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LaTina Emerson
Director of Communications
Institute for Biomedical Sciences
Georgia State University
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As a biomedical sciences Ph.D. student, Alexis Branch (Ph.D. ’24), an aspiring professor, developed her teaching skills by working as a teaching assistant and earning a Certificate of Excellence in College Teaching.
ATLANTA — Alexis Branch (Ph.D. '24) discovered her love for teaching while working as a graduate teaching assistant for biomedical sciences courses, and after landing a selective postdoctoral fellowship, she’s on her way to becoming a university professor.
The fall 2024 graduate of the Translational Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. degree program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences has been awarded a highly competitive teaching postdoctoral fellowship at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a postdoctoral fellow in the Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research & Education (SPIRE) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program at UNC-Chapel Hill, she’ll receive career training that prepares her for both research and teaching faculty positions at a university.
The first year of the postdoctoral fellowship is research intensive, and during the second and third years, Branch will split her time between doing research and teaching at an institution that serves underrepresented students.
“I love teaching, and I love students,” Branch said. “I love helping them learn and pushing them to think critically about science. I love caring for them and helping them reach their academic goals even when life outside of academics is hard for them. My ultimate career goal is to be a research and teaching professor at a university.”
The native of Richmond, Va., is the first in her family to earn a Ph.D. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University as a biology major and chemistry minor and participated in the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development training program, which prepares undergraduates for Ph.D. programs and careers in research science. Through this program, she joined Cynthia Nau Cornelissen’s lab, and when Cornelissen received a job offer at Georgia State, Branch decided to follow her and applied to the Translational Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences.
Branch initially wanted to earn an M.D. until she went on a trip to the Dominican Republic during her undergraduate studies to provide medical and dental aid to underserved communities.
“During this trip, I learned that I was really interested in bacterial and parasitic pathogenesis,” Branch said. “I wanted to know exactly how parasites like scabies caused disease. After learning more about my interests and how I think about disease, I decided to switch to the research track.”
To complete her dissertation at Georgia State, Branch conducted research on Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a bacterium that causes the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea. Neisseria gonorrhoeae requires metal nutrients like iron, zinc and manganese to live, and there’s a battle between the host and pathogen to acquire these metals. Her dissertation work focused on understanding how exactly Neisseria gonorrhoeae maintains internal levels of zinc and manganese to support growth, Branch explained.
Branch received a $2,000 internal research dissertation grant from Georgia State’s Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development to support her research efforts. The grant is awarded annually to students who provide a strong rationale for their research projects, effectively communicate the significance and impact of their project, and provide a clear and appropriate experimental design for meeting the research objectives of a feasible research project.
“I used this award to study a protein in Neisseria gonorrhoeae that requires zinc to function and helps Neisseria gonorrhoeae survive when zinc is scarce,” Branch said.
At UNC-Chapel Hill, she will continue her work on Neisseria gonorrhoeae, but her new mentor’s lab is working on gonococcal vaccine design. Branch attributes her success in research to Cornelissen, her long-time mentor.
“My research mentor was the best,” Branch said. “She is dedicated to her students and highly invested in their success. She values her students as scientists and people, and pushes them to excel in all aspects of life. I valued most that she always gave me the freedom to think independently about my science and to pursue different professional development activities, like teaching, grant writing, mentoring or lab management. She always supported me in whatever I chose to pursue and encouraged me to be curious, think critically and continue to learn new skills.”
Through the Translational Biomedical Sciences Ph.D. program, Branch said she learned how to take her research from the bench to the bedside, giving her a unique perspective.
“I enjoyed the freedom and flexibility of the program the most,” Branch said. “I was able to try a lot of different techniques in the lab and pursue many different professional development interests. I was also able to collaborate with other labs in different departments. I was a TA for a few different courses which helped me build my teaching portfolio and earn the Certificate of Excellence in College Teaching from CETLOE [Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Online Education] at GSU.”
The Certificate of Excellence in College Teaching is a Board of Regents-approved certificate that provides a professional academic standard and recognizes the mentoring and supervision achieved by Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs). GTAs who have taught for at least three full semesters as instructors of record, or equivalent, and can demonstrate they’ve met and exceeded several standards are eligible for the certificate.
As a teaching assistant for Principles of Biology I labs, Branch was encouraged to make the course her own and try different pedagogical strategies. She gave a 30-minute interactive lesson and then walked around to offer individualized help to students completing their lab activities. For a Careers in Biomedical Sciences course, Branch hosted information sessions and provided feedback on assignments.
“Dr. Zachary Saylor was another one of my great mentors,” Branch said. “He really helped me learn how to collect and analyze my teaching data to make my class better for my students. He would come observe me and give me feedback or look at my teaching data to help me make improvements.”
As a SPIRE fellow, Branch is preparing for a career in the professoriate by taking courses in pedagogy, progressing her research and writing grants.
“I am excited to start putting the training I received from IBMS into practice, and I can’t wait to start training the next generation of scientists,” Branch said.
— Story by LaTina Emerson