretary Secretary of Defense for Logistic specialized in military operations involving many people, facilities, suppliers, destinations in a dynamic complex environment. The strategy was presented to the White House, members of the US Congress, and the state of Maryland and led to the implementation of the first unrestricted street vaccination in the USA. This strategy was later adopted throughout the United States and internationally. Vela has worked in technical and scientific management and engineering positions for large-scale, high-performance, mission-critical enterprise systems at leading US research & development institutions, including the National Academy of Sciences; MITRE, formed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); the Illinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (IITRI); and Noblis, formed by MITRE. Charles was the founding President and Chief Scientist of Expertech Solutions, a company dedicated to strategic consulting for the US government.