Program Update
June 1, 2021
FIRST is pleased to announce its 2021-2022 Cohort: Frederica Lamar, PhD Candidate, Emory University; Ethan Rundell, PhD, Yale University; Mackenzie Webster, PhD, Georgia State University; and Hala Zein-Sabatto, PhD, University of Alabama.
December 28, 2020
Congratulations to 16 FIRST current and former fellows, and five FIRST research and teaching faculty mentors named to the list of 1,000 Inspiring Black Scientists in America presented by Cell MENTOR.
The list includes current FIRST fellows Laramie Lemon, PhD, Jasmine Miller-Kleinhenz, PhD, and Kaela Singleton, PhD; and former FIRST fellows Jordan Booker, PhD, University of Missouri, Assistant Professor of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri; Tameka Clemons, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology at Meharry Medical College; Michelle Gaines, PhD, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Spelman College; Fred Gregory, PhD, Program Manager of Neurophysiology of Cognition and International Program Manager of Human Dimension, United States Army CCDC Army Research Laboratory-ARO, and Honorary Research Fellow of Bioengineering, Imperial College London; Juana Mendenhall, PhD, Walter E. Massey Professor of Physical Sciences and Associate Professor of Chemistry, Morehouse College; Suazette Redi Mooring, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Georgia State University; Derrick Morton, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biomedical Science, Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, and Visiting Associate, Department of Biology and Bioengineering, California Institute of Technology; Denise Okafor, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University; Tiffany Oliver, PhD, Associate Professor of Biology, Spelman College; Ernest Ricks, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology and Biochemistry, Georgia Gwinnett College; Jeticia Sistrunk, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, Spelman College; Ethell Vereen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biology, Principal Investigator, and Director of the VRI, Morehouse College; Sinead Younge, PhD, Danforth Endowed Professor, Department of Psychology, Morehouse College.
June 1, 2020
FIRST is pleased to announce its 2020-2021 Cohort: Christopher Chambliss, PhD, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA; Jennifer Gresham, PhD, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL; Jennifer Hayward, PhD, Emory College of Arts and Science, Atlanta, GA; Anna Newton-Levinson, PhD, Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Casey Schmidt, PhD, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC; Kaela Singleton, PhD, Georgetown University, Washington, DC; Brandon Young, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC; Anna Zelaya, PhD, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT.
FIRST in the News
- Finding Success in your Postdoc with Derrick Morton, PhD
- ECDA Helps Launch Website for Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) Program
- From Post-Doc to Faculty Position: The IRACDA FIRST Program a Teaching Post-Doctoral Fellowship
- FIRST program marks 20 years of combining postdoc research with hands-on teaching
20th Anniversary Symposium: 20 Years of FIRST as a Model for Success
On February 29, 2020, the FIRST program celebrated it's 20th Anniversary with past fellows returning to the Emory campus to celebrate the program credited with both keeping them in science and giving them valuable training to enter the world of academics. The program hosted a symposium and reception Becoming a Scientist in the 21st Century: 20 Years of FIRST as a Model for Success. The program featured past fellows who served as panelists and keynote speaker. During the reception, FIRST conducted individual interviews with at least one past fellow from each cohort over the past 20 years and created a new FIRST website to share stories from FIRST: Transforming the Face of Science.
For twenty years, the Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program at Emory University and the Atlanta University Center Schools has been changing the face of science, helping to ensure the next generation of science educators and researchers accurately reflect America’s diversity. FIRST is funded by the IRACDA program at NIH and supports postdoctoral fellows in integrated training in both biomedical research and teaching. Nearly half of the ~200 FIRST alumni are African-American and three-quarters are women. They teach and do science in over 100 colleges and universities, in pharmaceutical companies, federal research programs, and disease foundations in 20 different states and the UK. FIRST fellows are making a difference.
Annual IRACDA Conference
IRACDA 2022
The National IRACDA Conference, July 10th - 12th, 2022, Hotel Albuquerque, 800 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87104. Hosted by University of New Mexico, ASERT IRACDA Prorgam.