In June 2020, the UNC Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (UNC-IMSD)** welcomed Dr. Debra Ragland as the new Assistant Director of the program. After earning a BS in Chemistry (NCA&T) and PhD in Structural Bioinformatics (UMass Medical Center), Dr. Ragland completed her postdoctoral training at the UNC SOM. She has returned to the UNC SOM from Clemson University where she served as faculty in the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry.
Shortly after her arrival, Dr. Ragland began to collaborate with current IMSD student Juanita Limas (Doctoral Candidate, Pharmacology) to design and implement programming especially targeted to support incoming graduate students during the excessively challenging strains of the COVID pandemic and international focus on injustices committed against Black bodies and other POC. With tremendous concern for the mental wellness and social integration of new students who would commence graduate school virtually, they recruited IMSD students to serve as peer mentors to incoming IMSD graduate students. The program was designed to pair peer mentor clusters of 2-4 graduate students with small groups of incoming first year graduate students based on similar research and/or personal interests. IMSD Mentors regularly engage with their mentees and attend at least one DEI-focused training, and the structure of the groups enables mentors to share the effort of engaging the first-year students. The program has been tremendously successful for supporting new students, as well as providing a new means for established IMSD students to remain engaged with IMSD and develop relationships with new members of the IMSD community. The Peer Mentor Advisory Board has been created to oversee the program, and this committee is co-led by graduate students Juanita Limas and David Aponte-Diaz (2nd year Graduate Student, Microbiology & Immunology). Additionally, the Peer Mentor News newsletter is distributed monthly to highlight upcoming IMSD activities and recognize the Peer Mentor(s) of the Month, a nominee(s) recognized by their first-year mentees for outstanding support and commitment to their mentees’ success.
The other members of the IMSD leadership team including Dr. Ashalla Freeman (Director), Dr. Jean Cook (Principal Investigator) and Co-PIs Dr. Rita Tamayo and Dr. Tom Kash are thrilled to welcome Dr. Ragland and excited about this and other innovations she has brought to UNC.
** UNC IMSD is an NIH-funded program that aims to increase the numbers of individuals from groups historically underrepresented (UR) in biomedical research that complete PhD degrees and continue to successful careers and leadership positions in the biomedical workforce.