2020GAINSConference

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Session Descriptions

9:45 Technical Talks

The inner life of a hospital: Meet Ms. Kathleen Silard, CEO of Stamford Health

Meet Stamford Health CEO and President Kathleen Silard! Ms Silard began her career as a nurse in the pediatrics and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Albert Einstein Hospital in New York. Following a transition to healthcare administration, she joined Stamford Health in 2003 as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and is now the CEO. Kathy oversees a hospital with more than 3,000 employees, including more than 750 medical professionals, who provide high-quality, patient-centered care. What does it mean to be a hospital administrator? How has that changed in the midst of a pandemic? Beyond the medical personnel, who works at the hospital? We know you have questions! Join this session and ask them!

Panel Discussion: There Is No "I" in Breakthrough: The Role of Research Funding in Scientific Discovery

Moderator: Dr. Louise Perkins, Chief Science Officer, Emerita of the Melanoma Research Alliance

Dr. Amy Laster, VP, Science and Awards Program, Foundation Fighting Blindness

Dr. Kristen Mueller, Senior Director, Scientific Program, Melanoma Research Alliance

Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvares, Senior Program Officer for Medical Research, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation

Collaboration in science goes far beyond the lab. This session will bring together four women in STEM who have improved the lives of many people through their work in the non-profit sector. Leveraging their STEM training and through their organizations this group works to fund biomedical research globally and/or advocate for research and funding and that will help medical therapies reach patients. This session will explore how hyper cooperation for the greater good through funding research can advance scientific discovery and how this group of women support each other and share their ideas as they work to keep research in their field moving forward.

Convalescent Plasma Therapy @ Stamford Health During COVID-19

Dr. Suzanne Rose, Director, Office of Research at Stamford Health

Fairfield County, Connecticut, was the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak in our state Stamford Hospital experienced a prolonged wave of critically ill patients, at one time filling 4 ICU’s from an original 1 pre-Covid-19. Two floors in our hospital doubled capacity to create space for patients not requiring mechanical ventilation. The Office of Research worked tirelessly to bring new therapies to these critically ill patients. The first trial we were able to open was to study Convalescent Plasma. After Mt. Sinai and the Mayo Clinic treated their first patients Stamford Hospital was one of the first sites in the United States to offer this therapy. We were the first hospital in Connecticut to treat patients, treating our first patient on April 10th. Prior to initiation of these two therapies, a little over half of patients admitted to the ICU did not survive to discharge or recovery. Since the initiation of these therapies, almost 85% of patients are still alive. We will discuss the many barriers faced and how we were able to work with other departments to bring down the barriers to positively impact patients lives for the better.

Immunotherapies: Meet Dr Erica Stone, an award winning immunologist, who works at the intersection of immunology and oncology.

Dr. Erica Stone, Vice President, Oncology at GigaGen

GigaGen is advancing transformative antibody drugs for infectious disease, immunodeficiency disorders, transplant rejection, and checkpoint resistant cancers by leveraging industry-leading, single-cell technologies. Dr. Stone is an award-winning immunologist with expertise in T cell immunology, immuno-oncology and human immunology. At GigaGen she leads immuno-oncology research and discovery of new first-in-class antibody therapies. Dr. Stone was most recently Assistant Professor in the Immunology, Microenvironment and Metastasis Program at The Wistar Institute Cancer Center where her independent laboratory focused on understanding the multiple mechanisms of action of first-generation immune checkpoint inhibitors, including anti-CTLA-4, with the goal of identifying strategies to overcome resistance. She was awarded several grants for her research including the Melanoma Research Alliance’s Bristol-Myers Squibb-MRA Young Investigator Award and funding from the NIH. She also held the position Wistar Institute Assistant Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Perlman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where she was a member of the Institute for Immun ology and the Immunology Graduate Group Executive Committee. Dr. Stone serves as Tumor Immunology Abstract Programming for the American Association of Immunology and was the 2017 recipient of AAI’s Chambers-Thermo Fisher Scientific Memorial Award. Dr. Stone has published numerous manuscripts in journals including Immunity, Nature Reviews Immunology, Science, Clinical Cancer Research, ELife, and PNAS, mentored students and postdoctoral fellows, and served as a reviewer for many study sections and journals. Dr. Stone holds a B.S. in Biology summa cum laude from the University of New Hampshire and a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from UC-San Diego where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Stephen Hedrick.

The Scientist-Clinician: a combination of patient care & lab research

Dr. C. Lee Cohen, Fellow in Pulmonary and Critical Care Brigham and Women's Hospital, Broad Institute, Harvard University

This talk will discuss the process of becoming a scientist/clinician, splitting time between seeing patients and working on basic science that with the goal of improving clinical care. Specifically I will discuss being an intensive care doctor during the time of COVID and also working in an infectious diseases bench science lab on infectious disease diagnostics (including, indirectly, some COVID diagnostics and studies on COVID serology). This will be a descriptive talk more than a "technical" talk.

Thinking about Med School? Talk with Madison, Clinical Research Coorinator, Boston Hospital

Madison Earl, Clinical Research Coordinator, Boston Children’s Hospital

In this technical talk, Madison will share her experience as a pre-medical student-athlete at Harvard University where she led a medical mentorship organization, started a women's club and studied for the MCAT. Madison currently works as a clinical research coordinator so you will get a behind the scenes look into her work as part of the Orthopedic Surgery Department at Boston Children’s Hospital. She will take you through a normal day that includes working closely with world-class surgeons, engaging with pioneering research studies, participating in surgery observations and learning human anatomy. " If you have a dream of becoming a doctor or pursuing a PhD, this technical talk will be perfect for you! I can't wait to see you all there!”

Navigating Your Future: A conversation with Jasmin Jose, Executive Director, Cancer Network, Mount Sinai Health System

Jasmin Jose, Executive Director, Cancer Network, Mount Sinai Health System

Jasmin Jose will discuss her journey as a healthcare administrator and how she navigated her career and what she learned from her past successes and failures. She will speak about her experiences as the leader for Cancer Network at Mount Sinai Health System, work life balance, and how being a lifelong student can be a recipe for success.

Beyond the Drug: What Else Is In That Pill?

PaulaGarcia Todd, Global Strategic Manager,DuPont

When you take medicine, it contains an active pharmaceutical ingredient, providing the therapeutic effect desired, but it also contains a list of “inactive ingredients”, also known as excipients. Find out what these ingredients are and what functions they provide, while better understanding the role of a pharmaceutical formulator."

10:30am TT Sessions

Striking the Balance: HIV Research, Family & Inspiring the Next Generation Dr. M. Nia Madison, Professor and Director of HIV Research, Miami Dade College

This session will focus on the multifaceted aspects of my professional and personal life, hobbies, passions and answer any questions you may have. My work on HIV involves biomedical research centered around inhibiting the viral enzyme that HIV needs to reproduce itself. I do this work with undergraduate students and of 72 target proteins we have tested, 12 inhibit the enzymatic function on HIV reverse transcriptase. I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a professor of microbiology/anatomy & physiology at Miami Dade College and the CEO of a nonprofit science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) organization called 24/7 STEAM Works, Inc. I am a L'Oreal Changing the Face of STEM ambassador and a AAAS If/Then Ambassador. Through these platforms and my nonprofit I strive to engage young women in STEAM careers, education and interactive, hands-on, learning experiences.

Engineering: Exploring Nanoparticles That Remove Harmful Metal Contaminants from Drinking Water Holly Rudel, Graduate Student, Yale University

Access to safe drinking water around the globe remains challenging. In this talk, I will discuss laboratory techniques used to synthesize, characterize, and test materials to act as effective sorbents for the removal of harmful metal contaminants such as arsenic. This discussion will be coupled with engineering considerations about what makes a laboratory-developed technology feasible forreal-world implementation.

Workforce Analytics: A Growing Technology Field! Carolyn Broderick, Senior HRIS Analyst, Mount Sinai Medical

This session will focus on Human Resources Technology and Workforce Analytics - THINK DATA! How can we use HR technology & data to manage the workforce? What types of careers there are in HR Technology? Carolyn will share her career path and how this field is constantly growing and changing providing a challenge for those who want to continually learn.

Introduction to Epidemiology! Hear about this exciting field of study!

Dr. Melani Jacobson, Epidemiologist, NYU School of Medicine

In 2020, you have likely been hearing a lot about epidemiologists with respect to the coronavirus pandemic. While epidemiology is critical in the fight against coronavirus, it is a larger discipline that focuses on the distribution and determinants of health and disease on a population-level. In this session, I will give an introduction to this field and talk with you about what I do, which is study the impacts of environmental chemicals on women's and children’s health."SmithVent: Winner of the Mass General Hospital CoVent-19 Challenge!

SmithVent is a simplified, cost-effective, rapidly manufacturable pneumatic ventilator tailored to COVID-19 patients and designed for ease of use by healthcare workers! Meet the SmithVent Team! Emily Dixon, Computer Science Teacher, Putney School & Member of SmithVent Team! "SmithVent is a team of Smith College engineering alumni and friends. We collaborated on a simplified, cost-effective, rapidly manufacturable pneumatic ventilator tailored to COVID-19 patient needs and designed for ease of use by healthcare workers. Out of over 200 submissions, SmithVent won the CoVent-19 Challenge hosted by anesthesiologists at MGH. The Challenge is currently working to secure FDA approval for SmithVent. Our team of engineers and teachers will present our final prototype and design process. We look forward to answering your questions! "

Building Technology to Help Animals! Gracie Ermi, Research Software Engineer, Vulcan Inc.

"Do you love animals? Did you know that many different types of technology are used to protect endangered animals? In this talk, software engineer Gracie Ermi will tell you all about her job building technology to help animals she loves like elephants and killer whales! Plus, you'll learn about how you, too, can combine technology with any other interests you have to create the career of your dreams."

Neuroscience: Exploring Individual Differences in Neural Circuits That May Play a Role in Alcohol Use DisordersSarah Montgomery, PhD Candidate, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

"Alcohol use disorders (AUD) remain a global health burden, with approximately 6% of all deaths worldwide attributable to harmful alcohol consumption. An intriguing phenomenon of alcohol use in the human population is the variation in alcohol consumption among individuals; some consume in a controlled manner, while others engage in pathological consumption that may lead to alcohol dependence. The progression of AUD involves the dysfunction of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) that specifically project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This projection is critical in encoding the reinforcing and rewarding properties of natural and drug stimuli. However, it is currently unknown how this VTA-NAc DA circuit is modulated by alcohol consumption over time. In order to uncover potential neurophysiological adaptations to alcohol exposure in individuals, fiber photometry (calcium imaging) is used to perform chronic neural monitoring of the VTA-NAc DA circuit in freely behaving mice."

Learn About The Game Development Process from a Game Developer Who Worked on Fortnite! Heather Chandler, video game developer

Heather Chandler, former Sr. Producer for Fortnite, will talk about the game development process. She will discuss how design, engineering, and art work together to make games. She will also discuss some of the software programs that are used in game development.

TT Sessions offered @ 9:45am & 10:30am!

Discovery Research: how do you decide what approaches to use to treat disease?

Dr. Lori Morton, Vice President, Research, Regeneron PharmaceuticalsDiscovery Research at Regeneron...how to decide what approaches to use to treat disease? How to predict out what will work? Dr. Lori Morton will discuss the different tools used to understand and treat, using Chronic Kidney Diseases as an example.

Gaining the Advantage: How can we protect our brain cells from disease in neurodegenerative disorders?Ashley Robbins, Neuroscience Ph.D.Candidate, UPenn

Neurodegenerative diseases encompass a range of conditions which affect our brain cells, leading to irreparable damage and cell loss. Different neurodegenerative disorders affect different regions of our brain, different types of cells and cause different symptoms in patients. Scientists today are working to understand how we can stop these distinct neurodegenerative disorders in their tracks and provide relief for patients. Working in the lab of Dr. Beverly Davidson, my work focuses on understanding how some cells in our brain are resistant to the ill effects of neurodegenerative disease, while others are more vulnerable. By studying the cells that are resilient to disease, we hope to find new therapies to better equip the vulnerable cells to fight off neurodegeneration.”

The Role of A Medical Student-Run Free Clinic in NYC: East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership Amara Plaza-Jennings, MD/PhD Student, The Icahn School of Medicine @ Mount Sinai

The East Harlem Health Outreach Partnership (EHHOP), is a medical student-run free clinic at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. Student-run free clinics at large exist to provide treatment to those patients who are uninsured and otherwise unable to access health care. EHHOP specifically serves the uninsured patients of East Harlem, who are largely Latinx, and aims to provide both high quality care as well as social support. Among student-run clinics, EHHOP is unique because of the wide range of services we offer and the high number of patients we see. In this Technical Talk, we will discuss the challenges facing uninsured patients, how EHHOP functions as a clinic, and how EHHOP empowers our patients through both healthcare and social services."

Role of Skin Cells and The Immune System in Healing. Olivia Justynski, Graduate Student, Yale University

Our skin has an incredible ability to heal itself when injured. How does this process work, and how can we improve it for clinical applications? In my research, I study how the cells of the skin and the immune system work together to heal wounds effectively and protect the body from pathogens, using the mouse as a model system. I hypothesize that certain immune cells, called dendritic cells, use specific receptors to detect dead cells in the wound, which allow them to affect the inflammatory immune response to injury."

Neurobiological Mechanisms of Fear, Stress and Anxiety-related Disorders

Dr.Abha Rajbhandari, Assistant Professor Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

My research interests are broadly to understand the underlying neurobiological mechanisms of fear, stress and anxiety-related disorders at a behavioral, circuit, cellular and molecular levels. I received my PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin-Madison working with Dr. Vaishali Bakshi. In my lab at Mount Sinai, the broad focus of my work will be on delineating the role of the neuropeptide PACAP and its interactions with other neurotransmitter/neuropeptide systems in regulation of fear, stress and anxiety-related behaviors via neuronal and/or astrocytic mechanisms in amygdala and other related structures.

Resilience Strategies for Studying STEM in College! Alexa Murray, Product Manager, Goldman Sachs

Studying a STEM field in college can be a challenge! Will there be ups and downs? Yes! How does one navigate these bumps in the road and stay on course? Make a plan! During this session I will share six strategies I have used again and again in pursuit of an engineering degree. Ask me about these "battle-tested" approaches for studying and working in STEM and how YOU can adopt these and develop your own! You got this!

Neural Engineering as a Technique for the Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Erin Purvis, Graduate Student, Neuroscience, UPenn

During these sessions I will share my research related to brain trauma. I explore neural engineering as a technique for the treatment of traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative disorders. Here is a summary about the lab! "The focus of the Cullen Lab’s research in neurotrauma is the application of engineering principles to better understand the causative mechanisms and pathophysiological responses following traumatic injury to the nervous system. Specific attention is given to neural injury biomechanics and mechanisms of acute biophysical cellular/tissue damage.

STEM Tour Descriptions

You will select ONE Tour. Please read the descriptions carefully

Neurodegenerative disease researchHost: Ashley Robbins, Neuroscience Ph.D.Candidate, UPenn
Metabolic Disease Research @ Columbia University Host: Hannah Staab, PhD Student, Columbia University The goals of our research are to understand the development of proatherogenic metabolic abnormalities in insulin resistant individuals,and to identify new therapeutic targets for improving these abnormalities. Two current areas of focus are dysregulation of (i) lipoprotein and (ii) bile acid metabolism. Lipoproteins carry out atherogenic and atheroprotective actions, and may link insulin resistance with cardiovascular disease. Bile acids are involved in maintaining cholesterol, glucose, and triglyceride homeostasis, and are dysregulated during insulin resistance and diabetes. Through these two research areas, we aim to determine mechanisms of metabolic abnormalities and atherogenesis in the natural history of type 2 diabetes, and to identify potential therapeutic targets.
Genetic Studies of Alzheimer’s Disease & Genetics of Alcoholism Host: Manon Herbinet, Research Associate and Lab Manager, Mt SinaiResearch in our laboratory focuses on dementia (Alzheimer’s disease & frontotemporal dementia) and addiction (alcohol dependence). In each of these projects our goal is to understand the molecular basis of disease in order to identify novel targets for therapeutic development. We use genetic and genomic approaches to identify susceptibility alleles, this work includes genome wide association studies and whole genome/exome sequencing in families multiply affected by disease and in case control cohorts.
We study aging using the model system C. elegans! See our lab to discover the basics of how we ask questions about Alzheimer's Disease using this model system!Host: Dr. Rachel Litke, Post-doctoral fellow in Neuroscience, Icahn school of medicine at Mount SinaiOur laboratory studies mechanisms linking lifespan with age-related diseases, and particularly mechanisms by which dietary restriction increases lifespan and concomitantly delays age-related diseases across a wide range of species and diseases. Based on great progress in elucidating these mechanisms, the laboratory is increasingly turning to drug discovery, focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease and other age-related diseases. We study aging in the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans, a round worm! During the tour of the lab, you will discover the basics of how we study aging and Alzheimer’s disease thanks to C. elegans
Skin Development and RegenerationHost: Olivia Justynsk, Graduate Student, Yale UniversityOur laboratory investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control tissue development and regeneration. Using multipronged approaches including mouse genetics, cell culture models, genomics and microscopy, we tackle complex biological processes focusing on the contribution of cell-intrinsic and cell-extrinsic factors that contribute to regenerative processes in the skin and mammary gland.
Why Don't Bighorn Sheep Get Concussions?: Neuroscience + Morphology Give Us Clues Dr. Nicole Ackermans, Postdoctoral Fellow, Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai This session will feature a tour of the anatomy lab where I work, including a normal desk but also a room full of animal skeletons. We use the skeletons as reference collections for our work to compare anatomical structures between species. My personal project involves trying to understand why bighorn sheep don't get concussions, and if it is related to their head anatomy. This project involves a combination of neuroscience and functional morphology so I often switch between the two labs. Evolutionary
Biology: a combination of field work, computation (computer science!) & lab work! Host: Lauren Mellenthin, PhD Candiate The Dunn Lab is in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University. We study how evolution has produced a diversity of life. We are interested in learning about the actual history of life on Earth as well as the general properties of evolution that have contributed to these historical patterns. The type of questions we ask require field (marine), laboratory, and computational work. Our research falls into several domains. My lab studies the diversity of metazoan animals (ctenophores, sponges, jellyfish) in terms of how they look, where they are found, and what they eat. To do this, our lab houses some live animals (four species of jellyfish, algae, two species of cnidarians, and one placozoan) to do both experimental research and to analyze genetic sequences in an evolutionary context.
Model Systems Used for Asking Questions About Psychiatric Diseases Like, Schizophrenia Host: Dr. Jennifer BlazeOur lab uses animal models to study psychiatric diseases. We also use postmortem human tissue to explore if there are chemical modifications to the genes involved in several conditions including, depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

Career Mixers

Dr. Sheryl Green, Associate Professor, Radiation Oncology
Michele Morelock, Site Reliability Manager, Google Michele works at Google as a site reliabilty manager. She is a software developer who applies her skills behind the scenes so those Google features you know and love keep working! Michele was part of the original GAINS Conference in 2015!You can see her in our 2015 video!
Dr. Rachel Litke, Post-doctoral fellow in Neuroscience, Icahn school of medicine at Mount Sinai
Dr. Kara Bagot, Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine @ Mount Sinai
Dr. Kara Bagot is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Medical Director of the alliance between the Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai and the Partnership to End Addiction. Her research is focused on developing novel methods of technological assessment and treatment of adolescent substance use disorders and examining the neurobiological underpinnings of screentime 'addiction' in youth.
Holly Rudel, Graduate Student, Yale University Dr. Natasha Kyprianou, Professor and Vice Chair, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai I serve as co-Principal Investigator with a multidisciplinary team of experts to develop molecular signatures in patients with renal cancer after long term exposure to α1-adrenoceptor antagonists. I am a translational researcher in urologic oncology with expertise in the pathobiology and treatment of advanced prostate cancer and specific interest I interrogating mechanisms of therapeutic resistance of urologictumors using pre-clinical models.
Dr. Kimia Menhaji, Urogynecology Fellow, Icahn School of Medicine @ Mount Sinai Hospital
Janani Baskaran, Graduate Student, Yale University
Dr. Yajing Xu, Postdoctoral Research Associate
Dr.Abha Rajbhandari, Assistant Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Louise Lammers, Director Emerging Assets Business Development, i3 Accelerator Program Lead, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Mount Sinai's Drug Discovery Institute offers an integrated collaborative approach utilizing HT systems to model and validate novel biological discoveries. The capabilities include Monoclonal Antibody therapeutic development,small-molecule drug discovery and pluripotent Stem Cell facility.In collaboration with Mount Sinai investigators, as well as external partners, we are able to design and execute projects to deliver proof-of-concept candidates.
Dr. Nicole Ackermans, Postdoctoral Fellow Ichan School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Lauren Mellenthin, Graduate Student @Yale University PhD student in Casey Dunn's lab at Yale University (dunnlab.org) Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Dr. Melanie Jacobson, Epidemiologist @NYU School of Medicine Dr. Jacobson is an epidemiologist who studies the effects of environmental exposures on reproductive function, birth outcomes, and pediatric health. Her areas of interest include the potential health effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals on women and children and chemical exposures in relation to endogenous hormones and hormonally mediated health outcomes. Dr. Jacobson received a PhD in epidemiology from Emory University and an MPH in epidemiology and biostatistics from Tufts University School of Medicine. Before coming to NYU Langone’s Division of Environmental Pediatrics, she was a lead research scientist at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s World Trade Center Health Registry, where she conducted research on the health effects of environmental exposures from the 9/11 attacks on women and children.
Alexa Murray, Product Manager, Goldman Sachs (Engineering Undgergraduate Degree!) Training in STEM fields can be applied to so many industries! Alexa is a good example! She applies the critical thinking skills she learned as an engineering major to solve difficult problems at work. She has worked on the development (product development/computing) and financial side of financial services.
Lauren Stalbow, Graduate student (MD.PhD) @Icahn School of MedicineLauren is working towards her MD and PhD at the same time! She has done research in neuroscience at a variety of institutions!
Hey Dr. Tay Website! I am a neuroscientist with a passion for creating programs that expose people to S.T.E.M. careers as an Ethics Fellow at the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), I am not only responsible for organizing and updating ethical concerns to eliminate misconduct within ASM publications, I also participate in outreach with the broader scientific community while working with the Communications and Education Department to enhance diversity within microbiology academic settings and workplaces.
Erin Purvis, Graduate Student, Neuroscience @ PennErin does research in The Cullen Laboratory at Penn. The lab "applies biomedical engineering principles and technologies towards two complementary goals an improved understanding of the causative mechanisms of neural injury the development of cutting-edge neural tissue engineering-based treatments to promote regeneration and restore function
Dr. Jennifer Blaze, Postdoctoral Researcher, Mt. Sinai Hostpital Our lab uses animal models to study psychiatric diseases. We also use postmortem human tissue to explore if there are chemical modifications to the genes involved in several conditions including, depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.
Dr. Annie Jeong, Assistant Director, Education and Diversity Center for Engineering MechanoBiology UPenn Dr. Jeong is a "Higher education professional with over seven years of experience working with diverse populations of undergraduate and graduate students as a program manager, certified university career coach, research mentor, and instructor. I am dedicated to helping all trainees further their professional and career development through holistic training that includes education, research, experiential activities, outreach, and well-being. I provide one-on-one career coaching and develop mini-courses and experiential learning opportunities such as research experiences for undergraduates (REUs) to enable career exploration and skill-building, and use evidence-based methods to improve trainee
Dr. Ashley Wallace, Assistant Director of Education and Outreach, University of Pennsylvania After graduating from Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, I decided to continue my education at THE Ohio State University (OSU). I received my doctoral degree from the Department of Chemistry at OSU with a focus on synthetic amphiphilic materials for biological applications, more specifically early detection of cancer tumors via MRI. Currently serving as the Assistant Director of Education and Outreach for the LRSM at UPenn. I look forward to combining my love for STEM with my passion to teach individuals to become self-motivated and self-aware."
Gracie Ermi, Research Software Engineer, Vulcan Inc. Research Software Engineer Gracie Ermi builds technology platforms that just might help save our planet! Her work focuses specifically on protecting endangered animals like sharks, elephants, and killer whales. Gracie works at Vulcan Inc. in Seattle, WA where she builds machine learning technology - training computers to do the most tedious aspects of conservation work so that experts can focus on more important tasks. As an American Association for the Advancement of Science IF/THEN Ambassador, Gracie shares her story to inspire people, especially women and girls, to pursue computer science as an avenue to make a change in their communities and around the world. In her free time, Gracie loves knitting, spending time with family and friends, cheering on Seattle sports teams, and getting outside in the incredible Pacific Northwest.
Paula Garcia Todd, Global Strategic Manager,DuPont Paula is a "Pharmaceutical professional with a contagious energy towards innovation and problem solving. Vast experience ranges from manufacturing work, to research & development, to solving formulation issues for global pharmaceutical companies, to now building the global strategy to drive growth in her business at DuPont. "
Sara Taylor, PhD Candidate, UPenn Neuroscience Sara is "a Neuroscience graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience at William and Mary, where she studied how attention, social cognition, and implicit bias related to autistic behaviors. In the Brodkin Lab, she plans to study at the intersection of neuroscience and genetics by relating social behaviors to genetic pathways implicated in ASD."
Tahiya Salam, Roboticist, Graduate Student, UPenn I am a doctoral student studying robotics in the GRASP Lab at the University of Pennsylvania. I am studying under the supervision of M. Ani Hsieh in the ScalAR Lab. My research interests lie at the intersection of multi-robot teams, dynamical systems, and machine learning. I am involved with Advancing Women in Engineering at University of Pennsylvania and participated at GAINS 2019."