Johnna Frierson, Phd Email and Phone Number

I serve as a co-principal investigator and co-director of the NIH-funded Duke PRIME PREP program. This initiative provides a year-long mentored research and professional development experience for young scientists interested in pursuing MD/PhD or PhD programs in the biomedical sciences.

I provide leadership in developing and implementing future steps inPratt’s ongoing diversity initiatives, including thoughtful practices to enhance recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups at the student, faculty and staff levels, and to foster greater inclusion of diverse groups and viewpoints in our community.

My duties and responsibilities include:- Developing and implementing professional development opportunities for graduate students, postdocs and junior faculty through organizing and hosting lunch seminars, a workshop series, campus events and college initiatives -Working to promote the College of Vet Medicine One Health concept through active marketing and recruitment of top-quality graduate students and trainees for the college's graduate and research training programs - Lead coordinator for the DVM Student Summer Scholars Program and Undergraduate Research Training Program- Serving as a non-voting member of the Faculty Committee on Comparative Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program- Developing and conducting new student orientation, receptions and graduation events - Managing graduate student services and consult with faculty and students on issues, college, and university procedures and policy - Providing support in the development of training grants and work with research office team on providing support to research faculty - Coordinating all admission activities for college training programs - Managing website administration for graduate programs in the education section of the college website

I was a fellow in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Program Director Fellowship. I worked with program directors in the Office of Science, Diversity, and Training (STaD) to run innovative pre-graduate and graduate-level programs and initiatives focused on diversity recruitment and retention, science outreach, and cross-disciplinary graduate education. Provided invaluable administrative experience in recruitment, grant writing, higher education administration, diversity initiatives, and program development/evaluation.

Conducted research in the lab of Dr. Terence Dermody. My dissertation work involved gaining a better understanding of how the coreceptor, sialic acid is engaged by the mammalian reovirus attachment protein sigma1, and defining the role of that engagement in reovirus neuropathogenesis.

I was a participant in the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) postbaccalaureate program. I spent one year doing full-time research in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Cover studying virulence factors of Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that is known to cause gastric ulcers and cancer.