How to Self-Advocate for Your Science and Career

Courtney Miller is an associate professor at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida. The primary focus of her lab is developing therapeutics for memory disorders, including addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder. Her efforts have been recognized in a variety of ways, including her being selected to participate in the Kauffman Foundation Venture Capital Program, named the 2015 Scripps Outstanding Mentor of the Year, and awarded the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, presented to her by former President Obama at the White House in 2016. Her research has been highlighted by such news organizations as The Economist, The Washington Post, TIME Magazine, CBS, and Discovery. She also has a passion for advancing women in science and, in 2007, cofounded the Professional Women’s Nexus (PWN), a 500+ member group with a mission to improve the advancement rate of women in academia and industry.

Yasmin Hurd is the director of the Addiction Institute of Mount Sinai as well as the Ward Coleman chair of translational neuroscience and professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Hurd’s translational research examines the neurobiology of drug abuse and related psychiatric disorders. Her research exploring the neurobiological effects of heroin and the developmental effects of cannabis have significantly shaped the field. Based on Hurd’s high impact accomplishments and her advocacy of drug addiction education and health, she was inducted into both the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Science, complementing other honors she has received in the field.

Emilie Marcus is executive strategy officer at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her responsibilities center on promoting alignment between medical and graduate student education, biomedical research, and clinical care for optimized health outcomes. Prior to joining the David Geffen School of Medicine, she had a long and distinguished career at Cell Press, where she held the position of editor-in-chief for 15 years and served as chief executive officer for seven. She received her PhD in biology from Yale University, where her research focused on the neurobiological mechanisms of learning and memory, and conducted postdoctoral research at The Salk and University of California, San Diego on the molecular pathways of early neural development.

Susan Magsamen is a learning and behavioral sciences expert with a focus on the arts and more than 40 years of experience bringing academic research into practice to maximize learning, health, and wellness through scalable initiatives. She is a founder and executive director of the International Arts and Mind Lab, Brain Science Institute (BSi), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is developing a consensus framework called Impact Thinking. She serves as the senior adviser to the BSi, which develops initiatives across the university and the world to solve complex issues by understanding how the brain works and applying this information in innovative ways. She also serves as senior adviser to the Science of Learning Institute. She has advised companies and organizations on strategic planning, business development, program evaluation, social impact, corporate social responsibility, communications, learning sciences, and content development. In addition, she is a mentor to start ups, founders, and social innovation businesses and serves on a number of nonprofit boards. She earned her MAS at Johns Hopkins University.

Fiona Randall is head of external innovation at Eisai AiM Institute, where she manages preclinical drug discovery partnerships with external groups and Eisai researchers. A British neuroscientist and electrophysiologist, she has worldwide drug discovery experience — including in the United Kingdom, Japan, China, and the United States. She trained in molecular biology in Edinburgh, going on to earn her PhD in neuroscience in Newcastle, United Kingdom, before doing a postdoctoral position in Okinawa, Japan. She moved to Shanghai to work in preclinical drug discovery for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), joining Eisai Electrophysiology Group in the United Kingdom in 2012 before moving her lab to the United States in 2014. Since then, she has worked on an array of global drug discovery projects and built an alliance management function at Eisai to facilitate collaboration. She is the United States leader on the Eisai Neurology Global Open Innovation Team and sits on the Eisai AiM Institute’s scientific and operational leadership team, which focuses on using human genetics to guide drug discovery for dementias.