Connie Celum, MD, MPH, is Professor of Global Health, Medicine, and Epidemiology and Director of the International Clinical Research Center at the University of Washington. She is an infectious disease physician, epidemiologist, and clinical researcher. Her research interests focus on HIV prevention strategies, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis and prevention and treatment of sexually-transmitted infections. She has led multi-center HIV prevention efficacy trials, including genital herpes suppression for prevention of HIV acquisition as well as HIV transmission. She co-led the Partners PrEP Study, which demonstrated high efficacy of tenofovir and emtricitabine-tenofovir prophylaxis, which contributed to FDA approval of PrEP for HIV prevention. Currently Dr. Celum’s research is focusing on implementation science research about PrEP implementation and STI interventions for young African women and MSM in the US. She is the co-Principal Investigator for the DoxyPEP study to evaluate doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis for MSM and TGW living with HIV and on PrEP.

My research centers around the patterns of air-sea CO2 exchange and ocean acidification in open ocean, coastal, and coral reef environments. Specifically, I am interested in using interdisciplinary approaches to explore how physical and biological mechanisms, such as the El Nino/Southern Oscillation and coral reef metabolism, drive variations in ocean carbon chemistry across time and space. These approaches include using autonomous instrumentation on buoys and other platforms to better understand natural variability and long-term trends in ocean carbon.

I am also interested in how science can inform management and policy discussions.  I worked in Washington DC as a Sea Grant Knauss Marine Policy Fellow and Congressional Affairs Specialist at NOAA for 3 years covering ocean and atmospheric research topics, especially climate change, addressed by the U.S. Congress.  I continue to pursue my interests in science policy and outreach.

The long-term goal of our research is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of musculoskeletal tissue regeneration, especially with respect to the bones and connective tissues of limbs and joints, and then leverage this knowledge to regenerate lost or diseased structures using stem cells, gene editing, and biomaterials. Our lab uses the mouse digit tip, one of the few mammalian systems that exhibits true regeneration, to identify pathways that regulate tissue patterning and outgrowth after amputation. Armed with a better understanding of the cues that direct complex tissue formation in adulthood, we will develop therapeutic strategies that enhance the regeneration of limbs and joints after injury and degenerative disease in patients

Kaitlyn Casimo joined the Allen Institute in 2018. She leads the Education and Engagement program, which supports programs and resources for scientists, educators, and students to learn how to use the Allen Institute’s open data and tools. She received her BA in neuroscience with minors in psychology and theater from Pomona College; PhD in neuroscience from the University of Washington, where she also received certificates in neural computation & engineering and science, technology, and society studies; and MEd in instructional design from Western Governors University.

Dr. Michele Andrasik is a clinical health psychologist working to build and enhance partnerships with marginalized communities in clinical research, with a focus on ongoing vaccine trials for HIV and COVID-19. She is the Director of Social Behavioral Sciences and Community Engagement for the Fred Hutchinson-based HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) and the COVID-19 Prevention Network, Principal Staff Scientist in the Fred Hutchinson Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division and an Affiliate Clinical Professor in the Departments of Global Health and Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Andrasik received her PhD in Clinical Health Psychology from the University of Miami. She also has a master’s degrees in Health Education and Psychological Counseling from Columbia University. Dr. Andrasik brings expertise in community engagement, implicit bias and historical trauma, and the utilization of Community-Based Participatory Research approaches and Qualitative Research Methods to her research and community relations.  Dr. Andrasik worked with King County Public Health to support Covid-19 vaccination clinics and educational programming in community settings, better serving BIPOC communities.

She has championed the role of behavioral and social sciences in HIV biomedical prevention research. Her efforts have led to numerous publications and have helped to establish best practices across the field.

Dr. Melody Campbell earned a BS in biochemistry from the University of Michigan, where she conducted organic chemistry and biochemistry research. She received her PhD in biophysics from the Scripps Research Institute in 2016 under the supervision of Bridget Carragher and Clinton S. Potter, where she developed new methods in cryogenic electron microscopy (cryoEM) to boost resolution and address heterogeneity in protein assemblies.  She did her post-doc with Yifan Cheng at the University of California, San Francisco, where she applied these new technologies to map out the structural dynamics of integrin and reveal how it enables an unexpected mechanism for TGF-Beta activation. In 2020, she moved to Seattle to start her independent research career as an assistant professor and scientific director of the electron microscopy core at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. As a cryoEM expert, she hopes to understand how a protein’s structure influences its function. Currently, she and her lab focus on a family of integrin proteins on the surface of white blood cells (leukocytes) and play a role in various autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.  She hopes to develop a comprehensive picture of the leukocyte cell surface to understand how white blood cells react to and engage with their surroundings. 

Professor Jennie Kong Mayer has taught chemistry at Bellevue College for 17 years. She obtained her BA in Biochemistry and her MS in Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. She has been department chair for 12 years and works closely with the college administration as a co-lead for Bellevue College’s Student Success Initiatives to improve student outcomes and close equity gaps.  In the realm of chemistry education, she serves as a Lead Contributor to ChemEdX and is a STEM Faculty Community of Practice lead to bring WA college chemistry faculty together monthly to support best practices. Since 2005, Jennie has participated in many outreach events at local schools and science camps, including Native American reservations.  In 2018, she helped found Science Scouts for 4^th/5^th grade girls in Seattle. As the Education Chair for the American Chemical Society Puget Sound Section, Jennie has helped award scholarships to college students, recognize outstanding high school teachers, give chemistry awards at local science fairs, and carry out the US National Chemistry Olympiad. In the classroom, she is most interested in active learning techniques, high impact practices which incorporate storytelling, art, science of cooking, sustainability, research projects, and culturally-relevant pedagogy. She also supports non-traditional students, English language learners, part-time students and full-time working students with supportive classroom policies and resources to make organic chemistry more accessible to everyone.  Her YouTube channel, OrgoTime, reaches students in and outside the US.