Meet the Scientists
Each year, we are extremely fortunate to have many successful women as mentors! Our scientists have backgrounds ranging across a wide variety of fields, and they all know what it's like to be a woman working in STEM. They are eager to share their stories, experiences, and knowledge with all the students attending Snacks with Scientists.
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Jessica Brescher - Epidemiologist
Jessica did her undergraduate degree in microbiology and has a masters in public health with a focus in epidemiology. She worked as a medical writer for about 10 years for various pharmaceutical companies where she analyzed data from clinical trials and wrote reports to get drugs approved in dermatology, immunology, rheumatology, and oncology. For the last 4 years she has worked as a clinical scientist for a medical devices company where she designs clinical trials and does the data analysis. Sirena Hsieh - Orthodontist Dr. Sirena Hsieh (pronounced "shay”) grew up in Holmdel, New Jersey. She graduated from Princeton University and continued her education at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, earning her Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) with high honors. She then completed her post-graduate orthodontic specialty training at Harvard and Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Hsieh is currently faculty at Harvard, where she serves as both clinical professor and lecturer to the orthodontic residents in training. Dr. Hsieh was also working in private practice up in Boston. Patricia McCrink - Industrial Engineer / Operations Researcher Patricia McCrink is an engineer at AT&T with an over 30-year career that started at bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ. Her educational background is in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research with a Bachelors in Engineering from Rutgers University and a Masters in Engineering from Cornell University. She currently is involved in certification testing of network routers that carry user phone calls, texts, Snapchats, etc. from cell towers back to the AT&T core network and Internet. Meeta Dube - Business Development Meeta Pandey, Ph. D has a minor in business from Rutgers University and a Ph.D in Sociology. Her diverse experience ranges from being an adjunct faculty at Monmouth University, consulting for financial firms to building a business with a world-class team. She worked for fortune 500 companies such as Con Edison, Verizon, CSFB and leads with a consistent track record for facilitating Innovation and Growth. As VP Business Development at Datanomers (an AI company) she ensures the creation of long-term value for Datanomer’s customers, markets, and relationships and also facilitates and sets the strategy for Datanomers growth. Vanya Jain - Medicine Vanya Jain is currently a 2nd year medical student at the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She graduated from High Technology High School in 2015 and completed her undergraduate education at Rutgers University Newark in 2018, majoring in English and minoring in Biology. Mona Kripalani - Pharmacist Mona is a licensed Pharmacist in State of New Jersey, with a degree in Pharmacy and an MBA in Marketing. She practiced both in community pharmacy and hospital setting for over a decade. Currently employed in Managed Care, with a focus on State Managed Medicaid programs. Work together with the NY State Department of Health as a partner in administration of Pharmacy benefits to ensure availability of treatment options across all conditions balanced with fiscal responsibility. |
Lynn Nelson - Electrical Engineer
While growing up in Wisconsin, Lynn Nelson enjoyed math and science in high school. She went to Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, where she majored in electrical engineering and learned about fiber optics while doing a research with a professor. She then went on to earn her Masters degree and PhD in electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where her research project focused on lasers made from doped optical fibers. For the past 20 years she has worked in New Jersey in the telecommunications industry, for Lucent Technologies and AT&T. Anoop Ahluwalia - Mathematics Anoop came to US from India in 1997 with my family. She earned a Bachelor’s and Masters in Mathematics from University of Maryland at College Park. She later earned a Ph.D. in Math Education from Rutgers University. She taught Mathematics at Brookdale Community College for several years as a professor. In Fall of 2015, she assumed the role of STEM Dean at Brookdale. Anoop enjoys being a dean at Brookdale as we have phenomenal faculty and very active student clubs. Nathalie Darden - Civil Engineer / Mathematics Professor Darden earned her Bachelors of Science degree in Civil Engineering from Rutgers University and spent 13 years working in Site Planning and Land Development for private consulting firms. Her engineering design calculations made sure rain water minimized flooding in the roads and around building structures, and sanitary sewer pipes carried away toilet waste to a treatment facility. Professor Darden earned a Master’s of Science degree in Mathematics from Rutgers and is currently a full-time mathematics professor at Brookdale Community College. Professor Darden’s favorite college project was designing and building a concrete canoe, and then driving to Penn State University to race the canoe against other regional universities. Ana Teodorescu - Mathematics Ana Teodorescu is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Brookdale Community College. She teaches a variety of Mathematics classes ranging from Pre-Algebra, to Calculus III and Linear Algebra. She is co-adviser of the Brookdale Math Club and founder of the STEM Quiz Bowl. She was born in Romania and immigrated to the US at the age of 19. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Mathematics from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and a Master’s of Science Degree in Mathematics from Oklahoma State University. Gitanjali Kundu - Biology / Botany Gitanjali studies botany and cell & molecular biology. She received a Ph.D. for Immunology & Microbiology at Wayne State University, School of Medicine. Gitanjali is presently Assistant Professor at the Department of Biology and Brookdale Community College. She is also the Co-Coordinator of NASA STEM grant fellowship program at Brookdale. + Female HTHS Student Researchers! |
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