Dr. Lucina Uddin

Talk title: Best practices for embracing diversity in academic societies

We all have heard about the leaky pipeline in academia, and we know who it disproportionately affects. In this talk, Dr. Uddin will survey changes - from the structural level to the level of the individual scientist - that can help us to better embrace diversity at all levels of the pipeline and ensure equity for future generations of scientists.

After receiving a Ph.D. in cognitive neuroscience from the psychology department at UCLA in 2006, Dr. Uddin completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Child Study Center at NYU. For several years she worked as a faculty member in Psychiatry & Behavioral Science at the Stanford School of Medicine. She joined the psychology department at the University of Miami in 2014. Within a cognitive neuroscience framework, Dr. Uddin’s research combines analyses of resting-state fMRI and diffusion weighted imaging data to examine the organization of large-scale brain networks supporting executive functions. Her current projects focus on understanding dynamic network interactions underlying cognitive inflexibility in neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism. Dr. Uddin’s work (over 150 publications) has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience, Cerebral Cortex, JAMA Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, PNAS, and Nature Reviews Neuroscience. She was awarded the Young Investigator award by the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in 2017.

Dr. Antentor Hinton, Jr., Vanderbilt University

Talk title: Diversity Matters but Don't Forget the Inclusion and Equity

Dr. Hinton is a former Burroughs Wellcome Fund Postdoctoral Enrichment Scholar, EEJust Postgraduate Fellow in Life Sciences, and Ford Foundation Fellow who worked at the University of Iowa in the laboratory of Dr. E. Dale Abel. To date, Dr. Hinton has published 30 papers, gleaned 50 awards, and given 85 invited talks. Dr. Hinton has mentored 45 graduate, medical, or undergraduate students and he has been awarded three University-wide awards and an organizational mentorship  award, the IowaCenter for Research by Undergraduates Distinguished Mentoring Award, Center for Diversity & Enrichment’s Distinguished Educator Award, Diversity Catalyst Award, and an LSAMP Excellence in Mentoring Award. From all of these efforts around diversity, Hinton has been recognized by Forbes Magazines as one of the 100 Black Culture Makers and Thought- Leaders. This honor was also featured in the 2020 Inaugural Year of the Digital Book Celebrating 100 Black Culture Makers and Thought-Leaders. More recently, Dr. Hinton was awarded the 2021 UI Health Care Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leadership Award. Summer 2021, Dr. Hinton, Jr is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of  Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University. Fall 2021, Dr. Antentor Hinton, Jr. will matriculate to a tenure track Assistant Professor Position in the Department of  Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University. 

Dr. Hinton’s United Negro College Fund/ Bristol Myers Squibs Funded Project, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, and NIH funded Project aim to elucidate insulin-mediated molecular mechanisms that regulate cristae dynamics and elucidate molecular mechanisms that regulate molecule transfer and morphology changes between the mitochondria, and the endoplasmic reticulum can alter during a pathophysiological state, such as Diabetes or Cardiovascular Disease.

Angeline Dukes, University of California Irvine

Talk title: Undervalued Work and Unsung Heroes

Mrs. Dukes is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focuses on assessing the long-term effects of adolescent exposure to nicotine and cannabis. She also is a pivotal force in building a strong community for Black neuroscientists worldwide. Mrs. Dukes is the founder and current President of #BlackinNeuro, a viral twitter movement in the summer of 2020 that sparked the formation of an online community of hundreds of Black neuroscientists. Mrs. Dukes and the Black in Neuro team organized Black In Neuro week and a Black In Neuro mini conference, drawing over 2,000 undergraduates, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty members from more than 65 countries to a series of virtual events on neuroscience-related research, professional development, mentorship, and racism in neuroscience. Mrs. Dukes has advocated for equity in the sciences through numerous speaking engagements and authored pieces, including “How to better support Black trainees in the biomedical sciences” (Nature, 2020).