Let me introduce myself.  My name is Omar Quintero-Carmona and in addition to being an Associate Professor in the Biology Department at University of Richmond, a UNC-SPIRE alumnus, and an active member of the American Society for Cell Biology Community, I’ve now taken on a role as the Senior Education Advisor for the Allen Institute.  The Institute was founded in 2003 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.  “Today, the Allen Institute’s multidisciplinary approach at tackling large-scale, foundational research serves as the bedrock for scientific discovery and continues to advance the frontiers of bioscience.”  Across its multiple divisions, the Institute supports ground-breaking work at the interface of computation and biology.

They are also exploring ways to contribute to biology education and this is where I’m involved.  We’ve developed a curriculum development collaboratory model where undergraduate educators spend time with Allen Institute scientists to build learning modules based in Allen Institute data and tools.  The goal is to develop resources that help the faculty to meet their students’ needs, and can be shared with other educators as well.  An equally important goal is to help faculty with similar pedagogical goals focused on inclusion find community beyond their home institutions.

Teachstravaganza 2025 will be this August in Seattle, and the application portal is now open.

https://alleninstitute.org/events/Teachstravaganza-2025/

Undergraduate-facing faculty with an established track record of curricular development & in-classroom experience at institutions with demonstrated commitment to inclusion would be strong candidates.  Additionally, faculty with some expertise at the biology/computation interface would be strong candidates as well.  Last year’s cohort was mostly post-tenure faculty, but there were some pretenure faculty included.

I’m happy to answer questions about it, and we will have a poster at the 2024 American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting in San Diego.

https://plan.core-apps.com/ascbembo2024/abstract/cc5a9acf-179f-44a8-aba2-19982aaf09e1

Could you please share this among your networks?

Thanks,

Omar

Omar A. Quintero-Carmona, Ph.D.

Senior Education Advisor

alleninstitute.org