In This Edition
February 25, 2021
Diversity Program Consortium Newsletter — Vol. 6, Issue 1
Coping with the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has become not unlike a marathon. Read this issue of the DPC newsletter to learn about how mentors and mentees went the extra mile to close the distance between them.
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In-class instruction, hands-on experiments and conferences bringing together students from across the nation to showcase research projects were all upended when COVID-19 broke out nearly a year ago.
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When asked what the biggest challenge during the last year was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BUILD students were mostly unanimous: the loss of hands-on experience in the lab.
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As the 2020-2021 calendar continues to present twists and turns at just around every corner, it’s been quite the challenge to stay on top of all the moving pieces. However difficult, the CSULB BUILD community forged through those obstacles to keep involved with its student and alumni groups, opening up the floor to needed conversations about national issues.
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Kathy Lee Sutphin, Ed.D., joined the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as a political science student in 1992, after working as a journalist and while raising four daughters. Upon graduation, she found she loved the UMBC community so much that she didn’t want to leave—so she found a way to stay.
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Allen Lipscomb, Ph.D. in psychology, serves many roles at Cal State University, Northridge’s campus. One of them is as a mentor in the undergraduate biomedical research training program, BUILD PODER, an NIH-funded initiative. Almost a year into the pandemic, Lipscomb shares about how he and his mentee have adjusted to doing things virtually.
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Mariano Loza-Coll, Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology, has always had a passion for giving back. He demonstrates this not only through his research with drosophila melanogaster but also through his mentorship role in the undergraduate biomedical research training program, BUILD PODER, an NIH-funded initiative.
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Amy Billizon’s name is recognizable to every Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) BUILD Project Pathways student and alum. No student enters the program without meeting her, and all experience her care. “Ms. Amy,” as the students affectionately call her, is the Program Manager of the Student Training and Research Enrichment Cores for Project Pathways. Though she is not an official mentor of the BUILD Program, she is the embodiment of everything a mentor should strive to be.
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Michelle Quillin is a third-year BLaST scholar and a University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) senior due to graduate in May 2021 with a bachelor’s of science degree in wildlife biology and conservation. Quillin, a Koyukon Athabascan, grew up in Fairbanks and is from the Interior village of Hughes, Alaska. She hopes to become a wildlife biologist and eventually a wildlife manager for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
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University of Alaska, Fairbanks (UAF) senior James McKay has been a BLaST Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) trainee since the summer of 2018. McKay is pursuing a double degree in biological sciences and physics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Born in Arizona, he grew up in Valdez, Alaska. He hopes to become a professor or work in the research industry one day.
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Nelida Duran, Ph.D. in public health, strives to not only help underrepresented communities with her research, but also through her mentoring with the undergraduate biomedical research training program BUILD PODER, an NIH-funded initiative.
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In fall 2020, MSU ASCEND introduced “Innovative Approaches to Health Science Research,” a new course supporting student-driven research proposals. Partnering with graduate students and faculty from the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM), the SCIE 200 class develops new mentoring relationships with undergraduate researchers in the MSU ASCEND program.
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San Francisco State University’s BUILD program has partnered with Mentor Collective, an organization that helps universities run large-scale mentoring programs, to provide a digital platform for near-peer mentoring (i.e., advanced biology majors mentoring incoming biology students). The platform will help match hundreds of incoming undergraduates with senior students to develop peer-mentorships.
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Q&A with Dr. Hinton, a rising Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and member of the Vanderbilt Diabetes Research and Training Center.
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The University of Alaska Fairbanks Biomedical Learning and Student Training (UAF BLaST) program supports researchers all over Alaska through many funding opportunities. Linda Nicholas-Figueroa, Ph.D., an associate professor of biology and chemistry at Iḷisaġvik College, is a BLaST faculty mentor. She is being recognized for her continuing dedication to introducing undergraduate students from all over Alaska to new levels of understanding in science by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as a 2020 AAAS Fellow, one of the highest honors a faculty may receive.
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Myles Bartholomew, a 2020 graduate from Xavier University of New Orleans and XULA BUILD Project Pathways alumnus, was featured as a panelist during a discussion about the sometimes jarring transition from a Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to a Primarily White Institution (PWI).
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The University of Alaska Fairbanks Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLaST) program supports researchers from all over Alaska through many professional development and funding opportunities. An example of the impact of this faculty support is the mentorship between BLaST Research Advising and Mentoring Professional (RAMP) Ellen Chenoweth and University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) faculty Jan Straley.
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Professional Development Hub (pd|hub) recently published the report, Enhancing Dissemination of Evidence-Based Models for STEM PhD Career Development. This report presents findings from a convening of interdisciplinary and cross-sector stakeholders at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published a new podcast called “The Science of Mentorship” from the Board on Higher Education and Workforce.
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Steve Wallace, Ph.D., one of the UCLA Coordination & Evaluation Center’s principal investigators, co-wrote an editorial published in the American Journal of Public Health called “A Window of Opportunity Is Opening to Improve Immigrant Health: A Research and Practice Agenda.”
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Event Date: Mon, Mar 29, 2021 to Fri, Apr 02, 2021 |
The NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) Newsletter provides updates on activities at DPC sites, shares progress on collaborative efforts within the consortium, and highlights news and recent publications related to diversity and mentoring in the biomedical sciences.
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