February Women in STEM Panel

Feb. 28, 2019

Our February Women in STEM Panel featured 7 successful women at various stages of their STEM careers. They reflected on this month's topic--Being Empowered and Asking for Help--reminding attendees of the importance of being willing to seek out resources and ask for help when challenges arise.  Special thanks to the women below for sharing their time, energy, and knowledge with us!  

Panelist Bios

Genesis D. Arizmendi is a certified and licensed speech-language pathologist who specializes with pediatric populations from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. Her research aims to understand the nature of cognitive and linguistic development in typical and atypical English Language Learners and bilingual children, and how to best serve them in clinical, academic, and social settings.

Karen L. Herbst, PhD, MD is a board-certified endocrinologist, Associate Professor and Director of the Treatment, Research, Education of Adipose Tissue (TREAT) program in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona and Banner University Medical Center, Tucson, funded by the Lipedema Foundation.  She completed her PhD work first then after a postdoctoral fellowship, went on to get her MD and medical training.  Dr.Herbst has been working in the area of fat disorders since 2003, and currently has a clinic dedicated to patients with these disorders.  In her clinic she is training future pharmacy students and residents, medical residents and endocrinology fellows to recognize and treat fat disorders.  She is a founding and current member of the not-for-profit Fat Disorders Resource Society which is dedicated to education, awareness and promotion of research for fat disorders.

Kirsten Limesand, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Arizona.  Her research explores the secondary side effects of radiation therapy in order to prevent them and improve patients’ quality of life.  In addition to Nutritional Sciences, she is involved in the graduate programs in Physiological Science and Cancer Biology.  

Catherine Merrill is the Program Manager for Community Science and Data Center at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Before holding this position, she worked on the Giant Magellan Telescope project at the University of Arizona and on the National Missile Defense Program at Raytheon.  She holds an MS in Optical Science from the UA and an undergraduate degree in Physics from Northern Arizona University.  Cat is also a member of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona and on the Women United Global Leadership Council. 

Stefanie Novak is a postdoctoral scholar in the UA Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.  As a native Tucsonan and graduate from the U of A, I started out my career as a scientific researcher in the department of Nutritional Science. However, after losing my mentor Dr. Goll to a heart attack in 2008 I decided to further my education by earning my PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine in order to pursue a career in heart disease research. Heart failure is the number one cause of death in the US and is increasingly becoming the main cause of death in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). My current research will increase the understanding of the function of a member of the RNA-binding Fragile X family of proteins, FXR1, in cardiac function and may help to identify therapeutic approaches for heart conditions in DMD through altering FXR1's function.

Juliann Puleo received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado in 2012 and her PhD in Cellular and Molecular Medicine from the University of Arizona in 2019. She currently studies the directed migration of cancer cells and will be focusing on tumor heterogeneity during her postdoctoral tenure at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.    

Teresa Sosa is currently a Student Support Specialist, with the Arizona Science, Engineering, and Math Scholars Program and holds a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Teresa came to public heath after many years as a social justice activist in reproductive/sexual health, HIV/AIDS, and Latino sociopolitical issues. In her role with ASEMS, she works with first generation college students, transfer students, and students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields who are enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to support their persistence and success.