Coherent Corp. contributes $500K to boost DEI in entrepreneurship, technology | Lehigh Valley Regional News
Coherent Corp., a technology company that has a factory in Palmer Township, is contributing $500,000 to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The maker of lasers and semiconductor materials will help a foundation that promotes entrepreneurship at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and give to a scholarship program for Black scientists.
Coherent will provide $375,000 to support academic programs at HBCUs and Minority Institutions that will prepare African Americans and other minorities to become leaders and entrepreneurs. That support, in money, equipment and material, goes to the Leadership Needed Foundation.
Another $125,000 is for the Optica Foundation Amplify Scholarship for Black scientists. That program has awarded scholarships to 35 science and engineering students from 21 countries. The Coherent contribution will boost the awards to $10,000 from $7,500.
“Potential is universal; resources are not,” Coherent Chairman and Chief Executive Dr. Vincent Mattera Jr. said April 19 at an event in Atlanta.
“The single greatest privilege I have had in my career is helping develop talent,” Mattera said. “I have taught classes at an HBCU, and that experience reminds me that our greatest talents are unleased by giving free rein to imagination. It is our responsibility to help create opportunities for young people in love with discovery and possibility.”
Coherent is based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Shares in the company are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol COHR.
The closing price Friday was $55.06, giving the company a market capitalization of $8.36 billion. In the past 52 weeks, the shares have traded as high as $67.94 and as low as $26.29.
