Spectrum Club – 2025 YGPC Team Spotlight

The Spectrum Club team plans to host a Community Gala for LGBTQ+ youth and straight allies at Woburn Memorial High School. Their goal is to provide a safe space for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (LGBTQ+) and straight ally students to meet and support each other.

Spectrum Club also had a youth team in the 2023 YGPC. They were awarded $1,500 to support queer athletes and their mental health.

Their coach Joyce Vyriotes has been with the Cummings organization for 14 years, serving as both executive director of Cummings Foundation and director of communications and marketing for Cummings Properties. She previously spent a decade in the nonprofit field, doing both fundraising and patient services.

Joyce noted that she is connected with hundreds of nonprofits through her work at Cummings, but primarily through emails and phone calls. “It [is] nice to get involved in a more direct way,” she shared.

Another coach for the team is Byron DeLaBarre, an experienced scientific leader with a proven record of discovering and developing therapeutic molecules for patients in need. His work has resulted in multiple patents, clinical candidates and three FDA approved drugs: Idhifa®, Tibsovo®, and Mitapivat®. Byron leads discovery teams by leveraging his knowledge across multiple disciplines: structural biology, biochemistry, AI/ML, chemical biology and medicinal/computational chemistry.

Byron shared that he would like to give back “by guiding the next generation into STEM careers or at least a solid grounding in the role that STEM plays in our lives.”