Athenia Jones Wins Mackey Fellowship

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the inaugural Mackey Fellowship is Athenia Jones.  Athenia is a second year PhD student in the Whittington Lab and the Outreach Chair for the BMES Graduate Chapter Executive Board. In addition to her K-12 outreach (converted online during the pandemic) to underrepresented students in STEM in Worcester Public Schools, she is a mentor for high school girls through WRAMP (Women’s Research Mentoring Program) and inaugural teaching assistant for the VIBE (Virtual Internship in Biomedical Engineering) program this summer.  In addition to her commitment to inclusive excellence, she has exhibited strong academic achievement in her graduate studies at WPI, and is a co-author on a 2020 publication in Tissue Engineering Part A resulting from her undergraduate research developing a tubular perfusion system for liver tissue engineering at the University of Maryland.  Congratulations, Athenia!

The Mackey Fellowship ($10,000), provides 3 months of summer stipend at $3,000 per month, and a $1,000 professional development fund to support society memberships, conference travel, or lab supplies to support her dissertation project.  In recognition of their dedication to inclusive excellence in their field, Mackey Fellows participate as full members of the Biomedical Engineering DEI Committee.

We would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to the Mackey family for their generous donation and support, which makes this fellowship possible!