December 12, 2018

Postdoctoral to Faculty Transition fellow invited to prestigious symposium

Wayne State University postdoctoral fellow Jennifer M. Gómez has been invited to participate in the National Academy of Sciences' prestigious 2019 Kavli Frontiers of Science symposium, the academy’s premiere activity for outstanding early career scientists. While many meetings cover a narrow slice of science, these symposia provide an overview of advances and opportunities in a wide-ranging set of disciplines to provide opportunities for future leaders of science to network with colleagues and build collaborations.

woman headshot
Gómez

Attendees are selected by a committee of academy members who are promising researchers making recognized contributions to science, including recipients of major national fellowships and awards. Since its inception in 1989, more than 250 of its alumni have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and 14 have been awarded Nobel Prizes.

Earlier this year, Gómez was named a Ford Foundation Fellow. Administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Ford Fellowship recognizes high-achieving scholars with a strong commitment to careers in university research and teaching. The fellowship celebrates diversity as a resource for enriching education and provides one year of financial support and opportunities to network and attend the Conference of Ford Fellows.

Gómez joined Wayne State’s Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute in fall 2017 as part of the first cohort of the Postdoctoral to Faculty Transition Fellowship (PFT) program. Under the auspices of the Office of Scientific Training, Workforce Development and Diversity (STWD), the PFT program creates a pipeline of early career, urban disparity scholars who will contribute to diversity and bolster academic excellence. The program provides fellows with resources such as intensive mentoring and grant writing workshops to make them competitive candidates for tenure-track faculty appointments and research careers.

“I’m not surprised that Jennifer was invited to this high-level scientific meeting given the quality of her scholarship and her passion for groundbreaking research,” said Ambika Mathur, associate provost for STWD and dean of the Graduate School.  “Being part of the Kavli Symposium and her appointment as a Ford Fellow marks an important milestone in the PFT experience at Wayne State, and we are so proud of her impressive accomplishments.”

Gómez received her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon in the Department of Psychology in 2017. Her research interests lie in trauma psychology, specifically exploring how relational and sociocultural contexts affect trauma outcomes in diverse adolescents and emerging adults. Gómez developed Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory to include interpersonal trauma in conjunction with oppression to examine mental health outcomes.

Learn more about Gómez and her research at jmgomez.org.

 

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