Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion Our promise to you for diversity within the department of biochemistry.

The department’s diversity and inclusion council will advance these goals through concrete steps. The council encourages feedback and participation from all members of our community. The council is happy to provide consultation and feedback to leaders in the department for assistance with promoting inclusivity on their teams and in their work.

Recruitment

We are dedicated to recruiting underrepresented minority faculty, students, and staff into our community.

Respect

We will ensure mutual respect among all members of the department.

Environment

We will create and maintain a supportive environment that promotes the physical and mental well-being of our community members so that everyone can meet their full potential.

Growth

We will continue to learn how best to develop such an environment.

For each week of Black History Month we want to highlight members of the Black scientific community that are currently making impactful contributions to science and society. At the end of the month we will spotlight a selection of Black scientists that made significant contributions to progress the scientific field. All of this was possible with the help of Anentor O. Hintor Jr’s article “100 Inspiring Black Scientists in America” from Cell Mentor.

Spotlight

Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett is a researcher at the Dale and Betty Bumpers Vaccine Research Center at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). In collaboration with Moderna, Dr. Corbett and her colleagues developed the Moderna coronavirus mRNA vaccine that is currently in distribution. Dr. Corbett graduated with her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014 from the University of North Carolina where her dissertation work focused on understanding the human antibody responses to dengue virus infection. After receiving her Ph.D., she began work at the NIAID as a research fellow where her research focused on understanding the pathogenesis of respiratory viruses like coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus and on vaccine design. A few of her publications from her recent work with COVID-19 include: “SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine design enabled by prototype pathogen preparedness[DR1] [WZA2] [WZA3] ,”¹ [WZA4] “Evaluation of the mRNA-1273 Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in Nonhuman Primates,”² and “Cryo-EM structure of the 2019-nCoV spike in the prefusion conformation.”³ Outside of her research activities, Dr. Corbett is an advocate for STEM education and vaccine awareness, especially in African American communities.

¹ https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.uky.edu/32756549/

² https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.uky.edu/32722908/

³ https://pubmed-ncbi-nlm-nih-gov.ezproxy.uky.edu/32075877/