Speaker Bios

Nii Addy is the Albert E. Kent Associate Professor of Psychiatry and an Associate Professor of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Addy directs a federally funded research program investigating the neurobiological bases of substance use disorders, depression and anxiety. His…

Dr. Maria Artunduaga is a Colombian-born physician-scientist and inventor with 50+ prizes, publications in Nature, NEJM, PNAS, Genetics in Medicine, and 7 issued patents. She decided to leave a surgical career to found Samay (to “breathe deeply” in Quechua) after losing her grandmother to a COPD…

Angela Brooks is a Professor of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also an Affiliated Faculty of the UCSC Center for Molecular Biology of RNA and the UCSC Genomics Institute. She was a Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences in 2018.…

Dr. Garcia is an Associate Professor in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. He has extensive experience in the areas of physical activity, diet, and weight management. Dr. Garcia has designed and implemented trials as a lead investigator…

Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, is an Associate Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Research in the BerbeeWalsh Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. As a practicing geriatric nurse, Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi leads an active, NIH-funded program of research…

Dr. Ronald Hickman is the inaugural Ruth M. Anderson Endowed Chair and Associate Dean for Research at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). He is a registered nurse and a board-certified acute care nurse practitioner who has provided care…

Zulmarie Pérez Horta is a Program Manager on the BioInteractive team, an HHMI initiative that creates educational resources and provides professional development for Biology educators. In her role she manages an online community of educators, designs and facilitates professional development workshops, manages the Spanish translation of…

Emma was raised in El Mante Tamaulipas, a small town in the rural countryside northeast of Mexico City. A high percentage of the population has diabetes, and blindness is a common complication in patients of this small community. So, while growing up, Dr. Lessieur Contreras was…

Bruno Lima, DDS, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, School of Dentistry in the Department of Diagnostic and Biological Sciences. Dr. Lima received his dental degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil before moving to the US…

Dr. Patricia Simon is an accomplished clinical psychologist and scientist, currently serving as the founding Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Oui Therapeutics, Inc. and Assistant Professor, Adjunct in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. She has made significant contributions to…

Bonnielin Swenor is an associate professor at The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and holds joint appointments at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Disability Health Research…

Dr. Peter Velázquez is a first-generation graduate who completed a Bachelor of Science with honors in Biology at UC Irvine. He next earned a master’s in biology and biomedical Sciences from Washington University in Saint Louis and Ph.D. from UCLA. After completing post-doctoral fellowship in the…

Christiane Voufo is a neuroscientist with research interest in girl education in the Africa region, access to quality STEM education in secondary and higher education, and digital skill development. Christiane holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of California, Berkeley’s Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. As…

Keith E. Whitfield is an experienced university administrator and prolific scholar in the fields of psychology, health, and aging. President Whitfield joined UNLV in August 2020 after serving as provost, senior vice president of academic affairs, and professor of psychology at Wayne State University in Michigan.…