Conference Speakers

Angela Byars-Winston, PhD is a Full Professor (tenured) in the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Department of Medicine and Director of the UW Institute for Diversity Science. Angela is a counseling psychologist whose research has focused on testing the validity of theoretical models to explain and predict academic and career outcomes using social cognitive theoretical approaches. She investigates cultural influences on academic and career development, especially for historically minoritized racial and ethnic groups and women in the sciences, engineering, and medicine. She led a multi-year NIH R01 grant to identify and measure critical factors in mentor training interventions for mentors in biological science. A renewal of that grant with Dr. Christine Pfund focused on research mentor cultural diversity awareness. She is currently a PI in the NIH/National Research Mentoring Network leading the Culturally Aware Mentoring (CAM) initiative. Angela has primarily mentored graduate-level students in the behavioral sciences for both academic and clinical careers and has facilitated mentorship education workshops for research mentors and mentees for over a decade. She chaired the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) report, The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM, and served as a member of the NASEM Board on Higher Education and Workforce. Angela is an elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association, an appointed member of the NIH/NIGMS Advisory Council, and chair of the UW Institute for Diversity Science.

Cecilia M. Patino-Sutton is a Medical Doctor trained in Allergy and Clinical Immunology and in Medical Education at the School of Medicine, National University of Cordoba, Argentina. During 17 years she worked as a clinical practitioner and was appointed in the Department of Histology, Cellular Biology and Embryology where she taught 2nd year medical students. She then continued her training in clinical research and epidemiology at the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Johns Hopkins University (Fellowship), and University of Southern California (PhD), respectively. As a researcher she has been involved in describing the burden of Allergic Rhinitis, Eczema, and Asthma in children and adults in Argentina as well as asthma specific mortality rates. These studies led to actively promoting Asthma guidelines during the 1990's for the treatment and management of this chronic respiratory disease nation-wide. She was also involved in describing the high prevalence of tobacco use among Argentine generalists and specialists, and its association with knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes towards tobacco use. These studies lead to a country wide campaign against tobacco use among medical doctors and to the first restrictive policies of tobacco use within medical professional venues. She has maintained her interest in education and is currently an Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and the Director of Education of the Southern California Clinical Translational Science Institute at USC where she has been involved in developing curriculum for graduate students and clinically oriented professionals focused on a research career in promoting and accelerating research across the translational spectrum.

Christine Sorkness, RPh, PharmD, is UW Institute of Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) Senior Associate Executive Director and collaborates on research workforce development and mentorship training efforts. She serves as an investigator with the ICTR Collaborative Center for Health Equity. She has a special interest in health disparities in asthma, in which she has conducted both clinical efficacy and comparative effectiveness trials. Dr. Sorkness is affiliated with the UW Department of Medicine Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care Division, with more than 40 years of  NIH funding as either a co-investigator or principal investigator. A long-standing member of the UW Health Sciences IRB, she has also served on several NHLBI-appointed Data and Safety Monitoring Boards for multi-center national trials. Dr. Sorkness holds professorships in both the UW School of Pharmacy and the School of Medicine and Public Health. She has provided instrumental leadership in support of the National Research Mentorship Network, and serves as a Principal  Facilitator with NRMN and CIMER.

Emma A. Meagher, MD, earned her medical doctorate degree from the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland, and completed postgraduate training in internal medicine, cardiology, and pharmacology at the National University of Ireland. Dr. Meagher serves as Vice President of Clinical Research within the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and as Senior Vice Dean for Clinical and Translational Research and as Chief Clinical Research Officer for the Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Meagher is passionate about education and about paving the way for future translational scientists, leveraging her roles as Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, as Director of Translational Research Education, and as Associate Dean for PSOM Master’s and Certificate Programs, all within the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Under her leadership, the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics (ITMAT) offers educational programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels that are designed to recruit, train, and nurture a new cadre of professionals with defined expertise in clinical and translational methodology. She has implemented a Research Mentor and Mentee Training program for investigators conducting clinical and translational science. Dr. Meagher has received recognition for her efforts in education through numerous teaching awards, including the university's highest teaching honor, the Lindback Award for Medical Education (2005), and the Alpha Omega Alpha Robert J. Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges (2014). Dr. Meagher is also an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland.

Kelly Diggs-Andrews, PhD is the founder and CEO of Diggs-Andrews Consulting, LLC, a consulting and media company whose goal is to broaden accessibility to science careers through science outreach, diversity training, and professional development.  She is also a Certified Trainer with the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and a Principal Facilitator Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), where she leads both in-person and virtual workshops for research mentors across career stages and disciplines nationwide. Dr. Diggs-Andrews has led mentor training at national scientific conferences for the American Society for Microbiology, the Society for Neuroscience, the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students, and others as well as numerous colleges, universities, and medical institutes. Her curricular expertise includes Entering Mentoring, Facilitator Training for Entering Mentoring, and Culturally Aware Mentoring. Dr. Diggs-Andrews earned her BS in Biology from Alabama State University (2005) and her PhD in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Washington University in St. Louis (2010). She was also the recipient of the NIH-Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award, Chancellor’s Diversity Graduate Fellowship, and a National Cancer Institute Postdoctoral Supplement. In her previous role, she served as the Education and Mentoring Fellow with the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and spearheaded an NSF-funded program to develop ASM’s mentoring capacity, to advance investigator-educator collaborations and interdisciplinary research, and to broaden participation of underrepresented individuals in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. 

Melissa McDaniels, PhD, is Associate Executive Director & Scientist at the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER, www.cimerproject.org) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a co-investigator and community advancement manager for the NIH-supported National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN, https://nrmnet.net/) as well as a Scientist with the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR, https://ictr.wisc.edu/). She is also leading a project as a part of the American Physical Society’s NSF INCLUDES Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN). From 2013-2020, in her role as member of the Michigan State University Graduate School leadership team, Dr. McDaniels worked to support graduate students and postdocs at Michigan State as they develop their capacities as postsecondary instructors and mentors. From 2008-2012, McDaniels served as Director of Michigan State University’s NSF ADVANCE Grant where she spearheaded the institution’s efforts to diversify the faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In this role she was responsible for the development and implementation of MSU's new faculty mentoring policy. Prior to working at MSU, she held full time positions at Northeastern University, Boston College, and National Geographic Society. McDaniels has over twenty years of experience in graduate student and faculty development, undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning and organizational change. She has had the pleasure of doing research and consulting domestically and internationally. McDaniels holds degrees from Michigan State University (Ph.D.), Boston College (M.A.), and University of Michigan (B.A.).

Philip Cheng, PhD is an Assistant Scientist at the Henry Ford Health System. Dr. Cheng is a licensed clinical psychologist, and has expertise in sleep and circadian medicine. His program of research examines the biopsychosocial dimensions of sleep and circadian disorders (e.g., insomnia, shift work disorder), with a focus on translation science that produces feasible and widely accessible interventions. Dr. Cheng is currently funded by the NIH to further characterize pathophysiological phenotypes of shift work disorder. Dr. Cheng is experienced in facilitating research mentor training and mentee training nationally, via both the synchronous online environment as well as in-person workshops. He has worked with both the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) from 2014 to 2019 and with the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Research Experiences (CIMER) since 2018. Dr. Cheng also has specific interests in cultivating culturally aware and culturally responsive mentoring through an experientially-based curriculum, and has curricular expertise in the Culturally Aware Mentoring module offered through NRMN. He is also developing a curriculum that targets issues specific to the LGBT+ communities. His style and philosophy of social justice education draws from a dialogue-based approach, cultivated through his experiences with the University of Michigan Program on Intergroup Relations. Dr. Cheng received his Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology, Cognition, and Neuroscience, and his doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan. 

Roger B. Fillingim, PhD is a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Pain Research & Intervention Center of Excellence at the University of Florida (UF). His research investigates biopsychosocial contributions to individual differences in pain, including the influences of sex/gender, race/ethnicity and aging on the experience of pain. Dr. Fillingim’s research has been continuously funded by the NIH since 1994, including a current MERIT award from the National Institute on Aging. He has published more than 400 peer-reviewed papers and has delivered plenary and keynote addresses at numerous international conferences. Regarding mentoring efforts, in 2013 Dr. Fillingim established the University of Florida Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s (CTSI) Mentor Academy, which provides training for UF faculty in best mentoring practices.  Dr. Fillingim has a longstanding commitment to mentoring and has successfully mentored numerous postdoctoral fellows, and early-stage faculty members.  He also directs an institutional training grant that supports postdoctoral training in pain and aging research and leads the UF Center for Advancing Minority Pain and Aging Science, which supports career development for early career investigators from underrepresented backgrounds conducting pain and aging research. In 2016, he was recognized for his mentoring contributions when he received the UF Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, Postdoc Mentoring Award. He currently serves as Secretary/Treasurer of the International Mentoring Association.

Vivian Lewis, MD,  is a medical educator, administrator, and Professor Emerita of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Lewis has previously served as the University of Rochester’s Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity as well as Chair of the Mentor Development Group in the Clinical Translational Science Institute. Her areas of professional interest include mentoring, leadership coaching, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare.  She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr Lewis completed residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and a reproductive endocrinology fellowship at the University of California-San Francisco. Prior to coming to Rochester, she was on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago where she cared for infertility patients and ran a multidisciplinary menopause clinic.