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Dr. Nesha Burghardt
Assistant Professor
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
Department of Psychology
Nesha S. Burghardt received her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley
and her PhD in Neuroscience from New York University. As a graduate student, she investigated
the effects of acute and chronic antidepressant treatment on fear learning. Dr. Burghardt
conducted her postdoctoral training at Columbia University, where she studied the role of
the hippocampus in mood regulation and cognition. In 2014, she joined the faculty at Hunter
College as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. She is also a member of
the CUNY Graduate Center and the Center for Translational and Basic Research (CTBR). The
research in her lab uses animal models to identify the neural circuits that underlie the
cognitive impairments and emotional symptoms that accompany depression, anxiety disorders,
eating disorders, and addiction. Dr. Burghardt currently mentors several graduate and
undergraduate students and participates in numerous programs within Hunter College that
are designed to encourage and prepare students from diverse backgrounds to pursue graduate
degrees in science.
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Dr. J. Preston Campbell
Postdoctoral Fellow
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dept. of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology
Dr. Campbell received his doctorate in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 2012, under the mentorship
of Dr. Florent Elefteriou, where he discovered a molecular link between chronic stress, bone
metabolism, and metastasis. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Vanderbilt with Dr. Deborah
Lannigan working on small molecule kinase inhibitors in the context of breast cancer and drug
repurposing. Dr. Campbell's research interests revolve around mechanisms of metastatic
colonization, cellular stress response kinetics, and drug development. He is passionate about
improving the efficiency and reproducibility of academic research and has developed a course
to teach business and management principles specifically to scientists. Dr. Campbell's initial
foray into undergraduate research was funded by a SACNAS grant which sparked a keen interest
in harnessing the power of diversity to fuel the scientific enterprise. Dr. Campbell is also
an Endocrine FLARE (Future Leaders Advancing Research in Endocrinology) Fellow with the
Endocrine Society. FLARE Fellows are underrepresented trainees who represent basic science
and clinical research and who have demonstrated achievement in endocrine research.
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Dr. Andres Contreras
Assistant Professor
Michigan State University
Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences
Andres Contreras, DVM MS PhD received his DVM from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After three
years of large animal clinical practice in central Colombia, he served as an intern in the Dairy
Internship Program at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Michigan State University. He continued
his education receiving a Master's degree in mastitis and a PhD in Comparative Medicine and
Integrative Biology. His research background includes expertise in adipocyte and endothelium
biology as well as in adipose tissue sympathetic innervation. His research work has focused
on the interactions between adipose tissue function and disease and his doctoral studies
evaluated the effects of lipolysis on endothelial cell inflammatory responses. Findings from
his dissertation emphasize the role of adipose tissue malfunction in the development of
inflammatory based diseases, especially those with a vascular component such as atherosclerosis
and hypertension. His postdoctoral research work focused initially on the lipolysis-induced
white adipose tissue remodeling process and developed into elucidating the effects of sympathetic
innervation on the appearance of thermogenic adipocytes (brown) within subcutaneous adipose.
His current work focuses on the adrenergic activity of perivascular adipose tissue and its
link with the development of hypertension during obesity.
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Dr. Paola Giusti-Rodríguez
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Department of Genetics
Paola Giusti-Rodríguez is currently a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of
Genetics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is using functional
genomics and genetics approaches to gain mechanistic insight onto schizophrenia and other
psychiatric disorders. For this work, she was recently awarded a K01 Mentored Research Scientist
Development Award by the National Institute of Mental Health. Since joining UNC as a postdoctoral
researcher in 2012, Dr. Giusti-Rodríguez has served as a leader and co-chair (from 2013-2014)
of the Postdoctoral Association. She grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she earned a BS
in biology at the University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras. In April 2011, Paola completed her PhD
in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard University, where her doctorate research focused
on studying the molecular basis of neurodegeneration. Since 2013, Dr. Giusti-Rodríguez
has been working with Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR; cienciapr.org), a non-profit volunteer-based
organization that connects the Puerto Rican scientific community and seeks to broaden Latinos'
engagement with science through education, careers in STEM disciplines, and the development
of science endeavors in Puerto Rico.
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Dr. Amanda Marie James
Assistant Director for the NIH-funded IMSD Program
Instructor of Biochemistry, MEST
Research Associate, Emory University, School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology
Amanda Marie James received her BS from Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and her PhD in Clinical
Pharmacology from University of Alabama at Birmingham (2013). She has significant training in
clinical technology (pharmacological and application-based) and biomedical engineering,
with specific training and expertise in detection of clinical samples and method development.
As a graduate trainee at UAB, she developed and validated mass spectrometry methods for the
detection and quantification of two different antiretroviral drugs. Her current research
interests focus on the identification of encapsulated and nonencapsulated circulating microRNAs
as biomarkers for coronary atherosclerosis. She is specifically interested in the
frequency/abundance of coronary atherosclerotic isomiRs, (isoforms of microRNA) and their
correlation to clinically relevant outcomes based on race and co-morbidities of coronary
atherosclerosis. She has been both formally and informally trained in minority science outreach,
the importance of science education, and mentoring. As a scientific mentor, a course facilitator,
and minority outreach advocate and coordinator, Dr. James has worked on developing an environment
which fosters scientific advancements while providing the needed resources for ALL learners
to be successful. During her time at Emory University, she coordinated the online portion of
Emory's pre-freshman GLUE (Getting a Leg Up at Emory) program, which targeted biomedical science
students in need of additional guidance during their matriculation at Emory. Dr. James is also
part of the IMSD (Initiative to Maximize Student Development) executive team serving now as
the program's Assistant Director. Society and the American Physiological Society, and the
National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity.
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Dr. Michael D. L. Johnson
Assistant Professor
University of Arizona
Department of Immunobiology
Michael D. L. Johnson, originally from Chicago, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from
Duke University. After a brief stint as a technician in the laboratory of Dr. Jeff Frelinger,
he joined Dr. Matthew Redinbo's group, earning his PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he studied mechanisms of bacterial motility
and attachment. He then began his postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
in January of 2012 under Dr. Jason Rosch in the Department of Infectious Diseases. There, he studied
how Streptococcus pneumoniae, a causative agent of pneumonia, meningitis, and ear infections,
processes metals to survive. In January of 2015, he began his second postdoctoral fellowship
working in the Department of Immunology under Dr. Douglas Green where he studied LC3-associated
phagocytosis, a method hosts use to get rid of pathogens or dead cells. While at St. Jude Children's
Research Hospital and with a passion for scientific outreach, Dr. Johnson developed a podcast
called Science Sound Bites, which serves as an easily transportable and accessible resource to
teachers and their students designed to give real world scientific applications to students in
underserved classrooms. In July of 2016, Dr. Johnson began a position at the University of Arizona
as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunobiology. There he studies the orchestrated
bacterial response to metal stress using copper as a focal point.
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Dominick J. Lemas, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Health Outcomes and Policy
University of Florida College of Medicine
Dominick Lemas is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Outcomes and Policy at the
University of Florida. Dr. Lemas received his Bachelor's Degree in Biology at the University of
Vermont in 2006 and acquired training in molecular biology, mass spectrometry and proteomic
analyses. After graduating college, Dr. Lemas secured a position with the Alaska Area Indian
Health Service Institutional Review Board (IRB) and received training in database management,
ethical research practices, and technical writing. In 2012, Dr. Lemas completed his Doctorate
in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) where his
research was focused on understanding how interactions between diet and genetic factors
influence obesity traits in rural Alaska Native communities. Working in the Center for
Alaska Native Health Research at UAF, he acquired training in data collection, bioinformatics,
molecular epidemiology and statistical genetics. During his post-doctoral training at
University of Colorado Denver, Dr. Lemas extended his graduate training to include maternal-fetal
biology and was awarded an NIH F32 focused on maternal-infant metabolism and the microbial
signatures by which infants gut metabolism is affected by the maternal host. As an independent
investigator at UF College of Medicine, his research is devoted to understanding the fetal origins
of pediatric obesity with a specific interest in the functional implications of gut microflora
and the critical host-microbe interactions that regulate infant metabolism.
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Dr. Florastina Payton-Stewart
Assistant Professor
Xavier University of Louisiana
Department of Chemistry
Dr. Florastina Payton-Stewart received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Xavier University of
Louisiana in 1999 and her Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry at Tulane University in 2007. After
receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Payton-Stewart held a postdoctoral position at Tulane University Medical
School from 2007-2010 working in a Molecular Biology laboratory. Her research centers on the
design, synthesis and biological evaluation of analogs of known phytochemicals such as curcumin
and berberine as anticancer agents. Her research has been funded, in part, by the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She is the recipient
of various honors, such as the Cancer Association of Greater New Orleans Fellowship, the
Dissertation Writing Fellowship, the Louisiana Cancer Research Consortium Fellowship and the
Susan G. Komen Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has mentored and trained several undergraduate
students on projects related to the biological activity of natural phytoalexins. She joined
the Chemistry department faculty at Xavier University in August 2010. Currently, she teaches
Organic Chemistry and Molecular Structural Organic Synthesis Laboratory. Dr. Payton-Stewart
maintains a research laboratory at Xavier University of Louisiana working on designing and
synthesizing novel anticancer agents for breast and prostate cancer. She enjoys working with
students and participating in different outreach programs.
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Dr. Veronica Segarra
Assistant Professor
High Point University
Department of Biology
Veronica A. Segarra, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at High Point
University in High Point, North Carolina. She completed her PhD in Biophysics and Biochemistry
at Yale and her BS in Biochemistry at the University of Miami. Her contributions to science
have come in the form of research breakthroughs in the study of several yeast proteins that
coordinate vesicular trafficking pathways, including clathrin, auxilin, and Atg27. She uses
budding yeast to investigate the cellular compartments and proteins responsible for trafficking
specific lipid membranes and membrane-associated proteins within the cell, particularly in response
to conditions of stress. Her lab is particularly interested in the identification and trafficking
of cargo molecules and adaptors involved in the cellular process known as autophagy, a cellular
self-eating process that helps cells cope with starvation and cellular damage. This involves the
biochemical and genetic manipulation of budding yeast and observation of fluorescent cargo proteins
trafficking throughout the cell. Her laboratory is located at High Point University (HPU)—a
primarily undergraduate institution in High Point, NC. Her lab is not only the home base for her
research program, but a place where undergraduate students receive one-on-one mentoring as they
strive to develop their identity in science and research. At HPU she primarily teaches general
education courses and upper level Cell Biology courses with rigorous laboratory components. Her
research interests also include science pedagogy innovation and best practices. She is currently
Acting Co-Chair of the Minorities Affairs Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology.
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Dr. Glenn Simmons Jr.
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Department of Molecular Genetics
Dr. Glenn E. Simmons Jr. is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Molecular Genetics at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He received his B.S. in Biomedical
Sciences from the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences
from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN. He is a broadly trained molecular biologist,
with published works in the infectious disease, cancer epigenetics, and science education.
His current research is exploring the relationships between lipid metabolism and oncogenic
protein stability in cancer tissues. Dr. Simmons believes that the lack of access to mentorship
and sponsorship must be overcome if science, and society as a whole, is to move toward true
equity and justice in the future. To that end, he has helped to establish mentoring programs
in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, to provide trainees with opportunities to learn how to
effectively navigate their career paths. He is also the co-chair of UT Southwestern Postdoctoral
Association Career Development committee where he helps students and postdocs hone skills
that can be of use in any field of endeavor.
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Keystone Symposia Fellows Program Flyer
