Meet Our Executive Board

Safiyah Muhammad is currently a Senior Research Specialist in Dow Performance Silicones’ Resins, Coatings, and Adhesives Product Development group. In this role, Safiyah is responsible for the development and application of new silicone resins.

Safiyah joined Dow in 2021 after receiving a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). During her tenure at UIUC, she helped to re-establish the graduate and undergraduate NOBCChE chapter and co-lead recruitment efforts of the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments at the National NOBCChE Conference and other conferences for underrepresented groups in STEM.

While at Dow, Safiyah also serves on the Membership committee for Dow's Global African Affinity Network as well as the Social and Networking co-chair for the Young Researcher Community (YRC). In her free time, Safiyah loves to be active and outside, frequently weightlifting, playing volleyball, camping, and indoor rock climbing/bouldering as well as engaging in many other activities.

Angelar Muthike is a Senior Research Specialist at The Dow Chemical Company. Her current research focuses on developing, enhancing or using existing optical laser spectroscopy methods for industrial material characterization. Angelar received her B.Sc. in Chemistry from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2017 and her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2022. In addition to her NOBCChE involvement, Angelar is actively involved in the Midland Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) where she’s a member of the DE&I steering committee and serves as one of the section directors, is the 2023 co-chair of the Dow Discussion Group on Interfacial Science (DDGIS) and is a member of the Precious Sisters Charity Trust (a UK-Kenyan Charity) board of trustees.

She enjoys working out, playing volleyball, hanging out with friends, travelling, mentoring, and just recently started practicing Brazilian Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.

After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Industrial Engineering, Leah made the long trek to Midland Michigan to work in Railcar Logistics. It was in Midland that Leah was introduced and recruited into NOBCChE, where she has been a board member since 2014. What Leah enjoys most about NOBCChE is the dedication to engaging and empowering youth in our community. In her spare time Leah enjoys baking wedding cakes, and teaching dance classes with her husband Sam.

Vincent is a recent graduate hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2023 where he also received minors in Chemistry and Environmental Engineering. Prior to joining Dow, Vincent completed co-ops at various companies and locations. His first three co-ops were with Marathon petroleum in the areas of Production planning, Environmental Engineering, and Improvement/Operations. He then completed a co-op with Dupont in Improvement engineering before completing is last co-op with Dow in Deer Park as a Production intern in Methacrylate's. Vincent was also an undergraduate researcher for his university building a process to chemically recycle waste plastics to virgin grade material. While in his undergrad Vincent served heavily on his university’s NSBE board where he also got involved with the local NOBCChE chapter. Vincent currently works as a researcher in Dow’s Process R&D Copolymers team and also serves on the Mid Michigan AIChE board as the young professionals chair.

Kayla Storme is currently a Senior Research Specialist in Dow Performance Silicones’ Engineered Materials Product Development group where she develops new material protectives for electronic and advanced power applications. Before joining Dow in 2024, she received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kayla was first introduced to NOBCChE during her Ph.D. and participated as a student liaison with Charter 2 of the NOBCChE Collaborative, co-lead recruitment efforts of the Chemistry department, and presented her Ph.D. research on designing polymers for membrane-based gas separations at the National NOBCChE Conference.

Outside of work, Kayla enjoys riding her motorcycle, playing volleyball, designing and sewing clothes/cosplay, traveling, and playing video games like Groove Coaster, Pokémon, and Zenless Zone Zero.

My name is Kobe Cartwright, and I currently serve as the Midland NOBCChE Chapter Activity Coordinator. I am passionate about helping others in my community, inspiring others to pursue STEM, and professional development. Professionally, I work as a Production Engineer for Dow Silicone's Corp, and have a background in Chemical Engineering from Ohio State.  In my free time, I enjoy travelling, skateboarding, and running.