Pictured Left to Right
Top: Rachel Sterne-Marr, Tom Giarla, Shallee Page, & Evan Merkhofer
Middle: Daron Barnard, Jess Crowley, Shanna Cawley, & Matthew Skerritt
Bottom: Amie Jo McClellan & Cheng-Chiang Wu
Top: Rachel Sterne-Marr, Tom Giarla, Shallee Page, & Evan Merkhofer
Middle: Daron Barnard, Jess Crowley, Shanna Cawley, & Matthew Skerritt
Bottom: Amie Jo McClellan & Cheng-Chiang Wu
The New England Regional Node has active members in Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Upstate Eastern New York. The Regional Node Meeting was organized by the Node leader, Dr. Rachel Sterne-Marr, with help from Dr. Daron Barnard, and was held virtually, on January 4, 2023. There were ten attendees in total.
The six historical regulars:
The six historical regulars:
- Dr. Daron Barnard, Worcester St., Worcester, MA
- Dr. Evan Merkhofer, Mount St. Mary College, Newburgh, NY
- Dr. Amie Jo McClellan, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
- Dr. Shallee Page, Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, NH
- Dr. Tom Giarla, Siena College, Loudonville, NY
- Dr. Rachel Sterne-Marr, Siena College, Loudonville, NY
Veteran GEPer, Dr. Matthew Skerritt from SUNY Corning Community College, Corning, NY, and three newly-minted GEP members, Dr. Jessica Crowley and Dr. Shanna Cawley, (Quinsigamond Community College, Worcester, MA), and Cheng-Chiang Wu, (Framingham State University, Framingham, MA) joined as well. Quinsigamond CC and Framingham State are Minority-Serving Institutions. With three new GEP members, this meeting focused on facilitating first-time implementation of GEP materials and projects.
As such, there were talks in the following four areas:
As such, there were talks in the following four areas:
- GEP Implementation at the Freshmen level (Amie)
- GEP Implementation in Sophomore level genetics course (Shanna, Matthew and Rachel)
- GEP Implementation in Junior/Senior molecular biology, bioinformatics and genomics courses with and without wet lab components (Shallee, Tom, Evan)
- GEP Implementation in independent research (Shallee, Tom, Evan)
Requested resources were then posted on our Node Trello Board. The group committed to having an In-Person Regional Node Meeting with student presentations in January 2024 and Evan graciously agreed to join the node leadership in Summer 2023. Finally, Rachel gave an update on her collaborative efforts with Dr. Nate Mortimer, entitled ‘Proteomic Analysis of the Drosophila Immune Response to Parasitoid Wasp Infection.’
What worked well for your event that might help others plan similar events?
The general timing had previously been agreed upon by the node members.
What would your node do differently based on your experiences?
Hold it in person with undergraduate presenters, which was the original goal.
Hold it in person with undergraduate presenters, which was the original goal.