Selected from many inspiring nominees, each of our five winners are powerful examples of how AstraZeneca employees get out in their communities to do good, supported by the Power of Us program or the goodwill of their colleagues who join them in their efforts. This year, each winner was awarded a $1,000 prize in “Donation Dollars” to donate to an eligible charity of their choice through our giving platform. This award is a token of AstraZeneca’s gratitude for driving community impact through volunteer service projects.
Nominees were considered by the measured community impact their work had, and by how nominees showed passion and drive to serve their community, sharing the “why” behind their service stories. Read more about the impact our winners have made in their profiles below.
Yao-Yao Zhu, MD, PhD | Providing Medical Care to the Underserved In & Around Gaithersburg
Yao-Yao has been volunteering as a primary care physician at the CCACC Health Center Pan-Asian Volunteer Health Clinic for nearly 20 years. This clinic is one of the 11 safety-net clinics supported by Montgomery County in Maryland, and serves all Montgomery County residents who are uninsured, underinsured, or need bilingual services. Since joining AstraZeneca in 2022, Dr. Zhu has continued her volunteering efforts, spending half a day of her own time every week treating and caring for patients. This adds up to over 200 hours serving over 400 patients over the course of the year. Charles Lee, Dr. Zhu’s colleague who nominated her, says that her volunteer work to care for the patients at the clinic “is an extension of what we do at AstraZeneca to improve patient lives. Yao-Yao's work is particularly meaningful because it brings healthcare to underserved populations who may otherwise not have access to medical care.”
Nathalie Fuentes, PhD | STEM Advocacy: Building a Pipeline to Foster the Next Gen of Junior Scientists
Nathalie Fuentes is a core member of the ScienceMONTGOMERY Board of Directors and for the past two years, has served as the Montgomery County Science Fair Director. Her role is critical to ensure the success of the regional fair, which has had steady year-over-year increases in participation, necessitating more complex logistics and operational work in the months leading up to the fair. Dr. Fuentes is truly the unsung hero for this initiative and involving others at AstraZeneca, acting as project manager, student liaison and the pivotal driving force to ensure the success of this event. Motivated by the low turnout of minority student participation in the 2024 Montgomery County Science Fair, Dr. Fuentes has been a champion for increasing diversity and representation in regional science fair. Backed by the support of ScienceMONTGOMERY, she initiated a collaboration with Linguate Academy to pilot the inaugural Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics to Unleash Potential (STEM UP, MD!) Program to partner with a Title 1 Middle School, which are schools that have more than 50% of students who receive free or reduced lunches, providing both resources and mentorship to aid students with the development and execution of their science projects. The program was designed to provide access and resources to students from low income/underserved neighborhoods to foster increased interest and awareness of STEM. Overall participation in the fair by minoritized students increased by more than 3-fold from 2024, and ScienceMONTGOMERY saw a 38% increase in middle school student participation. In the words of Emma Karey, who nominated Nathalie, “Dr. Fuentes is the face of STEM advocacy: she consistently identifies and delivers opportunities to enrich her scientific community. She is especially passionate about ensuring there is access for those who are underserved and under-represented.” In her own words, within the Science Fair Research guide that she developed for STEM-UP, MD, Nathalie shared that her passion for science “was born out of a deep motivation: my grandfather, who suffered from progressive lung disease, inspired me to look for a cure. Along my path, I never gave up. I participated in many science fairs, knocked on many doors and studied hard. Today, I am dedicated to creating medicines that help people like my grandfather. I learned and understood that research is the key to finding solutions to the problems we face, and every experiment, every analysis, and every discovery brings us closer to improving the lives of those around us.”
Barbara Smith, Bernadette Marinelli, LaNae Schaal, Kimberly Rivera | Backpack Drive for Student Success
In 2024, the Wilmington office organized an impactful Backpack Drive, collaborating with Gaithersburg's team to support students with essential school supplies. Their mission was clear: empower students by providing over 350 backpacks loaded with necessary stationery and motivational notes. Spearheaded by this committed leadership team, and with cross-functional teamwork, this initiative succeeded in engaging employees in a heartfelt, efficient volunteer drive in benefit of National Association of Black Veterans (NABVETS) of Delaware and Department of Justice Programs. Aligned with AstraZeneca's core value of "We do the right thing," this initiative focused on equipping students not just with basic supplies, but with the tools necessary for a robust education in fields like STEM. By investing in these educational needs, the team helps foster opportunities for future innovators. Working with NABVETS and local justice initiatives, 700 backpacks were distributed to underserved students, and an additional $2,000 worth of supplies were funded through company-matched employee donations. Emphasizing collaboration between AstraZeneca locations, marketing efforts were boosted, and participation was enhanced through strategic planning and event coordination, reinforcing a dedication to community support while nurturing team spirit. Barbara Smith has been leading such initiatives for over 20 years, and Kimberly Rivera has actively contributed for the last four years, soon entering her fifth. Kimberly shared in her nomination for the team that “this volunteering initiative extends beyond merely donating supplies; it represents AstraZeneca's commitment to creating lasting community impacts. Personally, this service resonates deeply as it reflects both my past reliance on such goodwill and the broader corporate ethos of giving back. Experiencing firsthand the transformative impact of community support during my growth in the foster system inspires me to ensure today's youth start their school year well-equipped and supported. For my team, this effort aligns with fostering a culture of teamwork and impactful societal contributions.”
.jpg/jcr:content/renditions/cq5dam.web.320.NABVETS Backpacks 1 - Large Group (1).jpg)
Stacey Trottier, Bonney Love Traylor, Lynne Stanfield, Scott Ratliff, Wendy Hershberger | Working the Farm
Wendy Hershberger has been organizing company volunteer days at Shalom Farms since she joined AstraZeneca in 2019. Shalom Farms is a nonprofit farm and food justice organization working for an equitable food system in Richmond, VA. With two production farms, dozens of partners, and innovative food access programs, Shalom Farms grows and distributes over 600,000 servings of Certified Naturally Grown produce every year and are completely dependent on volunteers to work their farms. Together, Wendy and team have harvested tomatoes, okra, pepper, potatoes and onions; planted zucchini, and squash; weeded and mulched; taken down bird netting; and laid irrigation line in the years they’ve worked with Shalom Farms, measuring their impact with the farm and by logging their paid volunteer time in the Power of Us to record their work. In Wendy’s words, “we have done it all over the past 5 years and we look forward to doing more for our community! It’s a fun day for all; we always welcome our families to help too! It teaches our kids the value and reward of giving back.”
Devina Mahapatra | Eliminating Hunger – One Meal at a Time
Devina is the founder of the Dulles South Soup Kitchen, which she started during the peak of COVID to ensure homeless and food insecure neighbors in her community had access to hot and nutritious meals in a dignified environment. In 2024, the Dulles South Soup Kitchen served over 36,000 meals. Devina and others at the kitchen measure their work not just by this impressive number of meals they are able to provide, but also by the interactions with the neighbors they serve who get space to speak to someone about their day and not be under constant pressure; and through their large network of partnerships with other hunger-relief organizations (food pantries and faith based organizations) in the county to ensure meaningful addition to services that are already available. Devina dedicated over 300 service hours to the Dulles South Soup Kitchen last year. In Devina’s words, she is driven to make a difference because “it is never okay for someone to go to bed hungry, especially when there is so much food waste. A hot and nutritious meal at a time of need provides much needed respite to families, who many times have multiple jobs or not enough of work hours to support their families. As a result, they make trade-offs every day - should they buy milk, or save for their rent; should they get vegetables to feed their young ones, or get medicines instead. This is heart-wrenching and that is when I decided to start the soup kitchen - since there was no other soup kitchen in the county and it was clearly a gap that needed to be filled. In 4 years, since inception, the Dulles South Soup Kitchen has provided over 150,000 meals in the community.”
Let their work inspire you to get involved in your community this year
Power of Us is our employee giving program open to all US-based employees. The intent of this program is to support our employees in their volunteer and giving efforts and further cultivate a great place to work. Visit the Power of Us page to learn more about our employee volunteers and what they have achieved.