Penn State recipients of Whitaker Center’s Women of Impact 2021 awards unite through research – The Daily Collegian Online

Within Penn States College of Medicine, three female researchers won Whitaker Centers Women of Impact: Celebrating Women in STEM Awards for their advancement in the field, which Elizabeth Proctor said was an honor.

Proctor said she received the Game Changer award under the Whitaker Centers Women of Impact in September 2021 for her research on Alzheimer's disease.

I was really honored and happy that people saw this worth in my work, Proctor, assistant professor of neurosurgery, pharmacology, biomedical engineering, and engineering science and mechanics, said.

For Proctor, shes really passionate about studying Alzheimers disease and the different moving pieces in the disease.

Proctor received her bachelor's degree from Purdue University and Ph.D. in biophysics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then she held a postdoctoral position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

One reason Proctor developed an interest in studying Alzheimers disease was watching individuals in her family who were personally affected.

It is so common, and we have no cure, Proctor said. Its a horrible thing to lose yourself, and that is what Alzheimers takes from people.

Proctor said she also saw a gap that somebody with her skill set could fill in the research and her goal became to figure out how all the pieces fit together.

While completely respecting all the community that has come before, I thought there is this one piece that maybe I could help that I haven't seen anyone else doing, and I am uniquely suited to do it, Proctor said.

She said she wanted to learn what causes patients to present cognitive deficits, memory impairment and all these things that drive people to go to a doctors office and say, I am sick, I need help.

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What we are trying to do is make this overall map and try to understand how we could affect the entire disease and actually try to fix it in a way that would address all these issues and ultimately make cognition better, Proctor said.

Proctor said in her research lab, she tries to measure at the molecular level different processes that are dysregulated in the disease, using everything from cells to organoids to animals.

We have not done human samples yet, but we hope to in the future, Proctor said. And we try to use all these different systems to untangle all of the processes that are being dysregulated.

Within her research, Proctor said shes trying to come in and do something that has never been done before and potentially make a very large impact on the way the field understands science which is why she believes she won the award.

I am trying to unite people who do more molecular and cellular work with people who do my physiological research, Proctor said. In the way that I have been trying to do this with computational science, it hasnt been done before.

While Proctor said she wont cure Alzheimers or completely change the field herself, rather, she intends to contribute to the advancement of understanding the disease.

I am not coming in and trying to rescue anything, but I think there are things that I could do that arent being done right now that maybe I am uniquely suited for, Proctor said.

Dr. Shou Ling Leong was also a recipient of the Game Changer award as a result of helping create curriculum for the three-year accelerated medical pathway.

Leong, assistant dean for pathways innovation in the College of Medicine, associate vice chair for education, director of longitudinal and 3+ accelerated pathways, and professor of family and community medicine, said she was thrilled to receive the award.

You never know about these things, Leong said. When you get nominated, you feel that people value what you have done and recognize the impact you have made, but when it is finally validated, it's a joy.

Leong said she wears many hats, such as clinical work, education and research, but what she loves the most is to innovate and develop new things.

She develops new programs, one being the three-year program, and she also conducts assessments and research to make sure the programs are impactful and have measurable outcomes.

For example, with the three-year program, we have done big studies to make sure that students indeed get a good education, Leong said. So after they graduate, they have the competency to be excellent doctors but also satisfied with their curriculum and not stressed and burnt out.

Inspiration for the three-year program came primarily from the news, Leong said, because there has been talk [in the media] that we dont have enough physicians particularly primary care physicians.

We know that students are graduating with huge amounts of debt, so I want to address those things, Leong said. It became clear to me that by having a three-year program, it would address both of those issues and others, too.

By graduating a year early, students save quite a bit of money and in the process, help to address the physician shortage, Leong said.

Leong said the three-year program has really made a difference in medical education and reframed how we look at medical education which is why she believes she was a recipient of the award.

I feel very proud and very happy to have gotten the award, Leong said.

Jennifer Moss had been named the Women to Watch Class of 2021 under the Whitaker Centers Women of Impact, which is given to a scientist in their early career.

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Moss, assistant professor in the department of family and community medicine, and the department of public health sciences at Penn State, said she conducts research on the impact of geography and community factors on cancer prevention and cancer outcome.

Trying to identify what it is about certain communities particularly rural communities that make them more susceptible to elevated rates of cancer incidents and cancer mortality is the center of her research, Moss said.

What shes found is a complex web of factors that influence what makes people more or less likely to engage in behaviors that prevent cancer, such as vaccination, physical activity and screening behaviors, and how they translate into different incidents and mortality, Moss said.

Moss was born in a rural community in Texas and moved around a lot, which is what prompted her to research how cancer affects various populations.

The difference in life expectancy and cancer rates for someone where I was born versus where I got my training were really stark, and it prompted me to think about what I could do with training in behavioral science and social epidemiology in order to reduce the higher rates of cancer we see, and that is what I try and do with my work identify the causes of these disparities and solutions, ways that we can get health care services to people living in rural communities, Moss said.

Moss has been working with small clinics in Pennsylvania to evaluate how feasible it is for patients, particularly in rural and isolated communities, to use at-home tests for screening of cancer so they dont have to travel to a doctors office to get screened.

It really empowers patients in rural communities to get tested, and if they do have cancer, we can identify it and diagnose it earlier, Moss said.

Moss said she was very thrilled to receive the award.

I was nominated by the chair of my department, who has always been very supportive of my work and my career, so it was great to get that recognition from the community and join this sort of cohort of women who received awards from the Whitaker Center, Moss said.

The Whitaker Center continues to do a lot of work to support women in science, according to Moss.

Not just for us who are professionals but also for girls and young women who are still learning about the potential careers in science.

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Penn State recipients of Whitaker Center's Women of Impact 2021 awards unite through research - The Daily Collegian Online