Our Teachers

Our METEOR Teaching Fellows (MTF) are embedded in one of our biomedical research laboratories or clinical research team for a 6 week summer mentorship program. In addition to the research experience our teachers participate in four advanced STEM teaching certificate courses at The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development. Learn a little more about our past teachers below

Sherry Richardson, NAF Academy -Biotechnology at, McKinley Technology High School(Cohort One)

Sherry worked with Dr. Catherine Limperopoulos in the Developing Brain Research Laboratory, where she looked at stress levels in pregnant women and its effects on their unborn children. Her research project related to fetal development and maternal stress as measured by cortisol levels. She developed lessons that centered on the connections between stress and cortisol production, and the physiological aspects of stress and its broad impact on human diseases

Marissa Lehmann, Science Teacher at, McKinley Technology High School(Cohort One)

Marissa worked with Dr. Joseph Scafidi, a neurologist and neuroscientist, on mouse models of prematurity and biomarkers as well as attended clinical rotations. Her work included the importance of chemistry and chemical profiling in disease diagnostics. She developed lessons that centered on the role of spectrophotometry in medicine and the importance of measurement unit conversions within the context of chemistry and medicine. Additionally, Marissa developed an additional series of lessons that centered on the important role of nuclear chemistry in society (with an emphasis on medical applications).

Geneva Jost (Cohort Two)

Geneva spend her time with Dr. Lauren Kenworthy and her team in the Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders studying how autistic boys differ from autistic girls. She got to work with the multidisciplinary Kenworthy team including MRI technologists and psychology staff who perform neuroimaging tests and neurocognitive testing,
respectively. She spent one full day in the burn clinic to trace and experience a day in the life of clinical psychologists. A large portion of her time was spent observing the many different neurocognitive tests that contribute to the diagnosis of ASD.

Kiana Bennett(Cohort Two)

Kiana shared her personal connection with why she chose the topic of sickle cell disease (SCD) and hemoglobin disorders. She was able to spend a week at NIH where she observed adult in and outpatient care including SCD patients post-transplant. Ms. Bennett spent time learning about gene therapy and clinical trial design. At Children’s, Ms. Bennett observed SCD infant clinic, transition clinic, did in patient rounds and spent a week in laboratory medicine and the blood bank where she observed and performed blood counts, hemoglobin electrophoresis,
attended a blood drive on the blood mobile and followed the process of what happens once a blood unit is drawn with emphasis on molecular blood typing specifically for SCD