The Future Action Symposium

Welcome to The Future Action Symposium

Uplifting All Our Talent to Inspire the Future STEM Workforce

Convening to redefine the possible and drive transformational change for the current and future workforce.

Friday, June 24, 2022

HOSTED BY THE UNIVERSITIES AT SHADY GROVE (USG) BOARD OF ADVISORS
Learn more about the USG Board of Advisors and view a list of current members here.
A special thanks to the board members who served on the Symposium Ad Hoc Committee for this year's event: Roya Mohadjer (Event Chair), Fernanda Arnaldez, Kevin Beverly, Shirley Brandman, Andy Burness, Don Lo and Martin Rosendale.

Program

Welcome

• Shirley Brandman, Chair, The Universities at Shady Grove Board of Advisors
• Dr. Anne Khademian, Executive Director, The Universities at Shady Grove and Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, USM

Small Group Sharing: Our Challenges
 

Call to Action

Kevin Beverly
Vice Chair, The Universities at Shady Grove Board of Advisors
 

Keynote Speaker

Dr. Kafui Dzirasa
Associate Professor, Duke University School of Medicine
 

Panel Discussion

• Dr. Ericka Boone, Director, NIH, Division of Biomedical Research Workforce
• Dr. Shanika Hope, Director of Tech Education, Google
• Arlene Modeste Knowles, Manager of TEAM-UP Diversity, American Institute of Physics
• Angel St. Jean, Co-founder and CEO, The Black Brain Trust
• Dr. Viji Sathy, Professor, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, UNC Chapel Hill and Co-founder of inclusifiED
   

Small Group Roundtable Discussion

Lightning Round Action Recommendations

Roya Mohadjer
Vice Chair, The Universities at Shady Grove Board of Advisors and Chair, Symposium Ad Hoc Committee
 

Closing and Next Steps

About our Keynote Speaker

Dr. Kafui Dzirasa

Kafui Dzirasa completed his PhD in Neurobiology at Duke University. His research interests focus on understanding how changes in the brain produce neurological and mental illness, and his graduate work has led to several distinctions including: the Somjen Award for Most Outstanding Dissertation Thesis, the Ruth K. Broad Biomedical Research Fellowship, the UNCF·Merck Graduate Science Research Fellowship, and the Wakeman Fellowship. Kafui obtained an MD from the Duke University School of Medicine in 2009, and he completed residency training in General Psychiatry in 2016. 

 Dr. Dzirasa received the Charles Johnson Leadership Award in 2007 and he was recognized as one of Ebony magazine’s 30 Young Leaders of the Future in February 2008. He has also been awarded the International Mental Health Research Organization Rising Star Award, the Sydney Baer Prize for Schizophrenia Research, and his laboratory was featured on CBS 60 Minutes in 2011. In 2016, he was awarded the inaugural Duke Medical Alumni Emerging Leader Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers: The nation’s highest award for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. In 2017, he was recognized as 40 under 40 in Health by the National Minority Quality Forum, and the Engineering Alumni of the Year from UMBC. He was induced into the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2019. 

Dr. Dzirasa has served as an Associate Scientific Advisor for the journal Science Translational Medicine, a member of the Congressional-mandated Next Generation Research Initiative, the Editorial Advisory Board for TEDMED, and on the NIH Director’s guiding committee for the BRAIN Initiative. He currently serves on the NIH Director’s NExTRAC Advisory committee and Brain Initiative Multi-council working group.

Dr. Dzirasa is an Associate Professor at Duke University with appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurobiology, Biomedical Engineering, and Neurosurgery. His ultimate goal is to combine his research, medical training, and community experience to improve outcomes for diverse communities suffering from Neurological and Psychiatric illness.

About our Panelists