2017-01-10

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Scholars Program) is pleased to announce the recent accomplishments of one of its students.

Dr. Sabena Conley, is the first McNair Scholar from Fayetteville State University to earn her Ph.D. As a member of the inaugural McNair cohort Spring 2010, Dr. Conley began her pursuit of research under the mentorship of Dr. Shirley Chao. She has since completed her Ph.D. at Virginia Commonwealth University in the Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Portal Program, with her dissertation project focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms by which hyperhomocysteinemia produces podocyte injury and leads to glomerular sclerosis. This work has been submitted for publication in the Journal of Free Radicals in Biology and Medicine. During her studies, she was named a finalists in APS Renal Section Excellence in Renal Research. In addition, Dr. Conley earned her Master’s degree in Biology from North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University in June 2013. Her thesis defense was entitled “Role of Meprins in the Pathogenesis of Diabetic Nephropathy”.

At the present, Dr. Conley is looking forward to starting a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN under the Kidney Disease Research Training Program.

The McNair Scholars Program staff is incredibly proud of Dr. Conley, and wishes her continued success in her academic endeavors.

The Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program (McNair Scholars Program) is named in honor of Dr. Ronald E. McNair, the second African-American to fly in space and one of the seven-person crew who died on the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986. It is one of the TRiO programs federally-funded by the U.S. Department of Education to provide a comprehensive Ph.D. preparatory program for first-generation, low-income, and/or underrepresented minority college students to pursue graduate studies.

For more information, please contact McNair Program Coordinator, Erika Bradford, at ebradfor@uncfsu.edu or (910) 672-2043.

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