NC Women of Color Research Network 2024 Symposium: Leveraging Cultural Identity
Wednesday, July 31, 2024 • 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Rosalina Bray, MSc, CEP
Ms. Rosalina Bray is the NIH Extramural Staff Training Officer and the Director for the NIH Cement Extramural Leadership Institute. Prior to accepting a position in the NIH Office of the Director, she was a Senior Health Science Policy Analyst for the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development; and a Program Analyst for the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. She serves on several trans-Agency and trans-NIH committees and working groups. Ms. Bray has a background in Microbiology, Public Health, Health Administration, and Organizational Leadership. She is considered one of the nation's foremost thought leaders in leadership, complex adaptive systems, science policy, biomedical innovation, and STEM education. In addition, she is a leading voice for diversity and inclusion, capacity building, and STEM workforce development.
Frances D. Graham, Ph.D.
Frances D. Graham, PhD, earned her undergraduate and doctorate degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a master's from Howard University. She has held several administrative positions in student affairs, including vice chancellor for student affairs, associate vice chancellor for student affairs and academic affairs, associate vice provost for gender affairs, and director of the women's center. Frances has also served as faculty at various institutions, teaching courses such as higher education administration, student development, diversity in higher education, women's and gender studies, and African American studies. Currently, she is a tenure-track assistant professor in the higher education leadership program at Maryville University of St. Louis. Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world." Frances believes in this statement and has witnessed a lasting change in her domestic and international travels, teaching and learning about the history and impact of education.
Yvette M. Huet, Ph.D.
Dr. Yvette M. Huet is Executive Director of the UNC Charlotte Center for ADVANCing Faculty Success, and Professor of Applied Physiology, Health, and Clinical Sciences. She is the UNC Charlotte PI of the 2018 NSF AGEP-NG award and the UNC System Lead for RISE UPP, a 2022 NSF INCLUDES award. She earned B.A. degrees in Human Biology and Microbiology from the University of Kansas; her Ph.D. (with Honors) in physiology from the University of Kansas Medical Center (First Latina graduate and awarded a National Science Foundation Minority Graduate and Ford Foundation Graduate and Dissertation Fellowships) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship with Monsanto Company.
Dr. Huet has served in various other leadership roles, including Co-Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development, Interim Chair for the Departments of Epidemiology and Community Health and Kinesiology, and Graduate Director for the Biological Sciences and Health Services doctoral programs. Dr. Huet consults with academic institutions and societies on transformative leadership, mentoring, cultural competency, communications, negotiations, and programming for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students to succeed and thrive in higher education environments. She serves on the Board of NCABR and the Endocrine Society Committee on Diversity & Inclusion. She is the Past President of the Society of Senior Ford Fellows and the State Chair-elect of the NC ACE Women's Network.
Melissa Smarr, Ph.D.
Melissa Smarr (Judd-Smarr) is a Program Director in the Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities at the National Cancer Institute, working with the Disparities and Equity Program and supporting the administration and programmatic management of the NIH Common Fund's Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program. Additionally, Dr. Smarr supports the Community Partnerships to Advance Science for Society (ComPASS), Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiatives, and the HHS Environmental Justice Working Group, and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Environmental Justice Subcommittee (Executive Office of The President, Office of Science & Technology Policy), given her expertise in environmental health disparities and environmental justice.
Melissa received her doctorate in Environmental Health Sciences (specializing in occupational and environmental epidemiology) from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. She then completed a two-year intramural postdoctoral fellowship with the Epidemiology Branch in the Division of Intramural Population Health Research within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, followed by a Research Fellow position in the Office of the Director. Prior to joining the NIH (NIEHS) in 2020, Melissa was a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health at Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University. As a Faculty Fellow in the Office of Sustainability Initiatives, Melissa developed and taught the Environmental Justice: Theory and Public Health Practice course and served as a mentor for the Break the Cycle of Children's Environmental Health Disparities program.
Diana Urieta
Juntos Senior Director/Co-Developer & Extension Specialist at NC State University
A native of Colombia South America, Diana immigrated to High Point, North Carolina at the age of seven with her parents and brother. Diana received her BA in Sociology and Master of Social Work from NC State University. Her work with the Latino community started in her youth when her dad would ask her to join him at the local medical clinic, where she was an interpreter for families from her family's local church. She has extensive experience working with underserved populations in public health, 0-16 education, and parenting education.
She is one of the co-developers of the Juntos Program at NC State University, where she has managed program development, implementation, evaluation, training and coaching, and sustainability efforts in North Carolina and nationally. Her approach to working in Juntos has focused on building bridges within communities, resourcing the family unit, and highlighting the assets that bicultural and bilingual identity brings to the US.