Courtney Delatorre, analyst, defense affairs, was recently announced as a recipient of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce 2023 Rising Star Award.
At Emergent, Courtney manages external engagement with the Department of Defense (DoD). She says that a lot of her focus is on ensuring that Emergent’s portfolio of medical countermeasures is aligned with the DoD’s needs and requirements.
But this award stems from Courtney’s work outside of her official job description: her culture building efforts around Emergent Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), as well as her community support work, notably creating solidified networks of support in Montgomery County Schools, one of the largest school districts in Maryland.
One project within the schools Courtney points to is an ongoing relationship with Northwest High School, which has a Biotech Academy program where select students interested in STEM take a specific curriculum.
“We are working with their upcoming seniors, to provide a dual interviewing process for them, to help prepare them for the next stage in their life, whether that be going directly into the workforce, going to school or trades, whatever that may look like for them,” Courtney said. “We want to provide them with some real-world experience and guidance.”
This will be that program’s second year, and Courtney says she is excited that the school district continues to provide her and her colleagues the opportunity to engage with their high school students.
While Courtney has been with Emergent for seven years, in 2020, around the murder of George Floyd, she felt compelled to get more involved in supporting her colleagues and the community.
“I have never personally experienced something like that. I know it’s a lot of what we learned in history class about some of the racial injustices that have happened, but in my time, this was very front and forward for me, and it was something that I could not turn a cheek to,” Courtney said.
“I am an Afro-Latina American woman, so this was definitely something that resonated with me. And I knew that there were a lot of other people that looked like me who felt the same way about what happened. At that time there was an open discussion with our leadership team and I brought up the question: what could we contribute and where is our stance on this?”
Courtney noted that she saw that there was pressure for companies to do something, to say that they’re an ally or whatever their case may be. She helped lead and guide those conversations at Emergent.
“There was a lot of early discussion with the leadership team as to what we could do to really build that sense of community within Emergent, which was my primary goal,” she said. “There was a lot of support from our leadership, who saw large group of people who really needed that at a time like this. So that’s when our Employee Resource Groups were formed, and they’ve been going strong ever since.”
She said that it’s great to have that safe place of community where colleagues can bounce ideas off one another and make a positive impact, at work and in the communities where we live. And it was Courtney’s work moving Emergent’s culture forward that aided in creating such safe spaces.
As far as what this recognition means to Courtney, she said that it means so much more than she would have expected.
“It means so much to me to win this award. I think at first, I was like, ‘This isn’t real, what is this?’ It means more than I can even express,” Courtney says. “Again, being an Afro-Latina American, and a young, single mom, I have all these trials and tribulations just to make it through day-to-day life. So, to have this extra recognition really means a lot to me.”