How to Advocate for Yourself and Other Women in Neuroscience

Marina Picciotto is the Charles B.G. Murphy Professor of Psychiatry in the Child Study Center of Neuroscience and Pharmacology at Yale University, where she has been on the faculty since 1995. Dr. Picciotto’s research interests lie in understanding the role of molecular signaling in complex behavior, focusing on the function of acetylcholine and its receptors in learning, development, and circuit function. She received her undergraduate degree in biological sciences from Stanford University and her PhD in Molecular Neurobiology from Rockefeller University. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Institute Pasteur in Paris.

Tracy Bale is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the director of the Center for Epigenetic Research in Child Health and Brain Development (CERCH). Bale previously was a professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also co-directed the Penn Center for the Study of Sex and Gender in Behavioral Health and was the director of research for the BIRCWH Faculty Scholars. She is respected for her research on stress as a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders and neuropsychiatric disease. She is also the IBRO President and a member of the ALBA Network Board of Directors.

Joanne Berger-Sweeney is president of Trinity College. Berger-Sweeney previously served as dean of the school of arts and sciences at Tufts University. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She earned her undergraduate degree from Wellesley University, MPH in environmental health sciences from University of California, Berkeley, and her PhD in neurotoxicology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.

Indira Raman is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of biological sciences in the department of neurobiology at Northwestern University. She currently studies the electrical properties of neurons in the cerebellum and specifically focuses on which neurons signal to each other as well as how their signaling changes during movement and while learning motor skills. Raman has served on several editorial boards including the Journal of Neuroscience, the Biophysical Journal, and eLife. She earned her PhD in neuroscience from the University of Wisconsin and completed her postdoctoral training at Vollum Institute and Harvard Medical School.