NEW YORK, April 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Remarkable,
inspiring, creative. Just a few of the many qualities that describe
the 2019 class of Toyota Mothers Of Invention (MOI) who are being
honored during this week's 10th annual Tina Brown Live
Media Women in the World Summit in New
York City.
Presented by Toyota, the Summit
recognizes the MOIs for innovations that are creatively solving
global problems. Each MOI receives a $50,000 Toyota Driving Solutions Grant to further
their efforts to impact change.
This year's MOIs include: Jeanny
Yao and Miranda Wang of
BioCellection, who created a unique process that breaks down
unrecyclable plastics to create virgin-quality chemicals;
Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand of SoaPen, who invented a pen that
dispenses soap to make hand washing fun for children while
preventing the spread of infectious diseases; and Paige Chenault of The Birthday Party Project,
who brings the magic of birthday parties to homeless children in 15
cities nation-wide.
"Our Toyota Mothers of Invention are courageous and
inspirational," said Jacquelyn
Birdsall, senior engineer, Toyota Motor North America.
"Their work has impacted countless people around the globe and we
are excited to celebrate their successes during this year's Women
in the World Summit."
Since its inception in 2012, the Toyota MOI program has awarded
25 women with grants totaling more than $1
million dollars. Toyota and the Tina Brown Live Media
editorial team collaborate to select three MOI organizations
annually. All MOI honorees meet specific criteria, which include
solving large-scale problems, affecting impact and growth,
introducing new product categories, creating actionable solutions
to societal issues around the world, developing innovative
technologies and more. Past and present MOI stories can be read
here.
"It's clear from this year's class of Toyota Mothers of
Invention that women are already doing remarkable work to save the
world. Paige, Shubham, Amanat, Jeanny, and Miranda have developed
fabulous ideas and taken incredible initiative to address some of
our biggest challenges today. We're proud to partner with Toyota to
shed light on their creativity and honor their contributions at
this year's Women in the World Summit," said Tina Brown,
founder & CEO of Tina Brown Live Media.
This year's honorees will showcase their work during insightful
panels at the Summit. More
information about the 2019 Mothers of Invention:
Jeanny Yao and Miranda Wang (Founders,
BioCellection)
Jeanny Yao and
Miranda Wang founded BioCellection,
a chemical technology company that invented a process to break the
chemical bonds between plastic molecules, turning plastic that
would otherwise be non-recyclable into chemicals that are
sustainable and reusable. By focusing on the 91 percent of plastic
waste too contaminated to recycle, BioCellection is unlocking a
massive resource that leads to unprecedented opportunities. They
are pushing frontiers of innovation in the field of plastic
recycling and envision a future where all end-of-life plastics will
be recycled indefinitely. To achieve this goal, BioCellection is
developing and scaling key innovations to turn plastic waste into
quality products that can serve sustainable markets.
Shubham Issar and Amanat Anand (Founders,
SoaPen)
Shubham Issar and
Amanat Anand designed SoaPen to
address the fact that 1.5 million children under the age of five
die every year from infectious diseases – a majority of which can
be prevented by washing hands with soap. With SoaPen, kids can
draw all over their hands with colorful, berry scented soap sticks
that rinse away to leave their hands clean. For every three pens
sold in the US, SoaPen donates one to a school in a low-income
community. Issar and Anand met at Parsons
School of Design and after graduating won the UNICEF
Wearables for Good Challenge 2016 for the concept of SoaPen and
conducted a successful Kickstarter, which led to launching SoaPen
on Amazon in October 2018.
Paige Chenault, (Founder, The
Birthday Party Project)
Paige
Chenault is the founder of The Birthday Party Project, a
non-profit that throws birthday parties for children in homeless
shelters. In 2008, pregnant with her first child and thinking about
the birthday parties she would throw for her daughter, Paige was
inspired to volunteer to throw monthly birthday parties for
children at a homeless shelter in Dallas. Taking her passion for helping others
and her ability to plan spectacular and meaningful events, Paige
quit her job in 2012 as a wedding and events planner. She decided
that celebrating others was her purpose in life and The Birthday
Party Project was born. Today, the non-profit brings that magic of
birthday parties to homeless children in 15 cities.
ABOUT TOYOTA MOTHERS OF INVENTION:
Since
2012, Toyota has partnered with Women in the World to support
women-led organizations that are tackling the world's most
challenging issues with remarkable creativity. The Toyota Mothers
of Invention program has recognized the ingenuity of 25 women with
more than $1 million in grants. These
women, who are leading the charge to work on issues like
homelessness, education, food, water, energy and more, come from
all over the world, are using innovation to create lasting and
sustainable impact. To date, Toyota's Mothers of Invention have
affected the lives of more than 160 million people globally, and
are developing novel new technologies that will create positive
change for millions more.
ABOUT TOYOTA:
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a
part of the cultural fabric in the U.S. and North America for 60 years, and is committed
to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility through our
Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota has created a
tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed to world-class
design, engineering, and assembly of more than 38 million cars and
trucks in North America, where we
operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly
employ more than 47,000 people (over 36,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800
North American dealerships (nearly 1,500 in the U.S.) sold more
than 2.8 million cars and trucks (2.4 million in the U.S.) in
2018—and about 87 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past
16 years are still on the road today.
Through the Start Your Impossible campaign, Toyota highlights
the way it partners with community, civic, academic and
governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing
mobility challenges. We believe that when people are free to move,
anything is possible. For more information about Toyota, visit
www.toyotanewsroom.com.
ABOUT WOMEN IN THE WORLD:
The three-day
Women in the World Summit, held at New
York City's Lincoln Center, presents powerful female role
models whose personal stories illuminate the most pressing
international issues. They range from CEOs and world leaders to
artists, activists, peacemakers, and firebrand dissidents.
The Women in the World global live events series has been a
leader in the global women's movement since 2010. In addition
to its the flagship, three-day Summit in New York
City, Women in the World has hosted summits in London, Toronto, Dubai, and New
Delhi, as well as breakout salons in Chicago, Los
Angeles, Dallas,
San Antonio, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
Media Contacts:
Leigh Anne Sessions
Toyota Motor North America
469-292-5849
leigh.sessions@toyota.com
Kimberly Harms
Saatchi for Toyota
702-234-9517
kimberly.harms@saatchi.com
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SOURCE Toyota Motor North America