Dissemination & Service

Tissue Talks

Weekly, from April 2020 - Present

During the onset of the pandemic, I was particularly interested in helping continue dissemination of scientific research despite travel restrictions and stay at-home orders in the U.S. Alongside my advisor Dr. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, I co-organized a weekly seminar series called “Tissue Talks,” to showcase leaders in the field to a worldwide online audience of 300-700 attendees weekly at no cost. Every week, a new speaker joins us from tissue engineering or a nearby discipline, and the program continues to be hugely popular to date, with attendees from over 50 countries represented. In addition, we have aimed to highlight those from traditionally underrepresented minorities, in hopes that future generations of bioengineers may find inspiration in leaders that look more like them. I believe these avenues (free, low-stakes scientific dissemination) allow students of all ages to seek resources for intellectual development, and to allow for researchers unable to pay for conference fees to attend. The best science comes from the integration of diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and by doing so, biomedical research and new technologies can better interface with the needs of the diverse populations of humans worldwide.

Virtual Symposia

August 2020, Sept 2021

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of opportunities for trainees to present at national or international meetings was limited, leading to an introduction of “trainee-for-trainee” meetings. These not only enabled rising scientists to present their research and network, but also provided opportunities for trainees to conceptualize, organize, and implement scientific gatherings with an international reach.

The first virtual trainee symposium we held (Organoids & Organs-on-a-Chip”) was held in August 2020, with advertising for abstract submissions, moderators, and attendees throughout June and July 2020 alongside co-organizer Pamela Graney, PhD.
This symposium helped lay a foundation for the “Next Generation Tissue Engineering” meeting, including both trainee speakers (Day 1) and experts in the field (Days 2 and 3), organized with Pamela Graney, PhD, Sharon Fleischer, PhD, and Thomas Falcucci, PhD.
At the end of the trainee symposium, we concluded the day with an expert “Career Conversations” panel, with early leaders in the stem cell community, including from academia, industry, and the NIH – to help introduce the different career paths available to bioengineers.

Columbia BME Department Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Member

Helped initiate the departmental DEI committee in June 2020 as a member of the graduate BME organization
Alongside colleagues in the committee, help host events focused on promoting community amongst underrepresented minorities, including events supporting LGBTQ+/Pride (June 2022, 2023, 2024) and Black History (Feb 2023) months
Advocated for the removal of the GRE and applications fees for reducing the barriers for PhD applicants from applying

Columbia Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Intern

Postdoctoral research representative of the Columbia Cancer Center DEI office, helping contribute to planning events and developing new programming to promote underrepresented minorities in STEM
Providing guidance on LGBTQIA+ specific concerns in the cancer community, including organizing a LGBTQIA-in-STEM focused panel (March 2024) on “LGBTQIA+ Affinity in Academica” and barriers for queer scientists in the academic communities
Organized a Black History Month-focused HICCC event (March 2024) titled “From Henrietta Lacks to Cancer Care in 2024: Race in Medicine,” for introducing discussions on the implications of race in cancer research and patient care

Group picture at the 2023 BME Pride event (historical tour of NYC LGBTQIA+ landmarks) with Columbia BME Department

Panel co-moderated with BMES Diversity Committee at the BMES 2023 LGBTQIA+ in BME Dessert Social in Seattle, WA

"Career Conversations" Podcast

In early 2022, we launched our new podcast series, “Tissue Engineering Career Conversations,” which welcomes a new guest each month to discuss their career choices, day-to-day tasks, and challenges involved. We will talk to some of the most inspiring leaders in bioengineering and begin to understand the multitude of career options available to early-stage scientists. Our goal in this podcast is to help shed light on a wide range of career trajectories, academic and non-academic, that have emerged from the bioengineering community.

Alongside my labmates, I co-host the podcasts to a wide variety of listeners worldwide. Podcast episodes can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and on our website www.nextgenterc.com.

K-12 Virginia Science Olympiad State Tournament

During my undergraduate years at UVA, I first developed a program to bring over 2,000 Virginian middle/high school students to the campus for an annual Science Olympiad State Tournament (2016, 2017), which continued in all subsequent years since I left UVA.

Since fall 2015, the University of Virginia’s (UVA) Engineering Student Council (ESC) has partnered with the nonprofit Virginia Science Olympiad (VASO) organization to host a Science Olympiad (SciOly) state tournament in Charlottesville, Virginia, each spring. This annual tournament brings over 2,000 middle and high school students, teachers, and parents to the UVA campus, and teams of 15–17 people from roughly 90 schools across Virginia participate in 46 different events (23 middle school, Division B; 23 high school, Division C) relating to the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields throughout the day-long competition. The national SciOly organization sets the events and rules to comply with national education standards, and the VASO board coordinates the teams and tournaments within the state. Since this event was planned and executed solely by undergraduates in cooperation with the nonprofit organization, there were institutional hurdles that were overcome through the months of planning. The Virginia SciOly state tournament has continued to be held at UVA with the support and cooperation of the UVA ESC and VASO, and bringing this tournament to UVA has allowed for increased excitement for participating K–12 students and a mitigated burden to the VASO organizers in planning the state competition. The design and implementation of this K-12 outreach initiative, in conjunction with a UVA-based special status student organization, led to a publication in Advances in Physiology Education on the methods to integrate non-profit groups with local student-run organizations.

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