A Note from the Founding Director

Gymama Slaughter; Photo by Marlayna Demond '11, UMBC

Executive Director, Center for Bioelectronics

Educating tomorrow's leaders and innovators ensures the future prosperity of our universities, cities, states and nation, and hence the world. I understand the challenges and opportunities that face underrepresented groups in STEM, and my goal is to help remove the roadblocks to success for our students, staff, faculty and instititution to improve the K-12 through graduate experiences.

Our mission at the Center for Bioelectronics is to pioneer scientific breakthroughs and establish research leadership in cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, brain function, women's health, infectious diseases, and beyond. We achieve this by creating affordable, accessible technologies that drive equity in human and environmental health. Leveraging our expertise in science and engineering, we combat the impact of unequal access to health care on marginalized communities while advancing sustainability and healthcare accessibility for all. Through the development of innovative smart health technologies, we ensure inclusive education for every student, particularly those underserved and underrepresented in STEM, fostering a diverse and skilled workforce for the future.

We continue to celebrate our NIH/NIGMS Graduate Research Training Initiative for Student Enhancement (G-RISE) program at Old Dominion University. The overarching goal of our graduate research training program is to support and prepare graduate underrepresented Ph.D. students to enter and succeed in the biomedical research workforce. The program also provide real work experiences and opportunities for careers in innovative biotech firms in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

We have K-12 and undergraduate students participating in research in our laboratories and a lot of that research is embedded in our Hampton Roads-STEM Summer Institute program (HR-SSI) and Honors Trailblazers in Bioelectronics research education, respectively. The research continuum from the K-12 to the graduate level enables our students to be active contributors of knowledge development. They develop solutions to the world's greatest health and environmental challenges, thereby making our lives and society better.

In keeping with the Center for Bioelectronics mission, our bio-community is problem-focused and continues to cultivate interdisciplinary approaches to solving problems. We are tackling some of the grand challenges in the field of bioelectronics by working with engineers and scientists from multiple disciplines in order to connect human and evironment health with technology.

I invite you to learn more about our tremendous efforts through our website.

My deepest gratitude to NIH/ NIGMS for supporting our graduate training program.

Gymama Slaughter, Ph.D.

Executive Director, Center for Bioelectronics

Old Dominion University