Nisha Cavanaugh, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

California, United States

• Expand on responsibilities of Sr. Manager role
• Created and served as teaching faculty of brand new required course on Scientific Communication for first-year biomedical graduate students; developed course materials and hands-on activities for oral and written.
• Serve on Postdoctoral Recruitment Taskforce to develop strategy for recruiting top talent

La Jolla, CA

• Create career and professional development programs and workshops for postdocs and graduate students in biomedical research
• Provide direction for co-curricular programs for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
• Manage and serve as teaching faculty for the Torrey Pines Leadership Development Program (http://sbpleaders.org/SitePages/Home.aspx)
• One of four contributing members of the Torrey Pines Training Consortium which provides high impact career and professional development programs for early career PhDs on the Torrey Pines Mesa (https://tptc.wordpress.com)
• Provide one-on-one career advising to develop application materials, practice interviewing skills, and navigate various career paths
• Strategize ways to enhance the postdoctoral experience at SBP (as part of Postdoctoral Training Advisory Group)

La Jolla, California

• Design, develop, and organize career development programs and workshops for 150 postdocs and 40 graduate students in biomedical research and across two campuses (La Jolla, California & Lake Nona, Florida)
• Develop professional development programs focused on leadership and management skills, science communication skills, and grant writing skills
• Provide one-on-one career advising to develop application materials, practice interviewing skills, and navigate various career paths
• Strategize ways to enhance the postdoctoral experience at SBP (as part of Postdoctoral Training Advisory Group)
• Manage Fishman Fund Award program to support professional development opportunities for postdocs towards reaching their career goals
• Manage 2-week summer research experience program for 8-10 high school students annually

La Jolla, California

• Participate in monthly teleconference discussions of advocacy efforts and current issues facing postdocs
• Identified and distributed articles related to diversity in higher education and research

Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

• Designed and organized monthly professional development workshop series to prepare postdocs (specializing in statistics and applied mathematics) for applying and interviewing for jobs
• Co-facilitated workshop on networking and developing your elevator pitch to help postdocs promote their skills and research qualifications.

Raleigh, North Carolina

• Designed and organized professional development programs and workshops for >350 postdocs in 65 different departments, including biomedical/physical/natural sciences, engineering, and humanities/social sciences
• Facilitated networking opportunities with universities/companies/institutions in the Research Triangle Park area
• Provided one-on-one career advising to develop application materials, practice interviewing skills, and navigate various career paths
• Advised the Postdoctoral Association and directed planning committee for Annual Postdoctoral Research Symposium
• Centralized on- and off-campus resources to enhance the postdoctoral experience at NC State University
• Designed, developed, and facilitated workshops for postdocs, graduate students, and faculty

Research Triangle Park, NC

• Determined the sugar specificity of DNA polymerase beta, employed enzyme kinetic assays and sugar substrate analogues
• Probed protein-ligand interactions via protein mutagenesis and collaborating with structural biologists and computational modelers to understand how DNA polymerase beta discriminates against ribonucleotides
• Trained and mentored a high school student with little previous laboratory experience
• Communications include two first author publications and two co-author publications; selected to give an oral presentation at NIEHS Science Day

Research Triangle Park, NC

The NIEHS Trainees Assembly (NTA) is the postdoctoral association at the institute and is composed of >220 fellows, including international fellows. As Chair, I served as the primary liaison between the NIEHS administration and the postdocs. Major accomplishments: - Created the 2010-2011 Strategic Plan for the NTA - Revised official documents (NTA Mission.

A team of 20 Ph.D. scientists representing NIEHS partnered with Citizen Schools to develop and teach a 10-week after school program entitled "Healthy Lungs, Happy Living" for middle school students. The curriculum focused on the physiology of the lungs and how the environment (pollution, smoking) impacts them, by combining brief lectures and hands-on.

Boulder, Colorado

Dissertation Title: "Herpes DNA Synthesis: Initiation of New DNA Strands and Discrimination between Right and Wrong Bases by the Polymerase"