Women & Men Inspiring Success and Excellence

2026 WISE Awards Luncheon - March 12

The Florida Tech Alumni Association celebrates four individuals (a student, an alumnus, a staff member, and a faculty member) who inspire success and excellence within the Florida Tech community.

Please join us in recognizing the 2026 honorees while enjoying a luncheon on the Florida Tech campus, allowing you to network and be inspired!

Date: Thursday, March 12, 2026
Time: 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. EST
Location: Florida Tech - John & Martha Hartley Room (2nd Floor of the Denius Student Center)

Parking for event guests will be reserved in Lot 10. Visitors to Florida Tech are encouraged to obtain a temporary parking permit by registering as a guest user. To get started, please complete the registration in the Guest User Registration Portal.

Event Registration

Individual: $25 per person
Table Sponsor: $300

Registration Deadline - March 5th

2026 Keynote Speaker

Samantha Miles serves as executive director of Vertex, Florida Tech’s Applied Innovation Hub, where she leads the university’s industry engagement, applied research and workforce development efforts.

In this role, she is helping build a connected, industry-driven platform that supports innovation and economic growth across Florida’s Space Coast.

Born on the Space Coast, Miles’s career has taken her around the world, including leadership roles in Australia and across the Middle East. She has led multimillion-dollar national capacity-building initiatives that strengthened higher-education and research ecosystems and built partnerships spanning government, industry and academia.

Before joining Florida Tech, she led global learning and consulting programs that supported more than 10,000 researchers and educators, most notably through national initiatives in Egypt.

Now back home, Miles is focused on expanding Vertex as a place where ideas move quickly into application, companies grow through collaboration, and talent is developed to meet real industry needs.

She believes that lasting results come from aiming high, working with integrity and building true partnerships where people and collaboration are at the center of success.