New Voices in Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Cycle

Cohort 4 (2026-2028)
Cohort 3 (2024-2026)
Cohort 2 (2021-2023)
Cohort 1 (2018-2020)

Primary Sector

Academia
Government
Industry
Non-Profit

Primary Discipline

Agriculture and natural resources
Data and statistics
Education
Engineering
Environment and biology
Health and medicine
Information technology
Legislation and policy

Karma Sawyer

Division Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Washington, D.C.

Primary Sector: Government
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Clean Energy; Energy Efficient Building; Renewable Integration

Dr. Karma Sawyer is the Director of the Electricity Infrastructure and Buildings (EI&B) Division at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). She is responsible for vision and strategy to tackle the nation’s most important energy efficiency, clean energy, and electricity infrastructure challenges. The Division consists of 400+ staff in electrical, mechanical, and systems engineering, data and computer sciences, cybersecurity, policy and economics and provides innovative and actionable solutions to Department of Energy and Department of Defense clients. Prior to joining PNNL, Dr. Sawyer served as the Program Manager for Emerging Technologies in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Building Technologies Office. Under her leadership, the Program’s activities are projected to avoid an estimated 315 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions and cut building energy costs by some $94 billion through 2035. From 2010-2013, she served as Assistant Program Director and Fellow at the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), focusing on carbon capture and thermal storage technologies. Dr. Sawyer earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008 and a B.S. in Chemistry from Syracuse University in 2003. She was a named a AAAS and ARPA-E fellow in 2010 and Distinguished Gilbreth Speaker of the National Academy of Engineering in 2023. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and two children and is a proud and vocal advocate for disability rights.

Connect: LinkedIn

Katherine Y. Tossas

Assistant Professor, Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University
Midlothian, VA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Health/Medicine
Focus/Research Areas: Health Disparities, Access to Healthcare; Data and statistics; Health and Medicine; Research and Standards

Dr. Katherine Y. Tossas, Ph.D., M.S., is a cancer epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Departments of Epidemiology and Social and Behavioral Science at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Public Health. She is a full member of the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she serves as the founding Director of the Office of Catchment Area Data Analytics and Co–Associate Director of Global Oncology, and she holds an Affiliate Faculty appointment at the University of Puerto Rico Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Tossas's work is shaped by a commitment to understanding how biology, environment, and lived experience intersect to influence cancer risk and prevention. Her research integrates molecular epidemiology, microbiome science, and populationlevel data systems, with a focus on early disease processes in cervical and lung cancer. Her work has been supported by the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, the V Foundation, the Jeffress Trust, Pfizer, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

She has authored 37 peer-reviewed publications and one book chapter and secured over $3.5 million in funding as Principal Investigator, including multiple active federal and foundation awards. In parallel with her research, Dr. Tossas leads statewide data and research infrastructure initiatives and collaborates with health systems, tribal nations, and community organizations to strengthen cancer prevention, screening, and follow-up.

Through her COQUÍ Lab, Dr. Tossas mentors trainees across undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral levels, fostering interdisciplinary training that bridges translational science and public health impact.

Kiana Aran

Associate Professor, University of California San Diego
San Diego, CA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Digital Biology; Integration of Biology with Semiconductor industry for healthcare and Biotech applications; Developing Bioelectronic systems for healthy aging.

Prof. Kiana Aran is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering and Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. She is also a founder of multiple biotechnology companies with one successful exit. Prof. Aran received her B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the City University of New York and her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. She then continued her postdoctoral studies in bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a recipient of the National Institutes of Health postdoctoral training fellowship at the Buck Institute for Aging Research in 2015. Her contributions have earned numerous prestigious awards. Including the inaugural Sony and Nature Award for Top Women in Technology in 2025. In 2024, she was named a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors , Rutgers medal of excellence for distinguished Engineer and Distinguished Engineer of the Year by the San Diego Society of Engineers. Past accolades include the Nature Research Award (2021), the NSF CAREER Award, the Scientist’s Top 10 Innovation, and the Athena Pinnacle Award (2020). Her research was featured in Nature Biomedical Engineering’s Most Read Papers and Nature’s Behind the Paper Top 10 List (2019). She also received the CONNECT Most Innovative Product Award and San Diego Venture Group’s Coolest Companies Award (2019).

Lauren Stewart

Assistant Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus Areas: Civil and Environmental Engineering; Structural Engineering; Safety and Design Of Materials; Engagement with Veterans and Active-Duty Military

Dr. Lauren Stewart is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received the NDSEG Fellowship from the Army Research Office to support her Ph.D. in Structural Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where she also completed her M.S. and B.S. Dr. Stewart is Director of the Structural Engineering and Materials Laboratory at Georgia Tech, and her research employs innovative experimental strategies to investigate the behavior of structures subjected to extreme environments (e.g., blast, ballistics, earthquakes). These strategies are then further used to characterize materials, develop computational models, and create design strategies, thus improving the safety of infrastructure. Specifically, her research on explosive and shock effects has impacted various national security programs for agencies including Air Force Research Laboratory, US Army ERDC, and Office of Naval Research. Since joining Georgia Tech, she received the CEE Research Program Development Award, the Bill Schutz Junior Faculty Teaching Award, was named an Air Force Summer Faculty Fellow, and was named a 2017 Rising Star in Structural Engineering. In 2014, Dr. Stewart started the Tech Vets program, which engages U.S. veterans and active duty military into her research programs.

Leonard Pease

Senior Director, American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Richland, WA

Primary Sector: Non-Profit
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Hydrogen; Agriculture and natural resources; Data and statistics; Economy and workforce; Education; Engineering; Infrastructure and the built environment; Health and Medicine; Research and standards; Space, security and conflicts; Transportation

Dr. Leonard Pease, the Senior Director of Operations at the Center for Hydrogen Safety (CHS), is a distinguished engineer with a diverse career spanning entrepreneurial ventures, government, and academia. Highlights include inventing novel image contrast agents for the esophagus and advancing them to clinical trials, developing modular mesofluidic separators to accelerate particle removal from process streams at scale, growing an interdisciplinary research and development group from 50 to 70 professionals, leading multi-million-dollar programs for DOE, serving on a U.S. Delegation to the United Nations, and co-chairing symposia for the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM). Dr. Pease has over 100 publications and intellectual property filings and is a newly minted Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Dr. Pease received a Silver Metal from the U.S. Department of Commerce for work developing the first gold nanoparticle reference material, the William H. Corcoran Award from the American Society of Engineering Education, and numerous outstanding performance awards from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University in chemical and materials engineering and completed a National Research Council postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). After founding two biomedical companies and advancing to the associate rank as a university professor, Dr. Pease returned to PNNL where he took on progressively increasing responsibilities including senior engineer, project manager, and group leader, before joining CHS.

Leslie O'Leary

R&D Director, Dow
Houston, TX

Primary Sector: Industry
Primary Discipline: Natural Sciences
Focus/Research Areas: Toxicology, Product Safety, Materials for Infrastructure (building, road, grid), Materials for Transportation, Materials for Consumer goods, Microplastics, Additive Safety;
Economy and workforce; Environment and biology; Engineering; Infrastructure and the built
environment; Research and standards

Leslie O'Leary is the R&D Director for Global Polyethylene Product, Catalyst, and Characterization R&D within Packaging and Specialty Plastics (P&SP) R&D at Dow, Inc. She is responsible for New Product R&D activities across the Polyethylene Envelope including catalyst discovery, materials characterization, and new product development supporting direct product sales and Univation Licensing. Leslie has held roles as Strategy Leader for PSP&H R&D, Senior Leader for Specialty Products, and technical contributor roles across multiple areas in Dow. As Strategy Leader, Leslie supported development and implementation of strategic organizational and technology initiatives. Leslie held leadership roles in HPC R&D from the time of integration of the technology from DuPont to Dow. Leslie developed the organization as the center for excellence in polar and reactive ethylene copolymer technology and led the team to develop Edison and R&D 100 award winning products. She solidified the integration through establishment of the new product innovation portfolio, cultivating global collaboration and expertise, driving knowledge transfer, and establishment of research capabilities. Leslie joined Dow in Core R&D in 2012. She developed a range of innovations including quantum dot, personal care, photovoltaic, polyolefin catalyst, and dispersion technologies. Leslie has been an active member of GLAD, Dow's LGBTQ+ resource group, since 2012. Leslie earned her B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, her PhD from Caltech. Leslie is a board member for the SPE Foundation. She was the recipient of the 2023 SWE Emerging Leader Award and 2022 R&D 100 award, among other awards.

Lisa Rotenstein

Associate Professor, University of California at San Francisco
San Francisco, CA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus/Research Areas: Primary Care; Mental Health; Gender Issues in Healthcare; Electronic Health Records; Workforce Wellbeing

Dr. Lisa Rotenstein is a primary care physician, researcher, and operational leader. She is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Medical Director of Ambulatory Quality and Safety, and Primary Care Physician at the University of California, San Fransisco, Health. She additionally serves as the Director of the Physicians Foundation Center for Physician Experience and Practice Excellence. In her current roles, she oversees ambulatory quality and safety for the UCSF Health System and leads research aimed at finding actionable solutions to enhance the physician experience. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of Population Health at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where she oversaw ambulatory quality and integrated behavioral health for BWH's 150,000 patients across sixteen practices. Dr. Rotenstein's research focuses on enhancing outpatient care delivery, the clinician experience, and the intersection of the electronic health record with these issues. Her research and writing have been published in JAMA, JAMA Internal Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Harvard Business Review, and more. She has presented her work to the National Academy of Medicine, Department of Health and Human Services leadership, and at Grand Rounds presentations across the United States. Dr. Rotenstein was named a 2021 STAT Wunderkind, a 2022 Modern Healthcare Top 25 Emerging Leader, and the 2022 Society of General Internal Medicine New England Region Investigator of the Year. She is a graduate of Harvard Medical School, Harvard Business School, and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Connect: LinkedIn

Louis Tse

Spacecraft Engineer, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Environment and biology; Space,
security and conflicts

Louis Tse is currently a Spacecraft Engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. He has served as Lead Thermal Engineer for Earth Science missions as well as lunar lander missions. Prior to JPL, he conducted research in concentrating solar power and thermal storage at UCLA, and advanced supercritical CO2 power cycles at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from UCLA, and his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University. He is the Executive Director of the Student Movement of Justice and Opportunity (Student MOJO), which provides food, housing, and community to college students experiencing homelessness.

Mahdieh Aghazadeh

Principal Process Engineer, Johnson and Johnson
Philadelphia, PA

Primary Sector: Industry
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing, Drug Substance Process Engineering, Sustainability Engineering, Workforce DE&I, Drug Biologics and Medical Device Supply Chain

Mahdieh Aghazadeh was born and raised in Qazvin, Iran and moved to the nation's capital to receive her first degree in chemical engineering from Sharif University of Technology. Multiple socio-economic issues encouraged Mahdieh to pursue graduate degrees (Chemical Engineering master's at University of Maine in 2011 and Biological Engineering PhD from Purdue University in 2016) in the USA; during which she has been involved in SWE, NASBE, and SHPE. Immediately after graduation she entered the private sector as a scientist at Johnson and Johnson's orthopaedic company R&D department. Since then, she has taken multiple roles within JnJ. She has worked with compliance and quality teams to enhance customers' experience with drug delivery devices and most recently joined Janssen Supply Chain team as a principal process engineer. Working at a heavily regulated industry, in addition to her graduate school research in biofuel production, clarified the importance of global scale collaboration. Mahdieh has initiated many technical collaborations within different sectors of JnJ as well as external innovators and academia. Advocating for multi-functional collaborations and partnerships for sustainability in biopharmaceutical production, new technology development, data collection and analysis, customer experience improvements, community outreach and education, and eventually promoting workplace inclusion and equity have become the primary goals of her career.

Connect: LinkedIn

Mariel Lavieri

Associate Professor, University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Applications of Operations Research to Healthcare Medical Decision Making: Disease Modeling; Treatment Decisions; Outcomes Measurement; Screening and Monitoring Rules; Chronic Disease Management Policy and Operations: Health Workforce Planning; Patient Flow Modeling; Capacity Planning; Global Health; Resource Allocation; Hospital Readmissions; Organ Allocation Methodology: Dynamic Programming; Reinforcement Learning; Stochastic Control; Partially Observable State Space Models; Applied Statistics; Data Analytics; Bayesian Updating; Optimization; Simulation

Mariel Lavieri is a Professor and the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan. She has a Bachelor's Degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering and Statistics, and a minor in String Bass Performance from the University of Florida. She holds a Master’s Degree and Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. In her work, she applies operations research methods to medicine and human health. Among others, Dr. Lavieri has created dynamic programming, stochastic control, and continuous, partially observable state space models to guide screening, monitoring, and treatment decisions of chronic disease patients. She has designed models for health workforce and capacity planning. Dr. Lavieri is the recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the MICHR Distinguished Mentor Award, the Pierskalla Best Paper Award, and the Sanjay and Panna Mehrotra Research Excellence Award. She has guided work that won the Medical Decision-Making Lee Lusted Award, the INFORMS Doing Good with Good OR Award, and the Production and Operations Management Society College of Healthcare Operations Management Best Paper Award. Dr. Lavieri currently serves as the Health Care Department Editor at IISE Transactions and as the Past-President of the Health Applications Society at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences.

Mary Lolis Garcia-Cazarin

Deputy Director of Extramural Research, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, National Institutes of Health
Rockville, MD

Primary Sector: Government
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus Areas: Disease Prevention, Tobacco, Nutrition, Public Health, Mentoring in Medicine

Dr. Mary L. Garcia-Cazarin is the Deputy Director of Extramural Research at NIAMS, a role that she has held since June 2023. As the Deputy Director, she participates in the management, planning, coordination, and communication of scientific programs. This includes participation in program development; implementation and identification of emerging opportunities and challenges in areas of the NIAMS mission; oversight of the program analyst team; representing NIAMS at NIH-wide meetings; and coordinating with other NIAMS senior leadership team members. Dr. Garcia-Cazarin has extensive experience working across and within Federal agencies and has led initiatives to stimulate and implement research and programs related to disease prevention, regulatory science, and public health. Dr. Garcia-Cazarin has committed her career to public service and is passionate about training and mentoring. She first joined NIH in 2012 as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Fellow in the Office of Dietary Supplements. In 2014, Dr. Garcia-Cazarin joined the NIH Office of Disease Prevention as a Scientific Advisor, where she supported the NIH and FDA partnership and helped develop national scientific programming related to tobacco regulatory science and disease prevention. Outside of work, Dr. Garcia-Cazarin volunteers her time and expertise to advocate and mentor in outreach programs working to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in science-related fields. In recognition of these efforts, she won the NIH’s prestigious 2020 Ruth L. Kirschstein Mentoring Award. She has also volunteered for in the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) since 2008, and served as an elected board member from 2015-2017. Dr. Garcia-Cazarin holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico; a master’s degree in Biology from James Madison University; and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Kentucky.

Maryam Zaringhalam

Senior Director of Policy, Center for Open Science
Washington, D.C.

Primary Sector: Non-Profit
Primary Discipline: Policy
Focus/Research Areas: Research Assessment Reform; Data and statistics; Legislation and policy; Research and standards

Dr. Maryam Zaringhalam is a DC-based biologist who now works in science policy, advocacy, and communication. She currently works as the Senior Director of Policy for the Center for Open Science. In that position, she leads COS's policy efforts to increase openness, integrity, and reproducibility of research. These activities are anchored in a commitment to democratizing access to science, engaging and including diverse communities in the research process, and translating the products of research into outcomes that benefit the whole of society. She is also a Senior Producer for The Story Collider, bringing true, personal stories about science to live audiences in the D.C. area and teaching scientists how to leverage the tools of narrative storytelling to communicate their work. Prior to joining the Center for Open Science, Maryam served as the Data Science and Open Science Officer at the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 2022 to 2024, she also served as the Assistant Director for Public Access and Research Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Maryam received her PhD in Molecular Biology from the Rockefeller University and earned her BA in Biology at New York University. Following her PhD, she joined NIH as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow.

Matteo Muratori

Sector Director, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Arvada, CO

Primary Sector: Government
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus/Research Areas: Energy Transition; Integrated Assessment; Sustainable Mobility; Electric Vehicles; Smart Grid; Environment and biology; Engineering; Research and standards

Dr. Matteo Muratori is an internationally recognized subject matter expert and thought leader in energy systems and sustainable mobility, known for his focus on interdisciplinary synergies and cross-sectoral integration. He is the Director of Transportation & Industry programs at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), stewarding a research portfolio of more than $80 million in annual activity. Before PNNL, Matteo spent a decade at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) where he was a distinguished member of the research staff and the founding manager of the Transportation Energy Transition Analysis group. He also served as the Chief Analyst for Sustainable Transportation and Fuels at the U.S. Department of Energy, where he spearheaded the development of the "U.S. National Blueprint for Transportation Decarbonization". Dr. Muratori grew up in Italy and is a first-generation American. Dr. Muratori has authored or co-authored over 120 technical publications cited over 13,000 times (h-index: 52). He contributed to the IPCC 6th Assessment Report, and the National Climate Assessment (NCA). He received several awards and recognitions, including the 2024 Secretary of Energy award. The first in his family to attend college, Matteo holds B.S. and M.S. summa cum laude degrees in energy engineering from Politecnico di Milano (ranked top University in Italy) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering, along with a minor degree in statistics, from The Ohio State University.

Meghan Brooks Lane-Fall

David E. Longnecker Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care
Philadelphia, PA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus Areas: Implementation Science & Environmental Health, Change Management and Systems Engineering in Healthcare, Clinical Medicine (especially acute care medicine), Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in the Scientific Workforce, Social Science Research Methodology

Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, FCCM, serves as E. M. Papper Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and is the Anesthesiologist-in-Chief at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. An accomplished anesthesiologist and intensive care physician, Dr. Lane-Fall completed advanced training in health services research and implementation science and brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work. Her research lab is at the forefront of applying implementation science and systems engineering to enhance patient safety and communication in perioperative and critical care environments. Dr. Lane-Fall co-leads an NIH-funded national implementation science hub dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes and she collaborates internationally on a range of implementation research initiatives. A passionate mentor, Dr. Lane-Fall has guided more than 90 mentees across all levels of training, from undergraduate students to faculty, fostering the next generation of clinicians and scientists. Her commitment to advancing the field extends to her service on the Boards of Directors for both the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research. Dr. Lane-Fall’s leadership, research, and mentorship have made her a prominent figure in academic medicine, dedicated to driving innovation, improving patient care, and supporting the professional growth of her colleagues and trainees.

Connect: LinkedIn

Meghana Gadgil

Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor, UC Berkeley (UCB) School of Public Health
San Francisco, CA

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus Areas: Medicine, Public Health, Health Systems, Climate Change, Gender Equity in Medicine

Dr. Meghana Gadgil is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and Adjunct Faculty in Public Health at Berkeley (UCB). She is also the Director of Innovation at The Better Lab, a human-centered design research and practice venture at UCSF. Dr. Gadgil received her dual undergraduate degrees and master's in public health (MPH) from UC Berkeley. She completed her medical degree (MD) at the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo and trained in Internal Medicine at Stanford in the Global Health Track. Prior to joining the University of California, Dr. Gadgil spent five years on the faculty at Dell Medical School at UT Austin. Dr. Gadgil’s research interests include health system resilience to climate change, health system decarbonization, the intersection of diet, chronic disease, food systems, and environmental health, and innovative applications of human-centered design to understand and address complex, interdisciplinary, system challenges. Dr. Gadgil is a practicing internist with a focus on vulnerable populations, medical education, and capacity building in low-resource health care and public health settings. Dr. Gadgil has been recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship to Bangladesh and has twice been a Johnson & Johnson Global Health Scholar for work in Uganda and Borneo. At UT Austin, she was awarded the President’s Award for Global Learning for work in Mexico and won the Dell Medical School Teaching Excellence Award. Dr. Gadgil is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the Society of Hospital Medicine. She is current Fellow in Healthcare Decarbonization with the University of California Center for Climate Health Equity.

Connect: LinkedIn

Melanie Napier

Public Health Epidemiologist, North Carolina Division of Public Health
Raleigh, NC

Primary Sector: Government
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus/Research Areas: Public health; Epidemiology of Environmental Contaminants; Water quality; Children's Health; Lead Poisoning Prevention; Social Determinants of Health; Climate Change

For more than a decade, Dr. Melanie Napier's background as an epidemiologist in research and government settings has included a focus on environmental epidemiology and children's health. In her current role as an epidemiologist for the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (CLPPP) at the North Carolina Division of Public Health, Melanie manages a cross-functional project team; implements strategies to improve data quality in the statewide lead surveillance system; and provides case management assistance, large group trainings and technical support for clinicians and environmental health professionals using the system. During her tenure, she has worked to strengthen the sustainability of the CLPPP in its growth from a single multi-year, $2.7 million federal grant to three multi-year initiatives totaling nearly $158 million. Melanie's skills in grant-writing, drafting legislative rules, and contract administration were pivotal in securing the $150 million American Rescue Plan Act-funded Lead and Asbestos Remediation in School and Child Care Facilities project and the $4.2 million EPA-funded Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program. Her professional efforts have contributed to several publications and awards, including the Mutual of America Community Partnership Award and Harvard Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, in recognition of the partnership to develop the Clean Water for Carolina Kids program which used community scientists to test for lead in water at almost all child care centers during the pandemic. Melanie earned her Master of Science in Public Health and Doctorate in Epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Connect: LinkedIn

Michael Martin

Staff Scientist, The National Laboratory of the Rockies
Golden, CO

Primary Sector: Government
Primary Discipline: Engineering
Focus Areas: Climate and Energy, Human Rights, Engineering Education, Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer Research, Sustainability

Michael James Martin is a scientist at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), where his research includes simulation of new energy technologies operating at extreme temperatures and pressures, and understanding the physics of new technologies ranging from quantum data centers to energy-efficient manufacturing. His participation in New Voices includes projects in STEM education, where he led an assessment of challenges in engineering education linked to climate change, and work in science and human rights with the National Academies’ Human Rights Committee. Dr. Martin leads NLR activities in applying high-performance computing to advanced manufacturing and leads NLR’s engagement with multiple graduate fellowship programs. Prior to joining NREL, Dr. Martin held scientific positions at the Naval Research Laboratory, Louisiana State University, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; as well as science policy fellowships at the Department of Energy, the United States Senate, and the National Academies. Dr. Martin previously served as a volunteer advisor at the Institute for International Education's Scholar Rescue Fund (SRF), where he wrote the first journal paper on the challenges facing displaced scientists. He is also a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Energy Policy Committee. Dr. Martin is a Fellow of the ASME and an Associate Fellow of the AIAA. Dr. Martin received a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, an MA in Asian Studies, and an MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Dr. Martin also holds an MS in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Connect: LinkedIn

Michelle Birkett

Associate Professor at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Primary Sector: Academia
Primary Discipline: Health and Medicine
Focus Areas: Underserved and marginalized populations, Sexual and Gender Minorities, Health Disparities Research, Network and Social Data, Computational Social Scienc

Dr. Michelle Birkett is a tenured Associate Professor in the Departments of Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University and the Director of the COMPASS Center of Computational and Social Sciences in Health within the Institute for AI in Medicine. Dr. Birkett has extensive expertise in the use of network and quantitative methodologies to understand the social contextual influence of stigma on the health of marginalized populations. Her research is grounded in a multilevel perspective of health that considers direct and indirect social, relational, and environmental influences. This multilevel approach underlies her interest in network data and her commitment to conducting research that advances social change to eliminate health disparities. Dr. Birkett has led multiple NIH and federally funded projects, serving as Principal Investigator on studies totaling over $20 million and serving as Co- Investigator on 15 projects totaling over $37 million. Across this work, she and her team have captured rich data on the social systems and physical spaces inhabited by racial and sexual minorities and have utilized these data to understand how the social and sexual isolation of individuals at the intersection of racial and sexual minority identity drives infectious disease disparities. Additionally, Dr. Birkett has led the development, the design, and dissemination of the Network Canvas Software Suite, an open-source software that simplifies complex network data capture for social and behavioral health researchers.

Connect: LinkedIn

New Voices members appointed to Workshop Committee for Rethinking Researcher Assessment

Mitul Luhar (Cohort 2024-26), Emily Pentzer (Cohort 2024-26), and Eri Saikawa (Cohort 2024-26) were appointed to serve on the workshop committee for Rethinking Researcher Assessment and Incentives at U.S. Academic Institutions, a joint project between the Strategic Council for Research Excellence and New Voices. The committee will explore new approaches to expand the criteria for which researchers are assessed at U.S. academic institutions beyond traditional outputs such as grants, publications, and citation counts. The workshop will bring together professors, researchers, and administrators to explore effective strategies for implementing these changes at universities across the U.S. New Voices member Mitul Luhar will serve as the co-chair for the committee. Visit the Workshop page.

New Voices members work with Hollywood screenwriters at Science and Entertainment Exchange Retreat

New Voices members Enrico Castillo (Cohort 2021-23) and Kiana Aran (Cohort 2024-26) participated in the 2025 Writers Retreat with the Science and Entertainment Exchange. The Science and Entertainment Exchange, a program of the National Academy of Sciences, connects the entertainment industry with experts in science, technology, and medicine in order to enhance the portrayal of science and scientists in film, television, and new media, and to make science more accessible and inspiring for all audiences.

New Voices members attend National Academy of Sciences 162nd Annual Meeting

On April 26, 2025, Monica Dus (Cohort 2024-26), Rachel Gallery (Cohort 2024-26), Mitul Luhar (Cohort 2024-26), Melanie Napier (Cohort 2024-26) and Emily Pentzer (Cohort 2024-26) attended the NAS Annual Meeting. The meeting was a gathering of NAS members, with an opening address by President Marcia McNutt and subsequent technical panel discussions. New Voices members met with National Academies leadership and members, and highlighted current and future activities.

Visit the event page.

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