Toyota Mothers of Invention Honored for Innovative Solutions to Global Problems.
Originally Published by Toyota Motor North America.
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.
