Giovanna Guerrero-Medina, PhD

Dr. Giovanna Guerrero-Medina is Director of the Yale Ciencia Initiative in the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Yale School of Medicine, and Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion of Yale’s Wu Tsai Institute. Through these positions, Dr. Guerrero-Medina leads programs that broaden participation and increase inclusion and retention in STEM training pathways and careers. Programs such as Yale PATHS, the Yale Ciencia Academy, and Intersections Science Fellows Symposium empower scientists from historically excluded backgrounds and level the playing field.

Until 2024, Dr. Guerrero-Medina was the first Executive Director of Ciencia Puerto Rico. Under her leadership, CienciaPR became one of the largest networked communities of Hispanic scientists in the world and was recognized for their work promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the areas of science communication, education, and careers by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the AAAS-Caribbean Division, and the White House.

She is co-author of two National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine reports to promote advancement, diversity and inclusion in the STEMM workforce and her expertise has been sought by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, multiple NIH and NSF peer review panels, and several nonprofit and scientific Advisory Boards. Dr. Guerrero-Medina’s work is funded by grants from the NIH and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, among others.

Originally from Puerto Rico, Dr. Guerrero-Medina has a Bachelors in Science from the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras and a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by a science policy fellowship with the National Academies and science policy work at the NIH and the Van Andel Institute.

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