In an impressive range of scientific fields, Goucher College has graduated scholars whose contributions are as significant as they are numerous. Alumnae\u2014like pediatrician and microbiologist Hattie Alexander, Class of 1923, who developed a treatment for the deadly influenzae meningitis; renowned molecular biologist Lydia Villa-Komaroff \u201970, who was part of the team that discovered how bacterial cells could be used to generate insulin; and biochemist Florence Barbara Seibert, Class of 1918, whose work enabled the development and use of a reliable test for tuberculosis, among many others\u2014have advanced modern medicine. Standing on the shoulders of their predecessors, young alums are working in a wide range of STEM fields creating legacies of their own.<\/p>\n
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Biochemistry and Molecular Biology\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n I<\/span>n 1997, when she was three, Carolina Mejia Pe\u00f1a \u201916 and her mother came to the United States to escape civil unrest in Bogota, Colombia. Her father had already immigrated to Queens, New York, working so they could join him. They lived in a small apartment with relatives until the family of three moved into an Upper East Side apartment in one of the buildings where her father was superintendent.<\/p>\n When she was in middle school, Mejia Pe\u00f1a\u2019s outstanding academic performance got her invited to participate in an enrichment program. Among other subjects, the program offered training in study skills, etiquette, Latin, and admissions to prepare its participants for elite, private institutions; there, too, Mejia Pe\u00f1a excelled. In ninth grade, Mejia Pe\u00f1a enrolled at Groton School, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. While Groton had incredible resources, providing Mejia Pe\u00f1a with numerous \u201csoft skills,\u201d it didn\u2019t offer the kinds of support she needed to stay on track academically. Attaining admission into an Ivy League college seemed to be the definition of success, so Mejia Pe\u00f1a felt like she\u2019d failed. She felt pressure to have one of those \u201cperfect immigrant\u201d stories\u2014the ones \u201cwhere a person comes from nothing and then they soar, but that was not happening,\u201d she says. \u201cI was mediocre in high school.\u201d And with no tutoring program, she flailed academically. Still, she graduated in 2012.<\/p>\n As an incoming Goucher student, Mejia Pe\u00f1a expected to major in dance because she was confident she could do well. Not so with academics. At Groton she was strongly discouraged from taking the chemistry and biology AP exams because she was doing so poorly in those classes. But she loved and had always felt drawn to science. At Goucher, she took both chemistry and biology again. This time she excelled.<\/p>\n What was different?<\/p>\n \u201cThe teachers at Goucher have been the best teachers I\u2019ve ever had, period. [They] were willing to meet me where I was at and try different methods to teach me,\u201d Mejia Pe\u00f1a says.<\/p>\n So instead of dance, Mejia Pe\u00f1a majored in biochemistry and molecular biology.<\/p>\n After graduating, she began a Ph.D. program in molecular biology, cell biology, and biochemistry at Brown University. \u201cIn a million years, I could never have imagined I\u2019d end up as a student at Brown. I was convinced I did not belong,\u201d she says. She earned her Ph.D. from the Ivy League school in 2022.<\/p>\n But Mejia Pe\u00f1a still didn\u2019t feel like a success. In 2018, two years into the program, her father\u2014in his early 50s\u2014was diagnosed with dementia, thus altering the trajectory of both their lives.<\/p>\n After this diagnosis, while her colleagues were starting their thesis work, Mejia Pe\u00f1a was researching neurodegeneration. While her peers were publishing their research, Mejia Pe\u00f1a was learning how to be an effective patient advocate. While her colleagues were spending weekends in the lab, Mejia Pe\u00f1a was spending as much time as she could with her father. In addition, she was single-handedly supporting herself and her parents.<\/p>\n She resented it at the time. And she worried the disparity between her peers\u2019 many accomplishments and her relatively few would reflect poorly.<\/p>\n Based on her research, she expected her father to decline swiftly. In April, five years after his diagnosis, unable to feed, bathe, or do anything else for himself, he was moved into a nursing home.<\/p>\n While a Ph.D. student, \u201cmy work focused on ovarian cancer\u2014not because I wanted to focus on that but because I wanted to be in a biophysics lab, and while I\u2019d had a brief intro at Goucher and was totally intimidated, I found biophysics fascinating. I was super interested in the theories and methods they were using and thought the questions they were asking were good questions to address,\u201d Mejia Pe\u00f1a says.<\/p>\n Since graduating in May 2022, she\u2019s continued as a postdoc in that lab to tie up loose ends and finish her publications, and she completed a teaching certificate program at Brown\u2019s Sheridan Center.<\/p>\n So what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m at a crossroads,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Instead of considering her father\u2019s diagnosis a detour, it\u2019s given her direction. \u201cIt\u2019s allowed me to live more in line with my values,\u201d Mejia Pe\u00f1a reflects. \u201cI want to switch fields and start doing research related to neurodegeneration and aging. Brown has a world-renowned aging center, and now I have a fire under my ass to do this work. Hopefully I can find a post-doc position right here,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Mejia Pe\u00f1a has also shifted her thinking about all she resented as a Ph.D. student. Instead of focusing on what she wasn\u2019t able to do and what she lacks, \u201cI\u2019ve recently been able to say, \u2018I think I\u2019d be a pretty good candidate post-doc because of all the skills I\u2019ve had to learn.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n She goes on, \u201cIf it had been smooth sailing, I don\u2019t think I would have turned out like this. I had to reckon with the fact that even though I didn\u2019t go straight to an Ivy League college from Groton, it\u2019s made me a more authentic person.\u201d<\/p>\n The neurodegeneration and aging fields will certainly be better for it as well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Physics and Math<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n W<\/span>hen Sam Shapiro \u201919 came to Goucher, he knew he wanted to major in physics. And, while math came easily to him, \u201cit was just a tool for doing for physics,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAnd then I took Linear Algebra, and it really blew my mind. I was like, \u2018Oh, math is beautiful.\u2019\u201d So he dual-majored in physics and math.<\/p>\n After graduating, at the recommendation of one of his professors, Shapiro took a job at ARET\u00c9, a national and global security government contractor. He worked there for more than two years creating algorithms similar to those used in artificial intelligence face-recognition apps. \u201cMy physics background helped me, and I had actually had exposure to machine learning at Goucher,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Through a fellow alum, Shapiro was recommended for a position at Northrup Grumman, another government contractor. In 2022, he joined their device theory team of the Transformational Computing Operating Unit, primarily doing simulation of quantum circuits. At Goucher, he studied with professors Nina Markovic \u00b4and physics professor Sasha Dukan. \u201cThey both teach superconducting\u2014the kind of circuit you need for quantum physics,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t expert in the stuff we do here, but having as much background as I did in superconductivity, which is not standard in undergraduate, definitely helped.\u201d<\/p>\n Quantum computing is still in its research and development phase and will have significant reverberations. \u201cGovernments are interested in the encryption thing, but I think [quantum computing is] just generally considered such a game-changing frontier of technology that everyone wants to be the first to have it.\u201d<\/p>\n Shapiro considers doing a Ph.D. program and would love to teach, but he\u2019s enjoying doing what he does for now. \u201cI just really care about physics, and I\u2019d like to know it better,\u201d he says. \u201cNorthrop Grumman is pretty great to work for. I\u2019ve only worked in this little corner, but my corner is pretty great.\u201d<\/p>\n When he\u2019s not doing physics and device theory, Shapiro plays music. \u201cI continue to be in a band that is composed entirely of Goucher alums called Plastic Owl. We\u2019re kind of indie but maybe a little math rock\u2014a little funky math rock.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Chemistry<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n S<\/span>ince his senior year at Goucher, the behavior of metal atoms in the human body has captivated Julian Rees. Working with Professor Scott Sibley, Rees did his senior thesis on how metal atoms can affect the formation of amyloid plaque, a contributing cause of Alzheimer\u2019s Disease.<\/p>\n A few years after graduating, Rees returned to his hometown of Seattle, where he completed master\u2019s and Ph.D. programs in chemistry at the University of Washington. He then went to California for a post-doc fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he studied the properties of radioactive metals in the body. \u201cAs a chemist, working with the elements at the bottom of the periodic table [i.e., heavy metals] is kind of unique, and [Lawrence Berkeley is] one of the few places in the country you can do that,\u201d he says. There, Rees worked on a government-funded research project born of the September 11th attacks. The project\u2019s goal was to develop a drug to treat plutonium contamination resulting from a nuclear disaster. What was created is a drug that is needed for an urgent and even more widespread use today. In the form of a pill one can swallow, the drug contains a chelating agent that absorbs the metals, which are then excreted from the body.<\/p>\n Lead poisoning, which comes primarily from lead paint and leaded gasoline exposure, is more prevalent in children because lead incorporates into bones, and kids\u2019 bones grow rapidly. According to the World Health Organization, one in three children worldwide has lead poisoning. Given lead\u2019s devastating and irreversible effects on humans, this is an alarming statistic. With the current treatment for lead poisoning requiring an IV injection, Rees says, \u201cthere is no easy, safe, affordable, accessible treatment available.\u201d<\/p>\n Enter HOPO Therapeutics.<\/p>\n Originating in the project at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Rees cofounded this biomedical\/pharmaceutical company, which, its website says, addresses \u201cthe most pressing unmet needs at the intersection of heavy metals and human health.\u201d Rees serves as its president and CEO.<\/p>\n HOPO is now in the middle of its first round of fundraising. \u201cWhile it\u2019s a difficult time to be doing it,\u201d says Rees, \u201cwe\u2019ve had success, which speaks to the quality of the mission and of the science. We\u2019ve just enrolled the first couple of patients in Phase I of the clinical trial, which is a huge milestone for any drug development program. Phase I is the first time you try it out with actual people.\u201d<\/p>\n Running a startup might not be every chemist\u2019s thing, but between his expertise and personality Rees is finding it to be a good fit. The vast global need is certainly motivating. Plus, he says, \u201cThe science is really cool. The impact is amazing. It feels good to be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n When he\u2019s not traveling to conferences, raising money to provide a cost-effective, accessible solution to a global health crisis, or educating himself on the legal aspects of running a business, Rees, along with a few other chemists, enjoys performing around Berkeley with his band Bad Dog Jump. The group\u2019s neoclassic rock can be found on Spotify.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Biology<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n L<\/span>ike so many biology majors, when Rebekah Turk \u201906 graduated from Goucher, she thought she\u2019d go to medical school. Her path, however, led her to the field of CAR (cancer antigen receptor) therapy, which she describes as \u201can almost impossible feat of science.\u201d<\/p>\n As an undergrad at Goucher, Turk participated in the Summer Science Research Program and spent time during her senior year doing research with Professor Mark Hiller. \u201cThe opportunity taught me to be comfortable in the lab and provided me with a model of how to think about science,\u201d she reflects. After graduating, she did a stint as a veterinarian tech, then studied foodborne pathogens at the Center for Food Safety in Georgia.<\/p>\n Turk then ran bioassays on cell therapy treatments at Dendreon, which \u201cmanufactured the first FDA-approved cellular therapy,\u201d she says. She moved on to Juno Therapeutics, in Seattle, to work on the clinical trial for Breyanzi, the later-approved CAR-T cell therapy. She recounts her career trajectory: \u201cI moved from the regulatory arm of Juno to the research department, because it was a closer match to my interests. In research, I worked on a variety of projects aimed to improve the ability of T cells to kill cancer cells.\u201d<\/p>\n Turk goes on, \u201cI migrated to the Receptor Engineering group, the team responsible for discovering new CARs for Juno\u2019s immunotherapy pipeline. In that team I used automation to expand the throughput of CAR discovery and helped fill several drug discovery pipelines. A number of startups spun out of Juno after it was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb. One of these was Modulus Therapeutics, where I currently work in discovery developing and running large pooled screens that aim to improve the function of immunotherapy through gene editing and receptor engineering.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBeing around all the different arms that have come together to form the field, including immunology, virology, and genetic engineering, and being able to experience this assembly on a daily basis is pretty fun. Inventing things is fun. Taking something from concept through discovery and into preclinical development for therapies that are actually moving the needle in cancer treatment is one of the most rewarding things I have done,\u201d Turk says.<\/p>\n Turk also danced at Goucher. She is a founding member of Dance Conservatory Seattle, where she\u2019s learned from and performed with Goucher alum Mathew Heggam \u201906<\/strong><\/span>. She joined the conservatory\u2019s board in 2023.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nSam Shapiro \u201919<\/span><\/h2>\n
Julian Rees \u201909<\/span><\/h2>\n
Rebekah Turk \u201906 <\/span><\/h2>\n
Kamilah Lamhaouar \u201916<\/span><\/h2>\n