Ben Hallstrom
Ben Hallstrom is Founder and CEO of STEM Veterans USA. Ben served in the United States Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007 as an Infantryman and Scout Sniper in 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines. He deployed to Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, and two combat tours to Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Ben was honorably discharged in 2007. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Science at the Florida State University in 2014 and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering 2018 and currently works as a process engineer for NAVAIR.
Kenneth Faria
Ken is a senior majoring in chemical engineering at Rutgers University. On campus, Ken is the President and Founder of STEM Veterans USA at RU, working to provide services to veterans studying STEM fields such as, peer-to-peer networking, and pipelines for internships/employment. Ken also a Supervisor at the Rutgers Office of Veteran and Military Programs and serves on the Veterans Task Force. In addition to engineering involvement, Ken currently serves as a Staff Sergeant Airman with the Air National Guard. Since May 2017, Ken has been interning with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) in Quality, Manufacturing Supply & Technology, and their Veterans Community Network areas doing such work as managing the BMS Adopt-A-Military-Family program, standardizing yield data analysis, and building a business case to transform pharmaceutical inspection procedures.
Erica Menendez
Erica Menendez is a Master's in Business Administration graduate from Florida State University (FSU). She received her Associates of Arts from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2012 and her Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a minor in History from FSU in 2014. During her undergraduate tenure, Erica was an active member of her sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha. She then chose to devote her graduate school years to helping veterans on Florida State University's Campus and around the country. Erica served as External Coordinator for FSU's one of a kind Veterans Student Union Fall 2015 and has served as Director since January 2016. Since her time as director, she has worked to be sure that veterans on campus are not only recognized but continued to be honored. After Receiving her MBA in August 2017, she moved to Tampa Fl where she works at AgileThought as an Internal Sales Representative.