Grant awarded to build a partnership between UCLA and an HBCU partner for the recruitment and retention of black students in UC graduate programs. Read more...Secured and managed a $27,000 University of California (UC) grant to sponsor 2 students from a Historically Black College/University (Oakwood University) for a Vision Science Summer Research Program.Spear-headed a scientific literacy teaching collaboration between UCLA and Oakwood University (HBCU).Coordinated a recruitment seminar between UCLA Graduate Studies and Medical Scientist Training Program directors and Oakwood University Biology Department.Budgeted and implemented programming to support black students for a year summer research internship at UCLA in vision science. Monitor program progress and ensure all grant requirements are met and appropriately evaluated.

Develop sustainable relationships with regional higher education institutions to build collaborative efforts in diversifying STEM Faculty. Part of NSF INCLUDES Aspire California Regional Collaborative.

Develop curriculum and facilitate faculty trainings on implementing equitable and anti-racist teaching practices in the traditional and non-traditional classroom. Create sustainable programming to continue the work of antiracism and other social justice issues in higher education.

Teaching: Co-Instructor for Upper Level Biology Seminar Course at California State UniversityDesigned, implemented, and evaluated a teaching strategy to improve student metacognition and self-regulated learning to improve equitable practices in an undergraduate biology classroom.Teaching pedagogy training was through the Center for Education Innovation & Learning in the Sciences on evidence-based equitable and inclusive teaching practices. Research: Improving Ex vivo Cultivation of Limbal Stem Cells for treatment of Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency and other Cornea-related diseasesNote: The IRACDA fellowship combines a traditional mentored postdoctoral research experience with an opportunity to develop academic skills, including teaching, with pedagogical training provided through CEILS workshops and CIRTL courses, as well as faculty mentored teaching assignments at California State University.

Freshman/Sophomore Undergraduate Course: Introduction to Human Biology and Laboratory.Teaching both in-person and online courses (DE certified).

Research in Host-Pathogen Interactions associated with Periodontal Disease with topics including but not limited to: Porphyromonas gingivalis, oxidative stress, inflammasome, autophagy, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Cancer

Current Research in Cellular Microbiology and Dental Research with topics including but not limited to: Porphyromonas gingivalis, oxidative stress, inflammasome, Fusobacterium nucleatum, Cancer

Goals: to insert graduate students into high school classrooms working with teachers to build new effective curriculum to engage high school students in the sciences: particularly biology and chemistry. I worked in a high school chemistry classroom for a year designing experiments with the students, teaching the students how to keep lab notebooks, giving lectures on my research and assisting the primary teacher to create a more successful experience for the students. This was part of a larger GK12 NSF funded grant.