Dr. Roshni Rao (Keynote Speaker) 

Dr. Roshni Rao is the Director of PHutures, a new office created to establish and grow a culture of life design, professional development, mentoring, and connections for our doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows at Johns Hopkins University. She works collaboratively with the Professional Development and Career Office in East Baltimore to develop programs, courses, events, content, and resources that enhance the experience and opportunities for doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows. In her previous role as Associate Director of Postdoctoral Affairs at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Roshni successfully created and developed impactful professional development programming as well as engaged and energized the community utilizing unconventional approaches, including building and branding a wellness program for students and staff. Roshni holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of South Carolina, PGDipSci from the University of Otago in New Zealand, and a Bachelors in Microbiology, Chemistry and Botany from St. Joseph’s College at Bangalore University in India. She completed her postdoctoral training at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U.S. FDA) in Silver Spring, MD

Mike Howell (Non-academic session)

Mike Howell has worked at Myriad Genetics as a senior recruiter since 2016. He provides leadership in recruitment by creating, planning, coordinating and implementing recruitment strategies to ensure the best fit candidate for the position is sourced, assessed and converted to hire to meet Myriad's staffing plans. He also manages recruitment outreach, actively participate in job fairs and recruitment events in the community, and maintain appropriate records and documentation of recruitment and other employment activities, decisions, and efforts, and develops outreach programs with colleges for internships and partnership to provide best candidates for Myriad.

Mike will have a breakout session in the non-academic session on Finding an Industry Job: Resumes & Networking.

Dr. Seth McDonald (Non-academic session)

Dr. Seth McDonald earned his PhD in Chris Hill's Lab at the University of Utah studying transcription factors. His postdoc was with Olve Peersen at Colorado State University studying small RNA virus replication, specifically investigating fidelity determinants for the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase. Dr. Mcdonald's background is in crystallography and polymerase enzymology which made him a strong candidate for any position in biotech, especially the NGS field.  He is now a Staff Scientist at Illumina within the protein engineering group where he leads a team of seven scientists working on new sequencing biochemistries. 

Seth will hold a breakout session in the non-academic to discuss careers in industry

Dr. Henok Eyob (Non-academic session)

Henok Eyob, Principal, New Jersey, joined the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant in 2015. At BCG, Henok focuses on the consumer practice area and is a member of Black+Latinx@BCG network. Prior to joining BCG, Henok was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, where he researched potential therapies for breast cancer. Henok holds his PhD from the University of Utah School of Medicine. In his spare time, Henok enjoys reading, watching and playing soccer.

Henok will hold a breakout session in the non-academic session on what you do as a consultant.

Angel Castillo (Non-academic session)

Angel Castillo received his bachelors in sports management in 2008. He then went on to work several companies in the sales department. In March 2020 he joined the Biofire Team as talent sourcing ang engagement specialist.

Angel will hold a breakout session in the non-academic session to discuss Careers and opportunities available at Biofire Diagnostics. 

Colleen Stone (Academic session)

Colleen currently works at the Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis Health. Colleen assists in the project management of Dr. Michael Rogawski's lab.

Colleen will hold a breakout session in the academic breakout session, Exploring the Academic Lab/Project Manager Role

Dr. Benjamin Arenkiel (Academic session)

Ben received his BS from St. Cloud State University in 1998, he then went on to get his Ph.D. from the University Of Utah School of Medicine in 2004. He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at HHMI-Duke University. He now works as an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. The main focus of his lab’s research is to elucidate the basic mechanisms that guide the formation and maintenance of neural circuits in the mammalian brain.

Ben will hold a breakout session in the academic session on Preparing your Application for an Academic Tenure-Track Position

Dr. Randy Booth (Academic session)

Dr. Randy Booth completed his B.S. in Chemistry with a Biochemistry emphasis at Utah State University in 1998.  During this time, he was active as a laboratory technician in the lab of Dr. Steve Aust assisting in the research of the ferritin molecule. Dr. Booth joined the Biological Chemistry Graduate program at the University of Utah in 1998 and later joined the lab of Dr. Glenn Prestwich in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. His Ph.D. work was spent investigating the role of phosphoinositides in the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. After finishing his dissertation, he began a Multidisciplinary Cancer Research Training Post-Doctoral Fellowship through the Huntsman Cancer Institute exploring the role of phosphoinositides in the peroxiredoxin inflammatory response.  While completing his fellowship he started exploring science education by teaching night courses at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) in the Biotechnology department.  Through this opportunity he was introduced to a new early college high school initiative being started and a school that was starting with a biotechnology emphasis.  Dr. Booth was hired to start the biotechnology program at this new school.  During this time, he also started teaching online for SLCC in the Chemistry department and at BYU-Idaho teaching Introduction to Science. After teaching for nine years at Itineris Early College High School he decided to transition to higher ed and obtained a position at Colorado State University in the Chemistry department where he taught general Chemistry and served as the academic adviser for two years after which he returned to Itineris where he has been for the past five years. Dr. Booth continues to teach online with SLCC and started teaching a night class at the University of Utah in January 2020.  While he does not have a formal research focus he has been able to mentor 25 high school students in independent research projects that resulted in posters being presented at local science symposiums.

Randy will hold a breakout session in the academic session on science education.

Dr. Minna Roh-Johnson (Academic session)

Dr. Minna Roh-Johnson is an Assistant Professor and scientist-parent in the Department of Biochemistry, and an advocate for enhanced research and career development for trainees in science. She also has a track record of being in involved in initiatives aimed at increasing diversity in STEM, and currently serves as Faculty Co-Mentor of the University of Utah SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicanx and Native Americans in STEM) Chapter. Dr. Roh-Johnson's lab studies how cell communicate with their microenvironment during development and disease, and uses a combination of high-resolution microscopy, cell biology, and animal models to uniquely visualize cell behavior in a living organism. They are particularly interested in mechanisms of cancer cell migration and unconventional forms of cell-cell communication during metastasis.

Minna will hold a breakout session in the academic session discussing her career track.

Dr. Rodrigo Galindo (Academic Panel)