Workshops
All attendees are scheduled for one half-day workshop developed by COACh (https://coach.uoregon.edu/domestic-workshops/) This workshop focuses on Negotiation.
Attendees rank their choice of breakout sessions during registration.
Workshops
All attendees are scheduled for one half-day workshop developed by COACh (https://coach.uoregon.edu/domestic-workshops/) This workshop focuses on Negotiation.
Attendees rank their choice of breakout sessions during registration.
Workshops
All attendees are scheduled for one half-day workshop developed by COACh (https://coach.uoregon.edu/domestic-workshops/) This workshop focuses on Negotiation.
Attendees rank their choice of breakout sessions during registration.
Midwest Retreat for Diversity in Chemistry
June 23-25th, 2023 | Park University, Parkville, MO
Industry Panel
Renato Bauer
Renato Bauer is a Senior Advisor at Eli Lilly where he has been since 2013. He has worked at two US-based research sites for Eli Lilly, including Indianapolis, where he currently resides, and San Diego, where he helped start a new research group from 2017 to 2021. His medicinal chemistry contributions have led to the discovery of therapeutics that focus on unmet medical need, including a molecule that is in clinical trials for advanced solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Before Lilly, Renato did a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University (2011-2013), earned his PhD in Chemistry from Cornell University (2005-2011), and received a BS in Biochemistry from Stonehill College (2001-2005). He is passionate about mentoring young scientists and has found success leading from the lab, where he has mentored new hires and summer interns who have gone on to lead their own successful careers. His first language is Spanish and he is a native of Lima, Peru.
Anoja Perera
Anoja Perera is the director of Sequencing and Discovery Genomics Team at Stowers Institute. With a B.S. degree in biology, Anoja Perera developed her skills in DNA sequencing, genomics applications, automation, and high throughput processing while working with Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., on the original Human and Mouse Genome Projects. After several years’ experience as group leader for sequencing at the Harvard-Partners Center of Genetics and Genomics in Cambridge, Mass., she joined the Stowers Molecular Biology group. Perera served as senior lab manager from 2006 until 2019 when she was appointed director. In this role, Perera seeks to advance research by making cutting-edge sequencing technologies available to the scientific staff. For many years, Perera has been an active member of the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities and served on multiple committees including the organization’s Executive Board. She is also a member of BioKansas and serves on several committees.
Panelist Coming Soon!
Panelist bio coming soon!
Panelist Coming Soon!
Panelist bio coming soon!
Government and Non-Traditional Panel
Becky Rodriguez
Dr. Rebeca (Becky) Rodriguez (she/her) is a Research Staff Member at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Alexandria, VA. Becky received her B.S. in Chemistry from American University and her M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota (UMN). Her doctoral research focused on the detection of various types of food contaminants with linear polymer affinity agents and surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection.
Beyond chemistry, Becky found her journey in chemistry to be difficult; thus, aimed to increase visibility and presentation as a marginalized scientist. She did this with various community volunteering, leadership and advocacy work, and outreach among kids of various ages and identities. Creating equity and promoting justice is a large part of her motivation, as she is a first generation, Latinx, and was a low-income student, navigating higher education. She created the Underrepresented Students in STEM Symposium Twin Cities (USSS-TC) alongside her research group (Haynes group) at UMN to provide local Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) with a safe space to present their science and the option to participate in a mentorship program all at no cost to the participant. Many of her passions include bringing science demonstrations to kids of young ages because of not having opportunities like that growing up. Because of her work inside and outside of lab, she is the recipient of many awards such as the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Fellowship, the Women's Chemist Committee Merck Research Award, and the UMN Josie R. Johnson Human Rights and Social Justice Award, as the first recipient from the College of Science & Engineering in the 23-year history of the award.
As a professional, Becky is at IDA, a federally funded research and development center supporting the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E). IDA serves as an independent organization providing technical expertise to DOT&E, which falls under the Secretary of Defense; providing various briefings to Congress. She specifically supports some space communication programs and all space-based missile warning programs. Her analytical chemistry background has been incredibly impactful in her current position through interdisciplinary problem solving, statistics, and science communication. Outside of work, Becky enjoys visiting museums, making polymer clay earrings, and trying new restaurants in the DC area.
Vanessa Ralph
Dr. Rosa is the Director of Innovation, Outreach, Diversity, & Education for Duke University & STEM Education Research at The Cuvette, a journal dedicated to disrupting toxic academic norms and connecting science education practitioners, researchers, and administrators. Dr. Rosa’s research involves applying Critical frameworks to disentangle power structures in the construction of knowledge. She has worked with educators across multiple institutions to identify and subvert systemic norms in assessing introductory science courses that limit students' success with inequitable access to pre-college mathematics preparation. She has risked much in speaking against norms that lead to academics and their students’ collective oppression.
Now, she is developing an interdisciplinary science education research journal implementing ethically subversive publishing practices (no paywalls, multilingual access, technological relevance, accessible and practice-focused writing, an emphasis on multiple ways of knowing and doing science, etc.) to help bridge the practitioner-researcher divide. Her work aims to empower educators with the resources and information needed to identify, disrupt, dismantle, and reform unjust practices, policies, and norms in science education.
Miranda Paley
Dr. Miranda Paley is a chemistry PhD turned science communication and project management professional. She excels at teams together to complete critical projects. She has a broad research knowledge base and is particularly skilled at interpreting and explaining science to varied audiences and maintains meaningful engagement with network of global scientists in academia, government and industry. Dr. Paley serves as a program manager, biology and chemistry subject matter expert and science communicator for the DHS S&T Directorate. Previously, she was as an AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow who provided communications expertise and strategic advice at the Department of Defense (DoD) in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment (ODASD-Env) on the topic of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). She also has experience in academic publishing and scientific public affairs with the American Chemical Society as the former Managing Editor for ACS Central Science. She has her PhD in chemical biology from University of California- Irvine, where her dissertation was on expanding the bioluminescent toolbox using mutant luciferase enzymes and synthetic alternative luciferin substrates, and completed her B.A. in biochemistry from Grinnell College, in Grinnell IA.
Chris Bannochie
Chris Bannochie is currently Senior Manager of Advanced & Energy Materials for the Savannah River National Laboratory.
He received a B.A. degree in Chemistry with a minor in Mathematics from St. John’s University and a Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from Texas A&M University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He joined the Savannah River Laboratory following his postdoctoral tenure. For three years, he was a Visiting Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory working on laser ablation/ICP-MS characterization for the Plutonium Immobilization Program (PIP). His research areas have ranged from the development of radiopharmaceuticals for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to process development and analytical characterization, particularly the speciation of mercury in high- and low-level nuclear waste streams, in support of vitrification and cementitious stabilization.
Dr. Bannochie has been active in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion activities for the past 20+ years. He is a founding member of SRS GLOBE and currently the management sponsor of SRNL GLOBE & Allies, the laboratory’s LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group. He is chair of the Johns Hopkins University Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE) Advisory Board, and a member of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Respect (DEIR) Experts Panel. Chris has served on several boards including those for Leadership Augusta, the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta Pride, Georgia Equality, the National Organization for Gay & Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals, and the Malta Conferences Foundation.
He is an ACS Councilor and has represented the Savannah River Local Section for 28 years, has served on ACS elected and appointed National Committees, and served as General Chair for two regional meetings: SERMACS 2006 and 2018. He developed and initiated the first ACS Committee Member Demographic Survey in 2016, which included advanced survey questions about sexual orientation and gender expression and identity.
Dr. Bannochie is an inaugural fellow of the American Chemical Society (2009) and an inductee of Sigma Xi and Phi Lambda Upsilon and has won numerous local, regional, and national awards. Chris loves photography, gardening, scuba, and travel – he has visited all seven continents and 50 countries. He resides in Augusta, GA with his husband David and their miniature schnauzer Hudson.
Academic Panel
Miriam Krause
Miriam Krause is the Director of Education, Outreach, & Diversity for the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology, a multi-institute Center for Chemical Innovation funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. She earned her B.A. in geology from Pomona College and her Ph.D. in Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences from the University of Minnesota, plus stints as a Peace Corps Volunteer science teacher in Samoa, a Speech-Language Pathology clinical fellow at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and an Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Bowling Green State University. She lives in Minnesota with her spouse, their 5-year-old, and two elderly pets.
Christian Malapit
Christian (he/him) is a Filipino scientist. He was born and raised in the northernmost region in the Philippines and moved to Manila to obtain his BS and MS in Chemistry from Far Eastern University and Ateneo de Manila University. In 2016, Christian received his PhD in organic chemistry under the mentorship of Prof. Amy Howell at the University of Connecticut. There he developed various transition metal catalyzed reactions for the selective transformations of heterocyclic compounds. His PhD work was recognized with a Connecticut Chemistry Research Award, the ACS Division of Organic Chemistry, and a Boehringer Ingelheim PhD fellowship where he had the opportunity to conduct a year of research working on the development of a transnitrilation reaction for a drug campaign for Alzheimer's disease. Christian moved to the University of Michigan as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Melanie Sanford. There he worked on mechanistic organometallic chemistry for the development of decarbonylative cross-coupling reactions. As an NIH Pathway to Independence Investigator, Christian moved to the NSF Center for Synthetic Organic Electrochemistry at the University of Utah where he worked on electrocatalysis for organic synthesis.
In 2022, Christian started his tenure-track appointment as an assistant professor of chemistry at Northwestern University where his group works on the utility of organic synthesis, transition-metal catalysis, and molecular electrochemistry towards the discovery of sustainable organic reactions and the development of next-generation organic-based redox-flow batteries. Christian values mentorship and advocates for providing transformational support and leadership to BIPOC and LGBTQ scientists.
Lisa Szczepura
Panelist bio coming soon!
Panelist Coming Soon!
Panelist bio coming soon!