Individual Mentoring Minority Junior High School Students in Science and Technology

GOLDIE S. BYRD North Carolina A&T State University

Dr. Goldie Byrd received her Ph.D. at Meharry Medical College in Microbial Genetics. After completion of a sabbatical at the Duke University Center for Human Genetics, she initiated a collaboration to study the genetics of Alzheimer Disease in African Americans. In 2003, Dr. Byrd joined the faculty at North Carolina A&T State University (NCA&T) where she now serves as Chair of the Department of Biology. She recently won a multi-million dollar grant from the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities that is designed to build genetics research capacity at NCA&T. Over her career, Dr. Byrd has been instrumental in developing innovative curricula, conducting research, and mentoring research students on the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels. She has traveled internationally on fact finding missions to assist with global collaborations in teaching and research. Dr. Byrd's passion for teaching was recognized when she received the University of North Carolina Board of Governors award for Teaching Excellence in 2001.

Dr. Byrd has provided two decades of outstanding science mentoring efforts and programs that continue to provide her with opportunities for mentoring minority students, using a pipeline approach. Dr. Byrd not only mentored in one-on-one situations, but she has also established mentoring programs and networks in ways that continue to encourage significant collaborations and partnerships with faculty colleagues throughout the University of North Carolina system and across the nation. She has a stellar track record of conceptualizing, developing and winning support for mentoring activities from the high school level, to the undergraduate level, to the Masters and Postdoctoral levels. Dr. Byrd's efforts have been productive and far-reaching, as she also mentored minority and non-minority teachers and college faculty members who mentor minority students in the sciences. She has touched the lives of hundreds or even thousands of individuals in the sciences. In addition, she has provided support for infrastructural changes, at the facilities, curriculum and technology levels in efforts to provide students with the necessary exposure to compete in mainstream scientific communities. Dr. Byrd has an outstanding track record of advancing minority students toward Ph.D. programs and health care programs and subsequent careers in the biological and biomedical sciences.