**Sheyene Gerardi** (born April 13) is a Venezuelan actress, producer and businessperson. She is also a mining executive, co-founder NASA´s Planetary Landing Team. She was granted the status of an individual with exceptional ability in the national interest in the United States. The National Interest status is the Nation’s highest civilian recognition, presented to individuals for achievements and significant contributions to the security, prosperity, and social wellbeing of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. 

Gerardi has worked with the Next Generation Committee of the Robotics Society of Japan. In 2018, Sheyene was named as the Lead for Robotics Outreach at NASA’s Center for Lunar and Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS), the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) and The Florida Space Institute (FSI) network. 

The Planetary Landing Team Laboratory founded by Sheyene is a part of the Center for Lunar & Asteroid Surface Science (CLASS) at University of Central Florida (UCF).  During her time at NASA, she also founded the Sheyene Institute. It is, a company that works on technologies for use on the Moon, Mars and asteroids. These are known as "space resources" to support NASA missions. She leads a philanthropic organization dedicated to expand global participation and ownership of AI and the space industry. Sheyene is member to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, member of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and the committee on professional ethics, rights, and freedoms. 

She is working with governments introducing robotics education into low-resource communities .

Entertainment career
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### Entertainment

Sheyene is known for her work in more than 30 countries, including Russia, Germany, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. Given her influence on the culture, a non-profit charity foundation in Barlovento, Venezuela — the Sheyene School — is named after her.

Gerardi has won the Emmy Award, the 2 de Oro award, She has received the key of the city in Barlovento, the Meridiano award and the Imagen Awards. The actress has also credits in roles as a TV host. In 2016, Gerardi was named a Mogul Influencer in New York City.

### Later Career

Sheyene is the founder of the Sheyene Gerardi Network (SGN), a entertainment ecosystem for social change, dedicated to foster awareness related to the space revolution.

Sheyene began hosting a TV Show documentary entitled To the Moon and Back with Sheyene Gerardi, in 2020 distributed through cable television. Sheyene is also executive producing this series.

Business Career
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Sheyene Gerardi, is working with NASA Kennedy Space Center and the Florida Space Institute (FSI) to teach Planetary engineering and creating Robotics competitions for low-income children. Her role infusing scientific progress into robotics outreach includes to develop a series of robotics competitions for universities and to develop robotics for constructing landing pads on the Moon. She is currently working along with governments and international organizations to introduce robotics education into low-resource communities or conflict areas, such as rural schools, refugee camps, non-formal school systems and prison systems in concert with entertainment productions for social change to educate the public and guide them to take action.The program is serving prison systems providing assistance with education to people who has been wrongfully convicted.

### Sheyene Technology

Another one of her businesses include a robotics product line for commercial use and various projects and activities within NASA, including the International Space Station, robotic missions and international Space launch.

Sheyene's company builds its own robots for mining operations. The firm has sold it´s portfolio of products and services to various organizations, including government agencies in the USA; it also has product research and development operations jointly in Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) and for deployment on in situ planetary and lunar missions.

### Sheyene Institute

After becoming involved with NASA Sheyene founded the Sheyene Institute, a company that works on technologies to mining resources on the Moon, Mars and asteroids, to support NASA missions.

Philanthropy
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Sheyene founded the Sheyene Gerardi Foundation in 2007, originally in Venezuela but re-organized in New York. The foundation is dedicated to harnessing the potential of emerging technologies like AI and space exploration to address global challenges. Through research, education, and outreach initiatives, SGF fosters ethical and equitable solutions in areas such as economic development, environmental sustainability, and social justice.

As of Jan 2024, the foundation is organized into four program areas under president Sheyene Gerardi, who sets strategic priorities, monitors results, and facilitates relationships with key partners. 

* Research and Development Division
* Social Impact and Governance Division
* Outreach & Education Division
* Mission Operations Manager Division

In addition to her management positions at the organization, Ms. Gerardi herself led lobbying and public relation efforts for the organization. 

### Program areas and initiatives

**Education**

The Sheyene School, established in 2007, its role is to increase people's understanding of technology. The school has partnered with NASA to bring robotics competitions to South America, reaching communities across South America, the Middle East, and Europe. Additionally, SGF provides educational support in reentry programs for wrongfully convicted individuals.

**Food program**

Launched in 2021, SGF's food program delivers emergency food assistance to vulnerable communities facing pandemic, environmental, or humanitarian crises.

**CEO Program**

The SGF Commonwealth Enrichment and Outreach (CEO) Program, established in 2022, fosters financial security through entrepreneurial support initiatives.

**Telemedicine**

Sheyene e-health. Sheyene e-health is a system to spread information about rare diseases. It was created after she became a survivor of an unclassifiable splenic small B-Cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare cancer.

Personal life
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Sheyene`s family has owned and operated a mining company, since 1954. Gerardi acquired her wealth after her mother and father were killed in an automobile accident, leaving Sheyene with no living relatives.

She serves as a CEO and took over the company after her parents died, one of her first major actions following the death of her parents was to implement automated mining.

Sheyene’s lands are in the Orinoco Mining Arc, in the same area of the Cristinas and the Brisas mine, which, according to a business valuation, the property may be worth more than $1 billion. According to the minister of the Popular Power for Ecological Mining Development, the Orinoco Mining Arc has tons of reserves of gold, copper, diamond, coltan, iron, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, thorium and other minerals and it has a potential of about 2 trillion dollars, which would make it the second biggest gold reserve in the world.

On April 2020, Sheyene enrolled in the University of Naples Federico II to acquire a degree in Political science. Gerardi is member of the American Society of International Law and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Sheyene has been a featured speaker at several international business and technology forums, including the World Economic Forum, the World Government Summit and the Nobel Prize Summit.

Significant events
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In 2006, her mother and father were killed in an automobile accident, leaving Sheyene with no living relatives. A year later, she received a diagnosis of advanced lymphoma stage IV, a very rare type of cancer with only 60 cases reported worldwide with no survivors. The cancer was spread throughout 85% of her body and doctors gave her three months to live. Sheyene underwent three years of chemotherapy treatments in Florida, she suffered no hair loss. During her chemotherapy treatments, Gerardi worked in two films in Mexico.

Other websites
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* Official website
* Sheyene Gerardi on IMDb
* CNN interview
* CNN interview
* La Invasora(2003)