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Alumnus
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Position and Employer
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Interviewer
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Tamala Gondwe, PhD, MPH
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Epidemiologist, Pennsylvania Department of Health
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May 10, 2023: Chantele Mitchell-Miland, PhD, MPH, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Medicine) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt graduate student, Tamala Gondwe, PhD, MPH, now an Epidemiologist at the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Bio: Dr. Tamala Gondwe is an Epidemiologist at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. She earned her B.S. at the University of Maryland, College Park, followed by a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Prior to her current position she obtained postdoctoral research training in Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.
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Chantele Mitchell-Miland, PhD, MPH
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Tolu Junaid, MD, PhD, BCMAS
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Medical Director, Syneos Health
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April 18, 2023: Santiago Panesso, MD, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt postdoctoral associate, Tolu Junaid, MD, PhD, BCMAS, now a medical director at Syneos Health. View this session to learn about her journey and career!
Bio: Dr. Tolu Junaid is a physician-scientist with extensive global experience in a variety of healthcare settings in Africa, Europe, and North America. She has over 14 years of diverse therapeutic experience in clinical practice, academia, and clinical research; most recently with Syneos Health as a Medical Director overseeing global Phase I - IV clinical studies.
Dr. Junaid has authored several publications, including a book chapter. Her educational accomplishments include MD (Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria), PhD Medicine (The University of Manchester, UK), postdoctoral fellowship (University of Pittsburgh, USA), and several professional certifications.
Dr. Junaid is passionate about improving the health of patients through research and development of safe innovative therapies. She has won various scientific awards, including Best New Investigator Awards and the Royal Society International Exchange Travel Award. She is a member of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) and an affiliate member of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine.
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Santiago Panesso, MD
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Alparslan Asan, PhD
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Patent Examiner, Biotechnology Technology Center, US Patent and Trademark Office
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March 30, 2023: Vaishali Aggarwal, PhD, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Immunology) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt postdoctoral associate, Alparslan Asan, PhD, now a patent examiner in the Biotechnology Technology Center at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Watch this session to learn about his journey and his career!
Bio: Dr. Alparslan Asan is a patent examiner in the Biotechnology Technology Center at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Alp examines patent applications to determine whether a patent can be granted for various new inventions, many of which are on the cutting edge of tomorrow's technological breakthroughs. Alp is also currently studying law at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law of Duquesne University Part-Time Evening Program. Prior to joining the USPTO, Alp earned his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology & Chemical Biology. In the Neumann Lab, his research involved modulating DNA repair pathways in cancer cells with novel therapeutics as a potential treatment for a subset of breast cancer patients. Prior to Pitt, Alp worked as a researcher at Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center and earned his BS from the University of Washington.
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Vaishali Aggarwal, PhD
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Inmaculada Hernandez, PharmD, PhD
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Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
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March 7, 2023: Tumader Khouja, PhD, MPH, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Medicine) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt graduate student, Dr. Inmaculada Hernandez, now an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of California, San Diego School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Bio: Dr. Inmaculada Hernandez is an Associate Professor with tenure at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She has published over 90 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts. Her research focuses on the use of administrative data in the study of pharmaceutical use, outcomes, and pricing. Hernandez has studied extensively the use of anticoagulation in stroke prevention. She has done important contributions to the study of pharmaceutical pricing. Prior to joining the University of California, she was faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. Before that, she obtained her PhD in Health Services Research and Policy from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.
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Tumader Khouja, PhD, MPH
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Carroline Lobo, PhD
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Associate Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, EMD Serono
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February 23, 2023: Arundhati Gupta, PhD, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt graduate student, Carroline Lobo, PhD, now an Associate Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research at EMD Serono.
Bio: Dr. Carroline Lobo is an Associate Director of Health Economics and Outcomes Research and supports the real-world evidence (RWE) efforts to drive product strategy for EMD Serono. Prior to joining her current organization, Carroline led RWE strategy for pre- and post-market assets at Cepheid.
Carroline received her PhD in Health Services Research and Policy from the School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, where she gained extensive experience in designing RWE studies using large healthcare administrative claims databases. During her time at Pitt, she worked with a group of policy researchers who collaborated with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services to examine the impact of the opioid epidemic on the Pennsylvania Medicaid population. Her research on the opioid crisis earned her the Early Career Investigator Award at the Addiction Health Services Research conference in 2017. She has published extensively in several peer reviewed journals, including Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy, American Journal of Managed Care, Medical Care, and Pain Medicine.
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Arundhati Gupta, PhD
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Tim Keane, PhD
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Co-Founder & CEO, TYBR Health
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February 1, 2023: Stephanie Mutchler, PhD, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Medicine) conducted an informational interview with former Pitt graduate student, Tim Keane, PhD, now the co-founder & CEO of TYBR Health, Inc.
Bio: Dr. Tim Keane is the co-founder & CEO of TYBR Health, Inc., in Houston, Texas. TYBR is a Y Combinator and NIH backed medical technology startup that develops tissue-protecting materials to preserve and restore tissue function after surgery. Prior to this, he completed Texas Medical Center’s Biodesign Fellowship, was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Imperial College London, and was a NSF Graduate Research Fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. Tim holds a BSc in Chemical Engineering and PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Pittsburgh, where he trained under Dr. Stephen Badylak. He is co-inventor on 7 filed patents and has authored over 25 peer-reviewed publications garnering 2700+ citations.
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Stephanie Mutchler, PhD
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Santosh Chandrasekaran, PhD
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Research Scientist, Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research
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Jan. 25, 2023: Jianan Jian, PhD, (School of Medicine, Dept. of Urology) conducted an informational interview with Santosh Chandrasekaran, PhD, a Research Scientist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
Bio: Dr. Santosh Chandrasekaran is really excited about artificial somatosensation. He seeks to combine principles of neuroscience and technical know-how of engineering to restore somatosensation in humans. He is a Research Scientist at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research with Chad Bouton’s group. Currently, the group is working on pairing transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation with intracortical brain computer interface (BCI) to bring about persistent improvements in dexterous movement and upper limb somatosensation in people with spinal cord injury.
Dr. Chandrasekaran trained as a neuroscientist under the mentorship of Dr. Alison Barth and Dr. Nathan Urban at Carnegie Mellon University. He studied plasticity in the rodent somatosensory cortex. After his PhD, he explored opportunities to be involved in sensory systems research that could have had a direct clinical impact. He joined the Rehab Neural Engineering labs at the University of Pittsburgh as a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Lee Fisher. Here, he worked on using spinal cord stimulation to restore somatosensation to the missing hand in people with upper limb amputations.
He was always interested in working on BCI research aimed at restoring dexterous movement and somatosensation to the human hand in tetraplegia. Soon after joining the Feinstein Institutes, Dr. Chandrasekaran carried out the first ever study in humans that demonstrated stimulating sulcal areas of primary somatosensory cortex can evoke highly focal sensory percepts, even localized to the fingertips. This study is being cited as one of only four examples in the entire world that demonstrated evoking sensory percepts in the human hand through intracortical stimulation.
In his spare time, Dr. Chandrasekaran loves to read and go on hikes. He is also an avid rock climber and would regularly visit the Climbing Wall when he lived in Pittsburgh. He is moved towards hyper-local advocacy initiatives – approaching schools in underprivileged communities to encourage their students to apply for internships at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, write to NYC Parks to plant more trees in the neighborhood or install a Little Free Library for the neighborhood kids.
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Jianan Jian, PhD
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Katie Walsh, PhD
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Senior Teaching Consultant, Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University (Education)
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June 2, 2020: The session featured Katie Walsh, Senior Teaching Consultant at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University (Education).
Bio: Dr. Katie Walsh is a Senior Teaching Consultant at the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation at Carnegie Mellon University. As a teaching consultant, Katie helps faculty and graduate students develop and hone their teaching practice by leveraging learning science research. She conducts one-on-one consultations on topics such as course design, implementing active learning, and writing a teaching philosophy statement. She develops and facilitates seminars on topics such as student motivation, assessment design, and inclusive teaching. In addition to her work with clients, Katie manages Eberly Center programs such as the Wimmer Faculty Fellows, Graduate Student Instructor Orientation, and internal professional development initiatives. Katie conducts and publishes research on topics that directly inform the work of teaching centers (e.g., evaluating teaching on the academic hiring process). One of the biggest perks of Katie’s job is getting to teach courses in the Carnegie Mellon’s History department. Katie holds a PhD in History from the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh and a BA from Catawba College.
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Ben Vincent, PhD
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Ben Matta, PhD
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Medical Science Liaison, G1 Therapeutics
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May 28, 2020: This session featured Ben Matta, Medical Science Liaison at G1 Therapeutics (for-profit).
Bio: Dr. Benjamin Matta is a Medical Science Liaison (MSL) with G1 Therapeutics. In his current role, Benjamin is responsible for engaging health care providers (physicians, nurses, pharmacists and research coordinators) in discussion on disease state and patient care management related to those cancer types targeted by molecules within G1’s pipeline. His role requires not only in-depth engagement with external stakeholders, but also active collaboration cross-functionally with internal stakeholders through various departments across the organization. Prior to his current role as an MSL with G1 Therapeutics, Benjamin held multiple positions within Medical Affairs at Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, including MSL and MSL/Medical Affairs Trainer going back to 2015. Before making the decision to cross over from academics to the pharmaceutical industry, Benjamin completed several years of postdoctoral research as a transplant Immunologist in the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This is also where he earned his PhD in the same setting, and both his doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on understanding immunoregulatory cell and cytokine-driven regulatory signaling pathways that might be harnessed to prevent solid organ and cellular transplant rejection. Benjamin made the transition to industry to be able to work directly with agents and therapies that had already received FDA approval and were providing benefit to patients dealing with devastating diagnoses, such as cancer.
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Daniel Jacobson Lopez, PhD
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Alexander Ufelle, PhD
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Assistant Professor, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania
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May 20, 2020: This session featured Alexander Ufelle, PhD, Assistant Professor at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (education).
Bio: Dr. Alexander Ufelle has a PhD in Public Health (Environmental and Occupational Health - Molecular Toxicology) from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, a MPH (Environmental Health) from Western Kentucky University, and a MD from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Department of Public Health and Social Work at the Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. His current teaching responsibilities include four core courses and four “Environmental Health” track courses for the Masters of Public Health. His previous research work focused on the role of gender and osteopontin in the pathogenesis of silica-induced pulmonary fibrosis. He is a research outreach member of the “Pittsburgh Liver Research Center” with collaborative research on “the crosstalk between osteopontin and Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in liver regeneration and chemical-induced hepatocellular carcinoma.” He also maintains a research collaboration with the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH), working on the “pulmonary fibrotic potential of nanoclay composite during lifecycle.” Finally, his other research efforts focus on “the health effect of lead in children and the health effects of formaldehyde among students in the laboratory.” Alex completed postdoctoral training in the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health in 2016.
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Daniel Jacobson Lopez, PhD
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Karen Carney, PhD
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Senior Clinical Content Analyst, ClinicalPath
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May 7, 2020: This session featured Karen Carney, PhD, Senior Clinical Content Analyst at ClinicalPath (for-profit).
Bio: Dr. Karen Carney is a Senior Clinical Content Analyst at Elsevier. She works on the Clinical Path product, an EMR-integrated clinical decision support and analytics software tool. As a content expert she supports new commercial initiatives, develops and manages relationships with external partners, and facilitates the product’s international expansion. Collaborating closely with customers, key opinion leaders, and internal teams she works cross-functionally to define and deliver new product offerings. She also works at PittSciVelo as a Commercial Translation Associate. Here she helps researchers commercialize their health data innovations by defining intellectual property, assessing the market space and regulatory hurdles, raising funding, and driving teams through critical milestones in their commercialization roadmap. Prior to transitioning to industry, Karen was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Her postdoctoral research explored the role of ion transporters in the progression of glioblastoma multiforme. Using cell and animal models, she tested the therapeutic potential of ion transporter inhibitors to reduce cancer invasiveness and extend survival. She was also actively involved in the leadership of the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association, the not-for-profit consulting firm Fourth River Solutions, and the Pitt Professional Development Consortium. Karen earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biopsychology from Eckerd College, a Master of Science degree in behavioral and cognitive neuroscience from the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and two PhDs in molecular neuroscience from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Université de Bordeaux.
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Carly Sombric, PhD
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Daniel Belenky, PhD
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Director of Learning Science Research, Learning Research and Design team at Pearson
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April 29, 2020: This session featured Daniel Belenky, PhD (education).
Bio: Dr. Daniel Belenky is the Director of Learning Science Research in the Learning Research and Design team at Pearson. His team synthesizes existing learning science research into actionable insights, creates a variety of communications for internal and external audiences based on those insights, and helps to develop and rigorously test new innovations based on that research. He collaborates with learning designers, product developers, editorial managers, data scientists, platform engineers, marketing, sales, and many other parts of the business to help embed efficacy and research throughout Pearson’s ways of working, as part of the company’s larger effort to help more learners learn more. Daniel received his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences and subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.
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Alexus Patrice Brown, PhD
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