Black Hills Chapter

Dr. Brooke Long-Fox is a MorphoBank Data Curation Scientist at Phoenix Bioinformatics (Newark, CA) and an ADVANCE Project Coordinator for South Dakota Mines (Rapid City, SD). She received her PhD in Geology and Geological Engineering from South Dakota Mines (2022), an MS degree in Paleontology from South Dakota Mines (2016), and a BS in Geology with a minor in Environmental Science from Texas Christian University (2014). Brooke’s research is in the multidisciplinary field of conservation paleobiology, which intersects ecology and evolutionary biology with aspects of time and space that are more commonly found in paleontology and geology. Dr. Long-Fox is dedicated to FAIR open access biological data and advocating for equity and inclusion in STEM. Dr. Long-Fox serves the community as a member of the Building an Integrated, Open, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (BIOFAIR) Data Network’s leadership team, the DEI committee chair for the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary biology (SORTEE), and as a founder and past President to the Black Hills Chapter of Graduate Women in Science (GWIS).

Pittsburgh Chapter

Sarah Oladejo is a fourth-year PhD candidate in Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University, where she is advancing the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying host-gut microbiota interactions. She is an excellent and passionate researcher who has authored and co-authored publications in high-impact journals including Cell and Science Immunology. Beyond the lab, Sarah is equally committed to driving social impact in STEM. Her passion for advocacy began during her undergraduate studies, where, as a 2019 Millennium Fellow (a United Nations Academic Impact initiative), she championed advocacy for gender equality and quality education. Notably, she organized outreach on women’s health and environmental hygiene as a final-year microbiology student. Her social impact efforts lay credence to her passion and capacity to lead. At Carnegie Mellon, Sarah continues to take bold strides in both research and leadership. She serves on several university boards and committees, including the Biological Sciences and CMU DEI Committees, the University Student Advisory Council, and the Academic Review Board. In these roles, she actively contributes to shaping policies that support students of diverse backgrounds and uphold academic integrity. Sarah also mentors underrepresented students and organizes outreach through the Margaret Carver Grant and the Summer Academy for Math and Science. Her work demonstrates a deep commitment to fostering representation, equity, and excellence in science. She is a true scholar dedicated not only to advancing scientific discovery but also to creating space for others to thrive within it.

St. Louis Chapter

Dr. Carissa Philippi is an Associate Professor and Behavioral Neuroscience Graduate Program Director in the Psychological Sciences Department at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She completed her PhD at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Broadly, her research aims to understand the brain circuits underlying self-related thought, such as mind wandering and rumination, in both the healthy and neuropsychiatric populations. Dr. Philippi's research combines different approaches including fMRI (e.g., resting-state fMRI), eye-tracking, psychophysiology, and behavioral paradigms to study the neural correlates of self-related thought. In more recent work, her lab is studying neural and behavioral predictors of treatment response in major depressive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and mild traumatic brain injury following repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, psychotherapy, and cognitive rehabilitation. Dr. Philippi was the founder of the St. Louis Chapter of Graduate Women in Science (GWIS) and currently serves as the President of the Chapter.

Dr. Nafisa (n uh -f ee - s ah) M. Jadavji (j aa - d uh v - j ee) is a Neuroscientist. She is an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, as well as Research Professor at the University of Arizona, and Carleton University. She completed her doctoral training at McGill University in Montréal, Canada.  Currently, her laboratory investigates how the brain responds to different biological processes throughout the lifespan. More specifically, her lab studies how the brain responds to changes in one-carbon metabolism, with a specific focus on maternal nutrition contributions to offspring neurodevelopment, neurological diseases (e.g. ischemic stroke and vascular dementia), and aging.

Dr. Anna Kowalkowski holds a teaching faculty position at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her PhD in physiology, where her research focused on intestinal development. She examined how intestinal development can be disrupted on a cellular level and how these changes can lead to a loss of intestinal continuity. Since her PhD, she has spent her time teaching cellular biology and physiology and is constantly inspired by the amazing students that she gets to interact with in her position.

Born and raised in Okinawa, Japan, I was hooked on the ocean from early on. My long-held interest in marine life inspired me to pursue a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Nevada Las Vegas and master’s in environmental science and policy from Johns Hopkins University. My master’s research focused on estimating sea otter carrying capacity and trophic effects on prey in Northern California. As a graduate student, I aimed to promote women in STEM by participating as the Newsletter and Marketing Chairs for the student-led organization Women of Whiting. I also became an active member of Women in Ocean Science, Society for Women in Marine Science, and Women in Science Japan. I previously worked as a contractor for USFWS and NOAA and am currently a limited-term environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. I am also a research intern with a non-profit organization studying wildlife disturbance and regularly support its outreach initiatives. On the weekends, I search for seashells on Santa Cruz beaches, walk my neighborhood dogs, and practice baking new bread recipes. I hope to deepen my involvement in GWIS by serving on the National Committee and continuing to elevate women in the sciences!