Driven to Give Back
Angela Gill Nelms, BME 2007
“I made a decision to split my estate 50-50 between my daughter and Georgia Tech — the two things in my life that I am most proud of.”
Angela Gill Nelms describes herself as a “mother, engineer, entrepreneur, world traveler, blacksmith, wood turner, and saltwater aquarium enthusiast.” She was the first Tech biomedical engineering undergraduate hired by Medtronic, where she served as a field clinical engineer for seven years. She spent two and a half years in clinical research at the Emory University School of Medicine, and is now the COO of Florence, a clinical research technology firm.
Outside of work, Angela has completed six Ironman triathlons and five marathons; hiked in Chile, Argentina, and Brazil; and kayaked in Alaska, Canada, and the Amazon. She volunteers locally and globally for organizations such as Project Salud Y Paz, which builds clinics and schools in Guatemala; for World Hope International, on its 100 wells project in Mozambique; and with Challenged Athletes Foundation.
Angela’s drive both to succeed and to give back has been with her since her student days at Tech. “I was at Georgia Tech as a single mother with a special needs daughter,” she explains. Money was tight, “and I couldn’t work extra jobs because my daughter required speech, occupational, and physical therapy.”
Angela financed much of her education via credit cards, including a summer in China learning Mandarin. The experience “opened a whole new world to me, and it paid off in the end, but financing it was stressful,” she says.
Based both on her experiences and those of students she has mentored, Angela established an estate provision to support students pursuing study abroad opportunities and seeking internships. Preference will be given to students with limited finances. “I hope to make meaningful experiences accessible to all students who are willing to be brave and step outside their comfort zones,” she says.
Through a gift in your will or other estate plan, you, too, can make life-changing experiences accessible to all students, regardless of their financial circumstances. Contact Gift Planning at 404.894.4678 or giftplanning@dev.gatech.edu to learn more today.