I’m a parasite immunologist by training, a scientist at heart and a firm believer that the utility of PhD stretches far beyond the lab. This blog is about my journey from a bench scientist into management and hopefully beyond. A very short summary of the road so far is: BS in biotechnology from Rutgers University followed by work in drug discovery then a MS in Public Health Microbiology at George Washington University (GWU). From there I work for the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative before moving to a fellowship at the CDC. I went from my fellowship to getting my PhD, again at GWU, with my research done in a parasitology lab at the NIH. I spent a few short months at the FDA after completing my PhD, moved across country to do a fellowship at the Gates Foundation and am now the Senior Manager for the Data Analytics Unit for the Statistical Center for HIV/AIDS Research and Prevention (SCHARP).
My goal with this blog is to use my personal experiences (the good and the bad) to help others interested in using their PhD in a slightly different way than the accepted norm. I’ll also reference some of the new research and thinking around “alternative” science careers. I hope to bring in some guest bloggers along the way to add to the diversity of the advice and perspective.
