National Postdoctoral Association

October 14, 2009

The National Postdoctoral Association Elects Six Directors

The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) has elected five new directors and re-elected one, Stacy L. Gelhaus, Ph.D., for a two-year term of service. The new directors are: Anthony J. Baucum II, Ph.D.; Garth A. Fowler, Ph.D.; Andrew M. Hebbeler, Ph.D.; Rachel Ruhlen, Ph.D.; and Lorraine Tracey, Ph.D.

The directors were elected from a field of eleven candidates to fill six available positions. The new members will begin their official duties on January 1, 2010.

Wendy Williams, Ph.D., Chair of the NPA's Board Development Committee said, "We had an outstanding field of candidates and so appreciated their willingness to serve on the Board. On behalf of the NPA, I would like to thank all of the candidates for their participation and give a warm welcome to the new directors."

Anthony J. Baucum II, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Pharmacology. He has been active in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Postdoctoral Association (VUMC-PDA), serving as the PDA's Junior Co-Chair, Senior Co-Chair, and Senior Advisor. He participated in the NPA's 2009 Annual Meeting as a member of the panel for the plenary session "Empowering Postdoctoral Success: Putting IDPs to Work at your Institution" and also assisted with the PDA workshop. He has attended the NPA Annual Meetings since 2006.

Garth A. Fowler, Ph.D., is Assistant Chair for the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology at Northwestern University (NU). He also serves there as the Director of Career Development at the Center for Sleep & Circadian Biology. He holds a Ph.D. in Psychology (Behavioral Neuroscience) from the University of Washington and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Before coming to NU, he served as the Outreach Program Manager for Science magazine and Science Careers. He has been active in the NPA and seved as an advisory member on developing Web-based career development content for the NPA Web site.

Stacy L. Gelhaus, Ph.D., is a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Cancer Pharmacology, directed by Ian Blair, at the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She currently serves as the Chair of the NPA Board of Directors and began serving on the Board in January 2008. Besides her many duties as Board Chair, she also serves as the Chair of the Annual Meeting Travel Awards Sub-Committee and is a member of the NPA Finance Committee, the NPA Fundraising Sub-Committee, and the 2010 Annual Meeting Local Host Committee.

Andrew M. Hebbeler, Ph.D., is an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction, in the U.S. Department of State. He holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Maryland-Baltimore. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the J. David Gladstone Institute, where he served as Chair of the Gladstone Postdoctoral Advisory Committee. He has been active on the NPA Resource Development Committee since 2007 and has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the NPA's quarterly newsletter, the POSTDOCket, since 2008.

Rachel Ruhlen, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU), where she earned a Ph.D. in Biological Sciences. She was the recipient of a Ruth L. Kirschstein (NRSA) award and a Komen Postdoctoral Fellowship. She founded the Postdoctoral Association (PDA) at MU and has served in the NPA for three years, first as a member of the Publications Committee and the Meetings Committee, then as POSTDOCket Associate Editor, and for the past fifteen months as Chair of the Resource Development Committee. She has written several articles for the NPA's online toolkits.

Lorraine Tracey, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Surgery at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Medicine at the University of Dublin, Trinity College, in Ireland. She has been active in the NPA since 2007, serving as a member of the Advocacy and Outreach Committees and currently as Vice Chair of the Meetings Committee. She was a member of the panel for the plenary session "Empowering Postdoctoral Success: Putting IDPs to Work at your Institution" at the NPA's 2009 Annual Meeting.

Ruhlen and Tracey will step down from their committee positions as Chair of the Resource Development Committee and Vice Chair of the Meetings Committee, respectively, to serve on the Board of Directors.

The new directors will join the following members of the Board, whose terms will end on Dec. 31, 2010: Ian Brooks, Ph.D.; Lori Conlan, Ph.D., Audrey Ellerbee, Ph.D.; Dan Gorelick, Ph.D.; and Richard Nowakowski, Ph.D.

Current members of the Board who will complete their term on Dec. 31, 2009, are: Jonathan Gitlin, Ph.D.; Judy Ho, Ph.D., Treasurer; Jennifer Reineke Pohlhaus, Ph.D., Vice Chair; Maxine Watson, Ph.D.; and Wendy Williams, Ph.D.

--by Cathee Johnson Phillips, Executive Director