Upcoming Coffee and Conversation

We host a monthly online, interactive webinar with a senior GWIS mentor and a small group of GWIS members.

These webinars are designed to allow for in-depth conversation and an opportunity to network directly with the speaker. Each month look for a preview of the speaker and a link for registration in our GWISEmpower mailings. Only 7 registration spots are available for each session, so you’ll want to act fast once registration opens! We have recruited amazing mentors!

Not a member yet? Join GWIS today so you can be a part of this exciting program!

Upcoming Speakers

*Dates and times are subject to change.

December 2019

 Date: Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019

Time: 1:30pm EST/12:30pm CST/1pm PST/10:30am HST

Theme: GWIS National Fellowship

 The conversation will be accessible via Zoom.

Thinking about applying for the GWIS fellowship? For the December Coffee and Conversation, GWIS will be hosting a conversation that will help as you prepare your application! Join us for the conversation to hear advice from the Fellowship Committee Chair and previous winners of the GWIS fellowship and bring any questions you might have about the process.

Jessica Haugen

Jessica is a PhD student in the department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology at Colorado State University. Her work investigates how immune cell metabolism can be targeted as a host-directed therapy to enhance the immune response against Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infection. With the GWIS fellowship, Jessica will be evaluating whether the anti-diabetic drug metformin can be used to potentiate the efficacy of the current Mtb vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). With this work, Jessica hopes to not only determine whether metabolism can be targeted as a potential therapeutic against Mtb, but also gain insights into what constitutes immune protection against tuberculosis disease, a current barrier hindering the progress of vaccine development.

Marianne Kramer

Marianne is a PhD student in the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate group at University of Pennsylvania. She is studying a relatively new class of molecules called long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) which are RNAs that are not translated to make a protein. In particular, she is studying one lncRNA in the plant species Arabidopsis that functions during plant development, as plants lacking this lncRNA are smaller and develop later than those expressing this lncRNA. She will be using the funds provided by the GWIS national fellowship to further explore the exact function of this lncRNA and how it contributes to plant development, ultimately providing a target for engineering larger crops leading to increased yields.

Marisa McDonald

Marisa is a PhD candidate in the Marine Biology Graduate Program at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Her dissertation work focuses on the physiology and anatomy of larval mantis shrimp vision. Mantis shrimp have some of the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom, but larvae have completely different eyes, which are replaced upon metamorphosis and are still poorly understood. She will be using the GWIS fellowship to set up electrophysiology equipment at her home university in order to complete her dissertation research. The aims of this project are to determine the physiological capabilities of the visual system, with a focus on the potential for ultraviolet vision.

Find the link to register in this month's Empower email! Questions? Email mentoring@gwis.org