SPHERE Humanities Group

Dr. Alexandria (Alex) Yen the Program Director for Postdoctoral Career Advising & Professional Development at MIT. She provides 1-on-1 career advising and develops Postdoc-specific workshops, panels, and programs for the approximately 1,600 postdocs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before coming to MIT, she was Postdoctoral Associate at Boston University’s Professional Development and Postdoctoral Affairs office, where she conducted research and led programs focused on STEM DEI Professional Development and Postdoc professional development. In addition to being an enthusiastic member of the National Postdoctoral Association, she is also the co-chair of the Graduate Career Consortium‘s Communications Committee.

Dr. Elizabeth Eikmann is the Program Coordinator for Postdoctoral Community Engagement in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA). She joined the OPA after serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Study of St. Louis in the American Culture Studies Program at Washington University. As Program Coordinator, Dr. Eikmann facilitates community engagement and professional development opportunities for WashU postdocs, supports postdoc-led societies and initiatives, and oversees fellowship and award programs. Dr. Eikmann is a member of the Missouri Speakers Bureau and serves as Governing Board Secretary of the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) Alumni Association. She earned an undergraduate degree in English from UMSL and a Masters and Ph.D. in American Studies from Saint Louis University.

Ivonne VIDAL PIZARRO, Ph.D.

Dr. Ivonne Vidal Pizarro supports postdoctoral scholars at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville since November 2022. She earned her Associate of Art degree in English from Miami Dade Community College, now known as Miami Dade College. She earned both her Bachelor of Science degree in biology and her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Florida International University. She earned her Doctoral Degree in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Vidal Pizarro has previously supported the postdoctoral scholar community in the Biomedical Postdoctoral Program at the University of Pennsylvania, as both a postdoc intern and as a recruitment and diversity coordinator, and the National Postdoctoral Association, as a membership manager.

Kryste Ferguson, M.Ed. has enjoyed working with the postdoc population since 2003. Currently she is the manager of membership & special projects for the NPA. Her responsibilities include active engagement with the NPA membership, leader of the NPA institutional policy survey and report, and working with NPA partners on various projects. Previously, Ferguson worked at the University of Pennsylvania biomedical postdoctoral programs office as their academic coordinator for seven years. While there she tripled the number of career and professional development programs offered to Penn’s postdoc population.

She holds a master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania and a bachelor’s degree from Westminster College. When not helping postdocs she keeps busy with her family and enjoying the great outdoors in western New York state where they reside.

Anne-Charlotte Mecklenburg, Ph.D. is the Postdoctoral Associate for Academic Support in the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at the University of Maryland. Her work promotes postdocs’ and doctoral students’ professional development, fosters their sense of belonging, supports their academic writing, and cultivates their mentoring skills and opportunities. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Molly Lotz is the Director of Research Training Initiatives at SUNY Stony Brook University. In this role, she works to expand Stony Brook’s support for training grants and for the research training needs of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. 

Previously, Molly was founding director of the Center for Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE) at St. Francis College and, before that, Assistant Dean in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at St. John’s University. She holds a Ph.D. in English and a Master of Library and Information Science (M.L.I.S.) degree from St. John’s University and has taught undergraduate literature and writing courses at St. John’s University, St. Francis College, and SUNY Farmingdale State College.