Women in STEM Webinars
About the Webinars
In March, for Women’s History Month, STEM Potential hosted a 2-day live webinar series, with over 20 women over 5 sessions, including MDs, PhDs, and students at various stages of their career to share their journeys, provide advice, and answer questions. With only a 2-week notice, we had over 700 people attend and were humbled to have such a great turnout. After listening carefully to all of these women’s anecdotes, we were reminded of how special it is to see a community of women that have an incredible passion for STEM and can provide important insight into how women can be successful.
Panelists
We were fortunate to have 20 panelists: MDs, PhDs, medical students, science graduate students, and technology/math graduate students.
M.D. Session
Heather M. Johnson, M.D., M.M.M., M.P.H.
Dr. Heather M. Johnson is a Preventive Cardiologist at the Christine E. Lynn Women’s Health & Wellness Institute of Boca Raton Regional Hospital and Baptist Health South Florida. Prior to joining the Lynn Women’s Institute, she practiced for 10 years as a Preventive Cardiologist and Non-invasive General Cardiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine & Public Health. Dr. Johnson is also a researcher in population health and heart disease prevention with over 50 peer-reviewed research publications. She has received numerous awards, and in 2018, Dr. Johnson was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
Jessica Buicko, M.D.
Jessica Buicko, M.D., is a board-certified general surgeon. She received her B.A. at John Hopkins, and completed her M.D. and General Surgery Residency at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She then specialized in Advanced Endocrine and Metabolic Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering. She currently serves as an assistant professor of surgery at Florida Atlantic University, as well as the associate surgical clerkship director at Florida Atlantic University. She is additionally employed at Baptist Health Physician Group in Florida. She is originally from upstate New York and was a Division 1 lacrosse player at Johns Hopkins University. She has two kids, Luke (20 months) and Lola (1 month), with her husband who is finishing his surgical residency and starting his cardiac surgery fellowship this summer.
Norina Ocampo, M.D.
Dr. Norina Ocampo, M.D., is a board certified pediatric specialist at West Boca Medical Centre. She received her medical degree at Georgetown University School of Medicine and completed her internship at Georgetown’s Department of General Surgery. She later completed her residency in pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina and followed up with a fellowship in general pediatrics. Professionally, she is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a member of the Palm Beach Country Pediatric Society. Additionally, she serves as an affiliate clinical assistant professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Florida Atlantic University School of Medicine.
Ying Meng, M.D., Pending PhD
Dr. Ying Meng, M.D., is currently a resident physician in Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto, having finished her undergraduate training in biomedical engineering at the University of Toronto and medical training at McMaster University. Dr. Meng has a passion for advancing technologies to improve patient care and outcomes, and this further grew with her exposure to focused ultrasound through the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. She is also married to a neurosurgery resident and together, they have two children.
Ph.D. Session
Natasha Sheybani, PhD in Biomedical Engineering
Natasha Sheybani, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University, where her appointment is shared among the Departments of Oncology, Radiology, and Biomedical Data Science. Her research focuses on advancing precision immuno-oncology and through her research advancements, she currently holds the prestigious NCI F99/K00 Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award.
Zhen Xu, PhD of Biomedical Engineering
Zhen Xu is a tenured Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan who’s research focuses on ultrasound therapy, particularly the applications of histotripsy for noninvasive surgeries. She has received a plethora of awards for her work in biomedical research dating back to 2006! She is also co-founder of HistoSonics, a startup company developing histotripsy for oncological applications.
Eleanor Stride, PhD in Mechanical Engineering
Eleanor Stride is the Statutory Professor of Biomaterials in the Departments of Engineering Science and the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences. She has been awarded various titles as well as receiving a nomination for top 100 most influential Women in Engineering in 2016 and 2019! She currently specialises in Biomedical Ultrasound and the fabrication of nano and microscale devices for Targeted Drug Delivery.
Jessica Foley, PhD in Bioengineering
Jessica Foley, PhD, is the Chief Scientific Officer for the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, whose mission is to accelerate the development and adoption of focused ultrasound, a breakthrough noninvasive therapeutic medical technology. She is involved with many programs for the Foundation, along with foundations whose interests align with those of the Foundation. Prior to the Foundation, she spent several years in the medical device industry (Insightec, Medtronic) and was a 2011-2012 AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation.
Elisa Konofagou, PhD in Biomedical Engineering, M.S.
Elisa E. Konofagou is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Professor of Radiology, as well as Director of the Ultrasound and Elasticity Imaging Laboratory at Columbia University. She is interested in the development of novel elasticity imaging techniques and focused ultrasound in the brain. Elisa is a member of several institutes and has co-authored over 230 published articles. Elisa is also the recipient of several renowned awards, as well as additional recognitions by various health associations and organizations.
Medical Student Session
Samantha Sadler, Second Year
Sam is an MS2 at Harvard Medical School where she serves on the Secretariat Team for the Global Neurosurgery Committee of the WFNS and collaborates with the Program for Surgery and Social Change (PGSSC). Alongside her colleagues at HMS, Sam launched "Unconditional Publishing," a platform to highlight the narratives of medical students living with illness, health conditions and/or disabilities.
Tofunmi Oshodi, Third-Year
Tofunmi Oshodi is a third-year medical student at FAU Schmidt College of Medicine, heavily passionate about social justice advocacy, education equity, and the power of psychiatry. Her experience as a daughter of Nigerian immigrant parents, former special education teacher, and Black woman in medicine, has fueled her commitment to serve and advocate for communities that have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised.
Anna Garren, First-Year
Annie is currently a first year medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She’s from Madison, Wisconsin and she obtained a degree in Neurobiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After encountering some unique challenges in her journey to medical school, she has become extremely passionate about helping others overcome their own!
Somya Shankar, First-Year
Somya is an MS1 at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. After graduating from William & Mary, she worked for two years as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In her free time, Somya enjoys playing with her dog, frequenting all of the coffee shops in Philly, and listening to way too many podcasts.
Mia Belovsky, First Year
Mia is an MS1 at Sidney Kimmel Medical College and graduated from Penn State in December 2019 as part of the 7 Year BS/MD program. She did Neurosurgery research in her semester off before medical school and is now involved in several Digital Health research projects in medical school. In her free time she enjoys working out, running a fashion Instagram (@medtrends), cooking and hanging out with friends.
Technology / Mathematics Graduate Students
Lauren Bouchereau, MBA and MS Student in Mathematics
Lauren Bouchereau is a graduate student at Claremont Graduate University. She is pursuing an MBA as well as an MS in Mathematics. After graduating with her degree in Liberal Arts from St. John's College, she created a nonprofit (Beyond Numbers Interactive Education) which focuses on making complex math and physics more accessible for students. They focus on game-based learning and their current project focuses on the Maxwell Electromagnetic Equations.
Jamie Voros, PhD Student in Aerospace Engineering
Jamie Voros is a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering Sciences and graduate researcher at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She works in the Bioastronautics laboratory researching human spaceflight. Her work focuses on stimulating the vestibular system and creating a computational model of human orientation perception. She is concurrently pursuing an MS in Computer Science at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
Ali Finkelstein, Masters in Engineering
Ali graduated from MIT with a Master’s of Engineering and Bachelor’s of Science in computer science and electrical engineering. She worked in cryptocurrency, SaaS, and healthcare before starting at New Relic. Ali is driven by innovation and loves security, SaaS, and start ups. But really, she considers herself a “jack of all trades,” as she is always striving to learn new skills and new topics. If you want to strike up a conversation with her, ask her about YouTube.
Science Graduate Students
Ariana Castillo, PhD Student in Earth and Planetary Sciences
Ariana Castillo is a Disabled, Latinx atmospheric scientist and graduate student studying atmospheric and climate science at Harvard University and is a part time researcher at NASA Langley Research Center. Outside of research and her studies, she advocates for mental health, Disability, and BIPOC representation in STEM and academia.
Tamara El-Hayek Ewing, Masters in Chemistry
Tamara El-Hayek Ewing is a graduate student investigating an organometallic catalysis of a Friedel-Crafts-like synthetic reaction. She interned at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Golden, Colorado where she characterized thermoelectric semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotube (s-SWCNT) thin films and presented that research at NASA Ames and the National Partners in Science Conference. She continues to share her passion for education and chemistry through TikTok and Instagram (@chemis.te).
Quincy Beck, Research Assistant at Butler Hospital in Providence
Quincy works as a research assistant under PIs Dr. Audrey Tyrka and Dr. Linda Carpenter at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. Her research interests include mechanisms of mental illness through the lense of early life stress and trauma, and how these neurobiological changes are addressed and remedied by neuromodulatory treatments, such as Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
Shelby Dickerson, PhD Student in Organic Chemistry
Shelby Dickerson completed her BS at the University of Southern Mississippi where she majored in Chemistry (ACS-Certified) with a minor in mathematics. She did undergraduate research in an organic synthesis group. Briefly, she went to the University of Memphis for Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program where she did some computational chemistry research. Now she is finishing her PhD in organic chemistry at USC.