National Postdoctoral Association

August 22, 2011

Since January, the National Postdoctoral Association Board of Directors has appointed five new committee leaders: Cory Blaiss, Ph.D., as vice chair of the Advocacy Committee; Jennifer Hobbs, Ph.D., as vice chair of the Meetings Committee; Darwin Operario, Ph.D., as vice chair of the Outreach Committee; and Alexandra Corrales, Ph.D., and Mesia Moore Steed, Ph.D., as the NPA’s diversity officers.

Operario began duties in February, and Blaiss began duties in May.  Hobbs, Corrales, and Steed were appointed in July.

Outgoing committee leaders include: Rashada Alexander, Ph.D., as vice chair of the Advocacy Committee; Uzma Alam, Ph.D., as vice chair of the Meetings Committee; and LaShauna Myers Connell and Paulette McRae, Ph.D. as diversity officers.  Connell and McRae will continue service as officers during the transition.

"We can't thank the outgoing leaders enough," said Garth Fowler, Ph.D., vice chair of the NPA Board of Directors and responsible for leading the searches for the new leaders. "The NPA depends upon its volunteers to move forward, and each of them served for several years and did a fantastic job. They also are providing guidance for the new leaders, whom we are pleased to welcome to the NPA leadership. Thank you to everyone for their continued hard work and welcome to the new leaders!"

Cory Blaiss, Ph.D., received a B.A. from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California (UC), San Francisco. In 2008, she began a postdoctoral position in the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, and while at UT Southwestern, she was actively involved in the institution’s postdoctoral association, serving as the president and the treasurer of the association as well as the co-chair of the association’s Career Development Committee. She is currently an assistant research scientist at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, an independent, non-profit research center affiliated with the UC San Francisco. Blaiss has been involved with the Advocacy Committee since 2009.

Alexandra Corrales, Ph.D., completed her undergraduate training in Biology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Bogota, and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from Stony Brook University (SBU), N.Y., in 2009. She is currently the National Science Foundation Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (NSF-AGEP) postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Inclusive Education in Stony Brook University where she has dedicated her time to the evaluation of the SUNY AGEP program. Since 2010 she has participated in the Stony Brook University Assessment Subcommittee, which is developing a university plan to guide academic program-level assessment. Her current interest is to obtain experience with scholarly activities designed to facilitate research and professional development experiences for underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students; specifically research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation.

Jennifer E. Hobbs, Ph.D., obtained her B.S. in biology from Loyola University Chicago, and her Ph.D. in cancer biology from Northwestern University in Chicago. In 2007 she began her postdoctoral training at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.  Following completion of her postdoctoral training she returned to Chicago to join the Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute. During her postdoctoral fellowship she led the postdoctoral Career Development program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Hobbs has served as a research mentor for undergraduate, graduate and medical students at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center and participated in initiatives to increase the recruitment and retention of multicultural graduate students and faculty through Northwestern’s Science and Engineering Committee on Multicultural Affairs. In 2011 she became the director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs for Northwestern University.

Darwin J. Operario, Ph.D., received his Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of California at Davis before going on to complete both a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Rochester, in Rochester, N.Y. In 2008, he accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at the Wadsworth Center/New York State Department of Health under the NIH BioDefense-Emerging Infectious Diseases Training Grant. He was subsequently a New York State Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellow and principal investigator on a state-funded epidemiology pilot project studying anti-influenza prophylaxis at long-term care facilities. While at the Wadsworth Center, he served as an Executive Committee Member for the NY Capital Region Postdoctoral Association, and has served on the NPA Outreach Committee since 2010. He is currently a research associate in the Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health at the University of Virginia, where he is developing enteropathgen molecular diagnostics for deployment overseas.

Mesia Moore Steed, Ph.D., received both her B.A. in Exercise Physiology and Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Louisville, in Louisville, Ky. Upon completion of her graduate studies, she accepted a postdoctoral appointment at Wake Forest University (WFU) in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and has now transitioned into the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center in the laboratory of Dr. Debra Diz. Mesia. She has served in several leadership roles including co-chair of the postdoctoral association. She is also currently a member of the WFU Postdoctoral Steering Committee for postdoctoral affairs and the Professional Development Advisory Committee for the Graduate School. She was recently selected to be a recipient of the Office of Research Integrity-NPA postdoctoral ambassador award to attend the Quest for Research Excellence conference. Mesia also has extensive interest in minority outreach and was previously selected to be the American Physiological Society’s first K-12 Minority Outreach Fellow.