...Carole [Doherty] Flores ‘92, and I graduated with a BS in Molecular & Cellular Biology in December of 1993. I participated in the UBRP program during the summer of 1992, in the laboratory of Dr. Elizabeth Vierling in the Department of Biochemistry. In 1993, I worked in the laboratory of Dr. Dean DellaPenna where I stayed on, for an additional semester after I graduated, as a temporary research technician. I then attended Boston University (BU) to pursue a Master of Arts in Teaching in Secondary Science Education.

While I was at BU, I participated in a program called Frontiers in Modern Biology, which involved laboratory research. I had the opportunity to work in the laboratory of Dr. Robert Hausman on projects involving developmental biology. I also supervised high school students who were doing summer internships in Dr. Hausman’s laboratory. I did my student teaching at Brookline High School in Brookline, Massachusetts. I graduated from BU in 1995. I then returned to Arizona and accepted a teaching position at Fountain Hills High School.

As a teacher, I wrote and received several grants that permitted me to start a Biotechnology program at my high school. The program was affiliated with the CityLab program at Boston University School of Medicine. I also taught Honors Biology and Anatomy & Physiology. I loved teaching. There was never a time that I didn’t feel like I was doing something important. Teaching helped me to learn concepts in greater detail than I’ve ever had to before. From 1996 to 1998, while I was teaching at FHHS, I was fortunate to become affiliated with Dr. John McDonald, then the Research Director at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale. I was able to do research in his laboratory in the afternoons and evenings during the school years and full time in the summers.

Eventually, I found myself wanting to return to the research environment. I found a position as a research technician in the laboratory of Dr. Neal Woodbury at Arizona State University. We have recently taken up residence at the Biodesign Institute at ASU; a move for which I became an acting laboratory manager, move coordinator, and was also promoted to research specialist. I have my own research project. I supervise a number of undergraduate researchers in the laboratory. I also have the opportunity to meet with teachers, when they tour the Biodesign Institute, to discuss ways to improve and enhance science education in preparation for careers in science and medicine. I have also had the opportunity to work with Principal Investigators at the Biodesign Institute as they adapt research concepts to become classroom activities for outreach programs.

Carole [Doherty] Flores, UBRP alum in Dr. Elizabeth Vierling’s lab, Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics