Diversity in Life Sciences

Dr. Chrystal Starbird was inspired by her early love of nature to study science. She completed her undergraduate work at UNC Chapel Hill and spent a few years afterwards working in academic and industry labs before returning to UNC to complete a year-long PREP program. Following this, Dr. Starbird completed her graduate work in chemical and physical biology at Vanderbilt University. She completed her postdoctoral work as a MOSAIC K99/R00 postdoctoral fellow in the Cancer Biology Center at Yale before moving into her current position as faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UNC Chapel Hill, were her lab broadly studies the molecular mechanisms of disease. As a non-traditional student in many ways, Dr. Starbird is a strong advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, and publishes regularly on strategies to maximize the impact of mentoring and to build an inclusive lab. When not in the lab, Chrystal can usually be found searching for the next waterfall to visit with her family (partner and three children).