Dr. Mika Handelman has a background in anthropology, a master’s in Community Mental Health Counseling, and a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Most importantly, she is a survivor of graduate school. Dr. Handelman’s research foci and interests continue to evolve but share a common thread - an interest in the contexts and stressors of groups who have been historically marginalized or oppressed, and a goal of facilitating common humanity, de-stigmatization, and healing. She is currently engaging in a cross-disciplinary collaboration regarding the applicability of DARVO to American institutional/systems level deployment and upholding of racism and sexism. She is also participating in DEI efforts as a member of a national psychology organization. Dr. Handelman has presented on topics including early identities of gender expansive youth; predictors of social anxiety among same-sex partners; assessment of factitious disorder; trauma, caregiver stress and resilience; impostor syndrome in graduate school; and self-compassion for both clinical and non-clinical populations. While her clinical practice is generalist, she has a particular passion for working with individuals who struggle with shame or self-criticism, impostor syndrome, graduate school stress, and trauma - often those who have felt particularly out of place. She especially enjoys the work of supporting clients to listen to and trust themselves. During her postdoctoral fellowship she developed and co-facilitated several rounds of an integrative evidence-based group therapy on self-compassion (focused on issues such has self-criticism, self-worth, and emotional avoidance). Because of her life experiences and multiple identities/backgrounds, as well as those of her clients, her practice has also begun gravitating towards race and gender based trauma, healing, and resistance. She continually strives to deconstruct patriarchy and decolonize her own mind and life, as well as her practice. On a more personal note, she is a dog lover with four cats, has returned to her love of reading for pleasure (which took a leave of absence during graduate school), likes to play in dirt and puddles, and bird watch. Oh, and she has impostor syndrome.

Dr. Erika Tatiana Camacho is NSF Program Director for the ADVANCE and HSI programs as well as a co-Lead for the latter. She is a Full Professor in Applied Mathematics at Arizona State University. She published the first set of mechanistic models addressing photoreceptor degeneration, providing a new framework to mitigate blindness. Her leadership, scholarship, and mentoring have won her numerous national and regional recognitions including the 2019 AAAS Mentor Award, the 2014 PAESMEM award from the White House, the 2020 AWM Louise Hay Award for Mathematics Education, the 2018 AAHHE Outstanding Latino/a Faculty in Higher Education Research/Teaching (Research Institutions) Award, the 2017 Great Minds in STEM Education Award, the 2012 SACNAS Distinguished Mentoring Award, the 2011 Hispanic Women’s Corporation National Latina Leadership Award and the 2020 SACNAS Presidential Service Award among many other national awards and honors. She was a 2013-2014 MLK Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She grew up in East Los Angeles and was taught by Jaime Escalante at Garfield High School. She received her B.A. in Mathematics and Economics from Wellesley College and earned her Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University. Dr. Camacho spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory. She then held a tenure-track faculty position at Loyola Marymount University before joining the faculty at ASU in 2007. She co-directed multiple summer programs dedicated to the recruitment of undergraduate women, underrepresented minorities, and those that might not otherwise have the opportunity. Dr. Camacho’s passion is to continue the work and legacy of her mentors: to create opportunities for those individuals from marginalized communities and make education and advancement attainable to them.

Joey Ramp is a Biocognitive Neuroscientist, the Vice-president and Co-founder of the International Alliance for Ability in Science, a non-profit organization that provides resources and scholarships for disabled student scientists, and also, she is the CEO and Founder of Empower Ability Consulting, LLC, a firm that advocates for disabled people in STEM, with a focus on disabled student Service Dog Handlers in STEM. Ramp is an activist, renowned crusader, champion fighter for disabled student scientists, and the global pioneer for university-wide inclusive laboratory policies for student Service Dog Handlers providing them with equal access to science education.

Stephanie Watts is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Michigan State University. She received her PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology at Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis while working in the headquarters of Lilly Laboratories Inc, performed a postdoctoral fellowship at The University of Michigan, and then began as a tenure track faculty member at Michigan State University in 1995 (and been at MSU ever since).  Her expertise is in smooth muscle function and pharmacology.  In particular, her laboratory is dedicated to understanding vascular dysfunction in hypertension and obesity.   Dr. Watts has received grants from the NIH, American Heart Association and pharmaceutical industry.  She was a charter member of the Hypertension and Microcirculation Society of NHLBI, served on the CICS NIH Study section, served on F30/31/32 fellowship study sections, reviewed grants for the American Heart Association and has been a part of the PhRMA Foundation review panel for over 20 years (Drug Discovery).  She serves on editorial boards for 6 journals, two of which she is Associate Editor.   Her lab has published approximately 200 papers at this time.
    Nationally, she has been committed to graduate education and mentoring, having ~100 trainees pass through her laboratory door.  She served as an Assistant Dean in the Graduate School from 2008-2018 with a primary responsibility of leading the Responsible Conduct in Research (RCR) Series offered by the University.  She served as Graduate Director in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology for 4 years, was Chair of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics Graduate Recruitment and Education Committee, initiated the American Heart Association Council for High Blood Pressure Research Trainee Advocacy Committee, and ran Hypertension Summer School in 2005 and 2007 for the American Heart Association.  Most recently, Dr. Watts has been invested in mentoring junior faculty, joined the NHLBI Program Project Parent Council Committee and become Director of MSU's minor in Pharmacology and Toxicology.  She still does experiments of her own because this helps her be better at everything stated above!

Dr. Ash Zemenick (they/them) is a Postdoc at Auburn University & Michigan State University
Dr. Alex Webster (she/her) is a Research Professor at University of New Mexico 
Dr. Sarah Jones (she/her) is an Education Manager at the Chicago Botanic Garden

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Ash, Alex, and Sarah are Directors of Project Biodiversify (www.projectbiodiversify.org), which is a group of research biologists generating materials that promote diversity and inclusion in biology teaching. We develop and disseminate teaching materials and methods aimed at increasing the diversity of biologists highlighted in lectures, humanizing biologists, and making biology classrooms inclusive to students of all backgrounds.

Dr. Lindell is an ecologist and Associate Professor in the Dept. of Integrative Biology and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations at Michigan State University.  Dr. Lindell and members of her lab group investigate avian ecology and  how birds contribute to ecological functioning and ecosystem services and disservices in managed ecosystems. Dr. Lindell serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ornithological Applications which publishes work that informs the conservation and management of birds. She teaches courses in ecology and tropical biology.

Dr. Carolyn Young is a Professor at the Noble Research Institute, in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Noble was built to help revitalize agriculture after the dust bowl, working alongside farmers and ranchers for 75 years to deliver solutions to great agricultural challenges. Dr. Young’s program integrates basic to applied research, and she has contributed to education and extension activities and collaborated with scientists within Noble, nationally and internationally. Her research is focused on endophytes in forage grazing systems, endophyte diversity in native grasses, pecan scab and a root rot pathogen of alfalfa. Within each research area she has developed genomic and culture resources, educational activities and provided knowledge and tools to stakeholders. Carolyn is originally from New Zealand, where she completed her studies at Massey University in Palmerston North. She moved to the USA in 2004 for a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Sophien Kamoun at the OARDC, Ohio State University. In 2006 she started her position at the Noble Research Institute. Carolyn has two sons who are now embarking on their own tertiary education journey. She was the founding Editor-in-Chief for the Phytobiomes Journal, which was established in 2017 by the American Phytopathological Society. Carolyn is passionate about mentoring and providing professional socialization and personal support to enhance an individual’s career development. She values the relationships with her mentors who have enriched her career, and as a result, she strives to pay forward similar experiences to others.

Anna Funk is a freelance writer and editor based in Kansas City. After earning a Ph.D. in plant biology, she started her journalism career as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, followed by 2 years as editor at Discover magazine. She now covers health, science, and the environment for local and national outlets, but has the most fun with her email newsletter about her garden, The Funkyard. Follow her on Twitter @DrAnnaFunk or get in touch at itsdrfunk.com.

Dr. Sally Winkler earned her PhD in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and UCSF in 2020 and her BS in Bioengineering from Stanford University in 2014. During graduate school, she developed marine-inspired surgical glues, supervised ten undergraduate and masters’ students, won over $100k in fellowship funding, and co-founded the award-winning STEM leadership podcast Double Shelix. She is now a Scientist at a large pharma company in Irvine, California, developing medical devices for women’s health. Sally is passionate about improving the STEM trainee experience both inside and outside academia. In her free time, Sally enjoys spending time outdoors and birdwatching with her husband and 1 year old daughter.

Dr. Kayla Wolf is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University, where she is 3D printing kidney tissue models. She recently graduated with her PhD in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley, and received her bachelor's in Chemistry and Human Biology from Michigan State University.  Her graduate work investigated how brain cancer cells interact with extracellular matrix in their microenvironment during invasion with the aim of identifying new therapeutic targets. She is passionate about biomaterials, mentorship, and training scientists in the professional skills they need to succeed in STEM careers. Kayla is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Predoctoral Fellow (F31), and Siebel Fellow.