URI_Research_Magazine_Momentum_Winter_2015_Melissa-McCarthy

the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans, which has a chapter at URI. Austin attends poster sessions at conferences where students present their research, and she recruits students by matching their research interests to the work being done by URI faculty. This is how another INP graduate, Octavia Miller, describes meeting Austin, “I had an immediate connection with her,” Miller says. “She helped with the entire process.” “Austin is doing a great job for us,” Zawia says. “Students understand that she knows the process because she has been through it.” Villa is working with Leslie Mahler, an associate professor in communicative disorders, in a clinical setting applying therapies for loss of speech motor control, which fits her professional goal of working in a speech and hearing clinic. She will be exposed in an interdisciplinary way to numerous aspects of neuroscience. This is a big advantage of the INP. “It’s what I want,” says Villa, who majored in psychology and minored in biology as an undergraduate at Salve Regina University. “I eventually want to go to medical school and focus in psychiatry, but I want exposure to all different aspects of neuroscience.” “Austin became the critical link between prospective graduate students and the innovative neuroscience

Alycia Mosley Austin , director of graduate student recruitment and diversity initiatives; adjunct assistant professor of biological sciences; coordinator of the INP

“As an undergraduate I was fairly certain that I would pursue a Ph.D., but I wasn’t sure what type of neuroscientist I wanted to be,” she says. “I decided I needed to gain more research experience before deciding my path for neuroscience in graduate school.” She spent two years investigating zebrafish models of muscular dystrophy in the lab of Dr. Louis Kunkel at Boston Children’s Hospital before starting graduate school. Her later work focused on brain cells with an abnormal number of chromosomes but still functioning neurons (cells that activate the brain). The research studied how they develop in embryos. While she has not abandoned her science, Austin says she wants to work in a setting where she can balance work and family life, a combination that took her in the direction of academic administration. Through the INP, she is able to indulge both interests and find satisfaction. The INP has 11 doctoral students, seven master’s degree students, and five students pursuing certificates in neuroscience. Austin and Zawia say the program has a goal to increase those numbers until they reach a critical mass of 25. The first two doctoral students and two master’s students in the INP graduated in 2014. Many of the current students come from underrepresented groups, close to 34 percent, are women. This is a higher percentage than in many graduate programs and better positions the INP to attract federally supported research, which holds diversity as a priority when deciding on projects to fund. Student, Priscilla Villa, a native of Central Falls, RI, describes Austin as a mentor and adviser who is always available, “She’s who I go to for every question I have,” she says. Where does Austin find underrepresented students? Her experience as an African American administrator serves her in this regard. “I regularly go to conferences where there are upwards of 1,000 people of color in the STEM disciplines [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math],” she says. “The pool is not as small as people think. One of the keys to attracting students is to have a track record of diversity from the beginning, which we have.” These conferences include the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students and conferences sponsored by

program.” -Nasser Zawia

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