(she/her)

Portland State University

I will be a third-year student at the start of fall 2023. I am majoring in biology and am interested in having a career in zoology. I am currently a member of the Biology Education Research group (Shortlidge Lab), which I have been a part of since March of this year.

(they/them)

Portland State University

I am an undergraduate research trainee through PSU’s URISE program; I am a member of URISE Cohort 2. My major is Public Health: Pre-Clinical Health Sciences, and I am planning to apply to M.D./Ph.D. programs in the future. My research interests are largely centered around quality of life improvements for people with chronic illnesses and disabilities and efforts to improve access to early diagnosis for people with rare diseases. My current research is in the circadian physiology and chronobiology lab at Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences (housed in Richard Jones Hall at OHSU) where I have received a hands-on education in human physiology and in the relationship between sleep and cardiovascular risk.

(they/them)

Portland State University

Adrian Jimenez is an undergraduate at Portland State University majoring in Geology with minors in Mathematics and Earth Data Science. They are interested in using stable isotope methods to study how the water cycle is responding to climate change at various spatiotemporal scales. Currently, they are wrapping up their thesis in the Bershaw Lab investigating the efficacy of hydrologic restoration at Sturgeon Lake, OR. They also work in the Starry Home Ecology Research Lab studying the effects of green roofs on urban runoff.

(she/they)

Portland State University

I'm an undergraduate majoring in Biology and double minoring in geology and space and planetary science. I have a wide range of interests, including botany, astrobiology, geobiology, astronomy, and molecular biology. I'm currently working in the Extreme Virus Lab at Portland State University studying the interactions between the archaeal virus Sulfolobus Spindle-Shaped Virus 1 and its host Saccharolobus solfataricus.

Portland State University

My name is Cynthia Villanueva-Vargas. I am a BUILD EXITO Alumni (Cohort 6) and have been in the program for three years. I am a first-generation college graduate class of 2023. I majored in Biology and minored in Chemistry. I have two years of research experience through BUILD EXITO in OHSU's pulmonary department researching pulmonary diseases such as COPD, and I have also done COVID-19 research for the CDC that has been published. I am happy to offer my help and wisdom! 

(he/him)

Portland State University

Arden Goldberg is majoring in Political Science in the Honors College with a focus on the intersection between policy and the natural sciences, as well as effective science communication. He is passionate about native plants, mushroom identification, water quality, consumer representation, land-access policy, and sailing on the waterways of the Pacific Northwest. He volunteers for organizations such as SOLVE on public land cleanup, and for Forest Health Watch on Western Red-cedar monitoring. He is helping out at the Starry Lab, researching graduate programs, and planning next steps.

(she/her)

Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine

Associate Professor, OHSU-PSU School of Public Health

I am a health services researcher who focuses on access, utilization, quality, and outcomes of reproductive health services in the US and Mexico. My research is focused on expanding access to contraception,  abortion, and maternal health care and is driven by values of autonomy and human rights. I collaborate with other researchers, clinicians, and advocates. My work is primarily quantitative and integrates advanced methods from biostatics, demography, and econometrics and uses existing data such as electronic health records and national surveys. My BUILD EXITO/URISE team collaborates with the Consulate of Mexico in Portland.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Portland State University

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fxd5b6pr2BU 

Professor Teuscher's research goal is to develop disruptive new computing paradigms and machines that will allow for lasting breakthroughs and open new application domains in the next 5-20 years. His team uses an interdisciplinary approach and applies tools from computer science, computer engineering, physics, biology, complex systems science, and cognitive science to the study and design of next-generation computing models and architectures. Dr. Teuscher obtained his M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) in 2000 and 2004 respectively. In 2004 he became a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in 2005 a distinguished Director's Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, and in 2007 a Technical Staff Member. 

(he/him/his)

Extreme Virus Laboratory

Center for Life in Extreme Environments

Biology Department

Portland State University

Ken Stedman has been teaching and researching extreme viruses at PSU since 2001. His research focuses on structure, function, biochemistry, evolution and genetics of viruses from extreme environments. Recently his research has expanded into vaccine stabilization.

• Webpage: extremeviruses.org

• SARS-CoV-2 Blog: https://www.extremeviruses.org/sarscov2-blog

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/ken.s.lab/

• Twitter: @XtremeVirusProf

• YouTube: YouTube.com/c/KenStedman

(he/him/his) 

Clinical Research Manager

Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute (OCTRI) 

Oregon Health & Science University

Brian was hired as Study Coordinator in January 2015 as a Research Assistant 2 at OHSU working with OCTRI in the CTRC unit working on a variety of protocols: long-term dengue immunity, cardiovascular health of subjects with Turner Syndrome, Smith Lemli Opitz Syndrome research, Pancreatic Cancer among other studies. Received CCRP certification from SOCRA in 2019 and in 2021 was hired as the manager of the OCTRI study coordinator unit.

(she/they)

Research Associate at 

Vir Biotechnology, Inc.

 My name is Bridie Cawthorne (she/they).  I am a Research Associate for Vir Biotechnology.  I work in analytical development where I am characterizing potential drug products.  In analytics, characterization is done through various assays such as titer, ELISAs, qPCR, and nano-particle analysis.

(she/her)

Associate Professor

Northern Marianas College

School of Education - Rehabilitation & Human Services

Dr. Beylul Solomon has been an Associate Professor at the School of Education’s Rehabilitation and Human Services concentration at Northern Marianas College since 2016.  She

received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Yeshiva University, NY in 2009 and has spent over 8 years teaching in the Micronesian region of the Pacific, specifically in the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).  Dr. Solomon has several years of experience teaching and conducting psychophysiological research, and has authored numerous publications and presentations. Her most recent work focuses on implementing Indigenous rights legislation and indigenous-based education to improve the mental health and academic outcome of youth in the CNMI, which resulted in her receiving the Governor’s Humanities Award in research and publication in 2022. She has a passion for developing underrepresented students to become mental health professionals and scientific researchers.

(she/her)

MS1 & Master of Clinical Research Candidate

Oregon Health & Science University

I am an MS1 (1st-year medical student) and Master of Clinical Research candidate at Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine. I graduated from the University of Oregon with bachelor’s degrees in English and Human Physiology in 2015. After half a decade off from school, I obtained a Master of Public Health in Public Health Practice from OHSU-PSU SPH in 2022. My research interest involves the application of video games to conversations around death and dying and advanced care planning among younger adults aged 18 to 45. I am completing undergraduate medical education, building leadership, and fostering community through membership and participation in several student councils and committees. I am an avid reader, specifically fiction, psychological thrillers, and fantasy, and a cat mom to a sassy cat named Moody. 

 (He/Him)

Master of Social Work Student

Portland State University

Andres is a Portland State University MSW student in his final year of graduate school, and working towards an LCSW. He is passionate about working with youth and young adults experiencing mental health crises. For the 2023-2024 academic year Andres will be interning at Randall Children's Hospital and Legacy Emanuel in the Emergency Department. Andres is also supporting the PSU LSAMP program as a GA/Community College Liaison. 

MD/Ph.D. Student

 Oregon Health & Science University

Tetiana Korzun obtained her bachelor's degrees in Biology and World Languages from Portland State University in 2018. Currently, she is actively engaged in pursuing her MD/Ph.D. degree at Oregon Health & Science University. In 2021, Tetiana became a member of the Marks Lab, where her research focuses on investigating nanoplatforms as therapeutic and diagnostic tools for the gene therapy treatment of cancer cachexia.

(he/him)

MD/Ph.D. Student

Oregon Health & Science University

I immigrated to the United States when at the age of 17. After completing English as Second Language courses at Portland Community College, I transferred to University of Oregon (UO), where I majored in Human Physiology and minored in Biology and Chemistry. While at UO, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Judith Eisen, studying genes involved in neural crest cell development. Following graduation, I accepted a position in Dr. Stephan Back's lab at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), where I investigated mechanisms of brain injury in pre-term infants. I am now an MD/PhD student at OHSU, and my research focuses on how cancer-cachexia affects cardiac physiology and function in chemotherapy-naive patients. 

(he/him)

Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Sciences

Oregon Health & Science University

Ubaldo received his B.S. in Animal Science at the University of California, Davis where he studied the microbiota of foals to understand gut transitions from birth to weaning in the lab of Dr. Michael Mienaltowski. Following his undergraduate studies, he spent three years studying white striping in chickens under the continued guidance of Dr. Mienaltowski and managing a stem cell clinical trial lab at the UC Davis Veterinary Institute for Regenerative Cures. Ubaldo began his graduate studies in 2020 within the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care under the Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences and joined the lab of Dr. Matthew Drake, where his doctoral dissertation is focused on understanding how maternal cytokine release during pregnancy affects the development of airway parasympathetic nerves in children born to mothers suffering from asthma.

Although he has asthma, Ubaldo loves hiking, camping, and climbing across Oregon. When not creating personas for his friends based entirely on how they drink their coffee, you can find him dissociating to old music playlists from high school.

(she/her)

Graduate Student, MPH Epidemiology

OHSU-PSU School of Public Health

Rosol just completed her first year of the MPH in Epidemiology at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Currently, she works as a Senior Research Assistant on firearm-related injury research projects at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. She is a first-generation college student and graduated with a BS in Public Health Studies: Pre-Clinical Health Science from the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. Prior to graduating, she gained research experience as a BUILD EXITO & McNair Scholar. She conducted her internship with the Trauma Research Lab at OHSU.

Portland State University.