Scholarships and Grants
The WIB Impact Scholarship
WIB is proud to present the Women In Bio Impact Scholarship! The scholarship was established to advance the educational development of women by encouraging and supporting education in all aspects of life science. These funds (up to $1,000 per recipient) can be applied towards workshops, conferences, courses, seminars, and other similar educational programs.
The scholarship honors WIB co-founders Cynthia W. Hu, Robbie Melton, Anne Mathias, and Elizabeth Grey, who all wanted to provide a forum for women to come together to celebrate and support each other’s successes and created a dynamic and invaluable forum for the local community.
Congratulations to our 2024 Winners!
2024 WIB Impact Scholarship Winners
Allison Irrera
WIB-RTP
Allison’s scholarship will fund ten sessions of personal development coaching through Why Not You? People Development.
Roberta Sala
WIB-San Francisco Bay Area
Roberta’s scholarship will fund her enrollment in the course Discover the Paths to Power at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Levy Te
WIB-Greater Boston
Levy will use her scholarship funds to help pay tuition for her MBA in Business Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Ozioma Uwazurike
WIB-RTP
Ozioma will use her scholarship to supplement her tuition at the Duke University Fuqua School of Business for her Global Executive MBA degree.
Shivali Vashisht
WIB-Metro New York
Shivali’s scholarship will fund her attendance at the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies’ Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
2023 WIB Impact Scholarship Winners
Lauren Bradley
WIB-Southern California
Lauren will take a course to enhance her technical communication skills and help her bridge the gap between technical and non-expert audiences.
Christina Cho
WIB-Connecticut
These funds will allow Christina to present her recent work at a symposium and share her research with peers and potential collaborators.
Aditi Deshpande
WIB-San Francisco Bay Area
Aditi will use the funds toward a course on gaining leadership skills to help her make strategic career moves.
Lori Dollard
WIB-Pittsburgh
Lori is learning more about AI to write about its impact on healthcare in her new book on patient advocacy.
Sujata Jana
WIB-Seattle
Sujata is enrolling in an online women’s leadership course at Yale to gain skills for coordinating research projects.
Dorys Lopez
WIB-Chicago
Dorys is taking an online course to gain marketing skills that she can apply in the life sciences space.
Swati Mishra
WIB-Seattle
Swati is traveling to Canada to present her important work on Alzheimer’s Disease at a symposium.
Nina Shah
WIB-Greater Boston
As Nina transitions her career from science to medicine, she’ll attend a medical conference to help her become a physician for vulnerable populations.
Shannon Speer
WIB-RTP
Shannon is pursuing a certificate in finance to help her reach her goal of becoming a life science venture capitalist.
Yoshiko Stowell
WIB-San Francisco Bay Area
Yoshiko is using the funds to take training courses that will enable her to become a coach for teens and young adults.
WIB Inclusion Grant
The Women In Bio Inclusion Grant was established to encourage and advance inclusion efforts in our chapter cities. WIB aims to promote equality and champion inclusivity across all of WIB’s initiatives and programming. The micro grant will provide support to help ensure that all of WIB’s activities are a catalyst for fostering a diverse and inclusive environment and creating a dynamic and invaluable resource and allyship for the local community.
2022 Inclusion Grant Winners
We are pleased to announce two $1,000 WIB Inclusion Grants have been awarded to encourage and advance inclusion efforts in our chapter cities.
WIB-Capital Region Winner
Marcia Fournier, Founder of Dimensions Sciences
The mission of Dimensions Sciences is to assist early-career scientists from underrepresented communities through mentoring programs and scholarships in order to promote diversity in the sciences and further equity, international collaboration, and innovative research. This fall, Dimensions Sciences started the District Capital One Award for Diversity in Sciences and awarded five PhD students from underrepresented backgrounds who are performing research in Washington, DC and the DMV area. Through this award, Dimensions Sciences is providing monetary support and a platform to showcase the work of underrepresented early career scientists, specifically those who are Latino or African American, through a virtual award ceremony and social media. These students will also receive mentoring from their large network of scientists, both in academia and industry, and positive recognition that will lead to retention and, eventually, an increase in diversity within the life sciences field. Marcia was recognized at the WIB-Capital Region HERstory Gala in April 2023.
WIB-Connecticut Winner
Sumayya Ayoub, Senior Education Manager of Junior Achievement of Southwest New England
For nine years, Sumayya has led the Career Connections for Young Women, a Junior Achievement (JA) program specifically aimed at empowering young girls for workplace success. This program serves young women from some of Connecticut’s most needy communities and is geared toward inspiring young women in high school to focus on careers, professional goals, and financial responsibility. Through a series of 10 two-hour sessions (conducted weekly), students participate in JA workshops, activities, and lessons designed to equip them with the tools and skills required to earn and keep a job in high-growth career industries. The program introduces students to five career clusters (Marketing, Law & Government, Medical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Creative Arts) and a network of support and mentorship as they navigate goals and plans for post-high school career success. The program covers key topics such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, soft skill development, and work priorities.