Biology faculty work to improve opportunities for underrepresented populations in STEM disciplines
Recent efforts by biology faculty and their collaborators has resulted in the securing of two external awards that will help us to improve opportunities for underrepresented populations in STEM disciplines. One of these awards is from National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program and resulted from a multi-institutional collaboration that sought to better recruit and support undergraduate students from underrepresented populations in STEM disciplines such as biology. Dr. Heather Vance-Chalcraft, Assistant Professor of Biology, serves as ECU project manager for this award and Dr. Jean-Luc Scemama, Associate Professor of Biology and Associate Dean with the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences are biology faculty associated with this award. For more information about this award please read here:https://news.ecu.edu/2022/09/28/recruiting-students-to-stem/. The second award from the Glaxo Smith Kline Foundation will allow ECU to support a summer immersion program where undergraduate students from the state’s minority serving institutions can engage in research activities with ECU faculty and provide them scholarship opportunities to pursue a masters degree in biology, molecular biology and biotechnology, public health, environmental health or health education. Dr. Keith Keene, Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Health Disparities at the Brody School of Medicine, led a team of ECU faculty, including Dr. Ariane Peralta (Associate Professor of Biology) and Dr. John Stiller (Professor of Biology) to secure this award. For more information about this award please read here: Grant for ECU-FSU partnership to support minority public health graduate students | News Services | ECU. This award helps to support an existing pathways program between ECU and Fayetteville State University. For more information about our partnership with Fayetteville State University please read here: ECU, FSU establish student pipelines in key areas | News Services | ECU.