Founder & CEO

Cátia Dombaxe is the founder and CEO of STEAMpact Foundation, Inc. She was awarded a National Geographic Society grant to implement the Comunidade Ubunye project in Angola. The ambitious initiative focuses on providing hands-on learning opportunities in STEM for underserved rural areas of Angola. This initiative is being deployed through the development of local teaching resources in order to facilitate the program, along with promoting the sustainability at the conclusion of the program. Currently, Dombaxe is a Ph.D. candidate in biomedical engineering, and is leveraging her skills as a scientist with Cornell University to develop hands on experimentation kits. The kits have been designed to ignite the student’s excitement about STEM, and address local challenges such as water quality and promoting agriculture through soil quality analytics. The development of these kits are being done in concert with the needs in the areas where they are scheduled to be utilized. Dombaxe is passionate about giving back, and was selected as the 2023 recipient of the Maribel Garcia Community Spirit Award for her work on the Comunidade Ubunye project. Additionally, Dombaxe works as a teaching fellow through the Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) to help enhance the teaching initiatives of the university. Her work with CTI has been instrumental in developing the educational materials for her project. Beyond academics, Dombaxe is an avid photographer and explorer.