Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, PhD

Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina is Executive Director of Ciencia Puerto Rico (CienciaPR, www.cienciapr.org) and Director of the Yale Ciencia Initiative at Yale University. Through these positions, Dr. Guerrero-Medina develops and studies programs that broaden participation in STEM education and careers. Under her leadership, CienciaPR has become one of the largest networked communities of Hispanic scientists in the world, has secured federal and foundation funding to support diversity in science education and career development, and in 2015 received recognition as a “Bright Spot” in science education for Hispanics by the White House. Dr. Guerrero-Medina serves as Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded Yale Ciencia Academy, a national program to provide graduate students with opportunities for professional development, outreach, and networking. She also leads the NSF-funded Ciencia al Servicio program, to promote collaborations between scientists and teachers in the development of more relevant and effective science lessons. Dr. Guerrero-Medina has worked as Head of Science Policy at the Van Andel Research Institute, as Health Science Policy Analyst at the National Institutes of Health, and was a 2005 Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academies. She has a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley where she had a Howard Hughes Pre-Doctoral Fellowship to study the development of neuronal connections using genetically-encoded sensors of synaptic activity. She received her B.S. in Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras.

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