News & Events

Subscribe to the Quarterly Alumni Newsletter by emailing [email protected].

We are pleased to share the speaker list and agenda for the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership Symposium. The symposium will be held from February 26-28 in Tucson, AZ, and is co-hosted by the Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network (SSMN), the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), the Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP), and The University of Arizona Graduate College

Greetings, Sloan Scholar alumni!If you’re a recent graduate receiving the SSMN newsletter for the first time, welcome! We’re thrilled to have you in the community.This month, in addition to launching the 2026 competition year for SSMN Grants and Awards, we're offering a new training opportunity for early-career faculty: the Academic Leadership Management Institute (ALMI), presented in special sess

From Engineering to Public Service: A Conversation with Victor Udoewa When you ask Victor Udoewa how he describes his work, his answer is simple: he designs better experiences for the public. As a Principal Service Designer and Chief Experience Officer, he focuses on improving both how people interact with government services and how federal employees deliver them. “We design on both sides,” he ex

Session 1, 8:25-8:55 a.m.Ashley FloresCoffee Chats to Career Moves: Networking Your Way Into IndustryProduct Coordinator, Global MedPhD in Nutrional Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, 2025Krys WilliamsUse of Collaboration in Materials Science Research to Enhance STEM MentoringMaterials Engineer, US Naval Research LaboratoryPhD in Bioengineering, Pennsylvania State University, 2014Troi Willia

SSMN Quarterly Newsletter | August 2025Congratulations, 2025 SSMN Grant Winners!Greetings, Sloan Scholar alumni community! In this quarter’s newsletter:🔭 Announcing the 2025 SSMN Grantees!🔎 Engineering Pain Relief without Opioids: A Guest Post by Brittany Givens-Rassoolkhani📆 On the Horizon: When to watch for SSMN Grants, Awards, and the 2026 Boot Camp💵 Funding and Professional Development Opp

By Brittany E. Givens Rassoolkhani (Brittany Givens) PhD in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Iowa, 20192024 SSMN Research Seed Grant RecipientImagine a world where relief for severe pain doesn’t require opioid prescriptions. Why is this important? Because, in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported over 105,000 opioid-related deaths in the United Stat

Many of you across the Sloan Scholar community have experienced dramatic funding cuts and institutional changes this year. You’ve met this challenge with creativity and resilience, seeking out new resources and imagining new directions for your work.   At the SSMN, your resourcefulness was evident during our 2025 grant application period, when the number of grant proposals we received was more tha

The Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 SSMN Awards: Karen Lozano, PhD; Jessika Ava, MS, MPA; Malika Grayson, PhD; Daniela Jones, PhD; and Maria Isaza, PhD. With the generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, these awards recognize the dedication, impact, and accomplishments of exemplary Sloan Legacy, UCEM, and SIGP alumni. Join us in congr

Dr. Corasi Ortiz is an assistant professor of Chemistry at Grinnell College. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Purdue University as a Sloan Scholar.In 2023, Dr. Ortiz received an SSMN Seed Grant to support her research on synthesizing and characterizing nanozymes for biosensing and diagnostic applications. Her grant has created invaluable opportunities for her students to engage in hands-on r

SSMN Quarterly Newsletter | December 2024In this quarter’s newsletter:Announcing 2025 SSMN Grants & Awards opportunities! 🏆Upcoming EventsSSMN Grantee Spotlights: Dr. Moses Leavens & Dr. Diana Sanchez Rivera 🔎Career OpportunitiesSSMN’s Year in Focus: A Look Back at 2024 ⏮️Sloan Scholar Highlights 🌟Announcing the 2025 SSMN Grants & Awards Opportunities!The SSMN is pleased to open the application

Dr. Moses Leavens is an assistant professor at the McLaughlin Research Institute in Great Falls, MT. He attended the University of Montana, where he earned his M.S. and PhD in biochemistry as a Sloan Indigenous Scholar. In 2023, Dr. Leavens was awarded an SSMN Seed Grant to support his research with the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) protein. Since receiving his grant, he has published research in

Dr. Diana Sanchez Rivera is a Teaching Professional at the University of Puerto Rico Ponce. She attended the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, where she earned her PhD in applied chemistry as a Sloan Scholar.In 2023, Dr. Sanchez Rivera was awarded an SSMN Seed Grant to support her research on the use of Alg-Chi-S beads to extract two emerging contaminants from water: naproxen and oxybenzone. Th

SSMN Quarterly Newsletter | August 2024Congratulations, 2024 SSMN Grant Winners! In this quarter’s newsletter:Upcoming Workshops — Register Today!Announcing the 2024 SSMN GranteesScholar Spotlight with Dr. Kamuela YongCareer Opportunities: Cornell, Lowell Observatory, NSF Impacts, & moreNew Resources in DEI and Higher EducationScholar Highlights This summer, the SSMN has been hard at work on proje

Dr. Kamuela Yong (Kānaka Maoli/Native Hawaiian) is an associate professor of mathematics at the University of Hawai’i–West O’ahu, a co-founder of Indigenous Mathematicians, and a champion of mentoring and faculty diversity. He is the first Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) to earn a PhD in applied mathematics, and he's been awarded the 2019 Frances Davis Award, the 2020 University of Hawaiʻi Regents

Announcing the 2024 SSMN GranteesThe Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network, with generous support from the Sloan Foundation and the Social Science Research Council, is proud to announce the 2024 SSMN Grantees. All grantees are Sloan Scholar alumni whose awards will advance their research, mentorship activities, or travel to present at premiere convenings in their field. Since 2018, the SSMN grants prog

SSMN Quarterly NewsletterJune 2024Congratulations, 2024 SSMN Awardees!In this newsletter, we're thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2024 SSMN Awards: six Sloan alumni demonstrating excellence in research, mentoring, and service. Read on to learn more about this year's exemplary Awardees.Both the Grants and Awards programs this year received an impressive pool of applications from scholar-al

Dr. Candice Guy-Gaytán (Delaware Tribe of Indians) brings nearly two decades of experience in education to her work as a curriculum developer and research scientist with BSCS Science Learning, a non-profit established in 1959 with a longstanding focus on science curriculum development for K-12 students. Candice’s research interests are in the design and implementation of culturally relevant curric