What have you accomplished in your professional life/career since your 40 Under 40 selection?
I’m a geneticist, artist, and a winner of the prestigious Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). My lab seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie asymmetric cell division during embryonic development. The last step in cell division relies on a transient electron-dense structure called the midbody, which resides inside the intercellular bridge between newly forming daughter cells and is a focus of my lab.
Mutations in midbody proteins often lead to birth defects, cancer, as well as age-related neurodegenerative diseases, but the connection remains unclear. Understanding cell division is highly dependent on in vivo microscopy and large amounts of visual data, which dovetails perfectly with one of my other passions — art. The combination of scientist and artist inspires me to think differently and maintain an open mind. Some of my work can be seen in the main entrance of the Genetics/Biotechnology Center building and outside my lab on the UW–Madison campus. I have also curated and contributed to traveling exhibitions of scientific art called “Tiny: Art from Microscopes” and the “Cool Science” image contest on the UW–Madison campus, and for over 22 years I’ve organized the biannual Worm Art Show for the International C. elegans meeting. As someone who is Eastern Band Cherokee, Ukrainian, and Lebanese, and the first in my family to obtain a Ph.D., I’m also passionate about increasing the numbers of underrepresented students in STEAM fields.
On the UW–Madison campus and in my department, I’ve established several very successful recruitment and retention programs, and in 2015, I established stemdiversity.wisc.edu with support from the Sloan Foundation. In 2016, I was awarded the very first of two Chancellor’s Inclusive Excellence Awards for my outreach and inclusive teaching efforts. I have served as a board member for SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science), where I’ve broadened my impact on underrepresented students in science nationally. I currently serves as an advisor to the chief diversity officer at the NIH (Dr. Hannah Valantine), on the ASCB Minority Affairs Committee, and am a diversity consultant to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).
One of my great hobbies is also cooking/baking, including scientific cakes, and I manage a food blog, foodskop.com, and social media sites (@foodskop) in my free time.
What accomplishments, milestones, or endeavors have you attained in your personal life since your 40 Under 40 selection?
In 2008, I was named a Remarkable Women in Science from the AAAS. In 2015, I was honored as a Kavli Fellow from the National Academy of Sciences. In 2018, I was awarded the first ever Inclusive Excellence Award by the ASCB and HHMI. In 2019, I was awarded the honor to serve as an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador for Women in STEM. My science and art have been featured by Apple, The Scientist, USA Today, Smithsonian, PBS.org, NPR, and Science magazine.
If you were to “do it all over again,” what (if anything) would you do differently throughout your career?
I would have become a marine biologist.
How did your 40 Under 40 selection help your career?
Networking.
What is something that you have a new passion for since the time of your induction — either professionally or personally?
Yin yoga and more scientific outreach avenues.
Based on your experience, do you have any advice for today’s young professionals (under 40)?
Do what makes you happy professionally and personally.
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