ADVANCE Names 8 Bonnie Cone Fellowship Recipients for Awards to Help Further Careers

Eight UNC Charlotte faculty in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields will receive a total of $50,000 in Bonnie Cone Fellowships from the UNC Charlotte ADVANCE initiative to support their scholarship and leadership.

“The Bonnie Cone Fellowships play a critical role in fulfilling UNC Charlotte’s efforts to recruit, retain and advance women faculty, particularly those in STEM areas,” said Dr. Yvette Huet, ADVANCE Faculty Director.

“Over the past few years, the fellowships have helped numerous women further their individual careers and institutional leadership. We’re excited to add these women to the group of distinguished recipients.”
The fellowships are awarded annually and focus on early-career and mid-career women faculty. In evaluating applications, the review committee — comprising a cross section of UNC Charlotte STEM leadership — considers how the proposals would advance the applicants’ careers, how well they align with ADVANCE goals and the strength of the plans for use of the funds. Recipients are:

* Dr. Dale-Marie Wilson, assistant professor, College of Computing and Informatics, awarded for developing and utilizing culturally-specific humans to increase cultural competence;

* Dr. Bernadette T. Donovan-Merkert, professor and chair, chemistry, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, awarded for leadership development;

* Dr. Cynthia Gibas, associate professor, bioinformatics; and Dr. Jessica Schlueter, assistant professor, bioinformatics, College of Computing and Informatics, awarded for applying visual analytical methods in soybean comparative genomics;

* Dr. Na (Luna) Lu, assistant professor, engineering technology, Lee College of Engineering, awarded for accelerating research in developing nature fiber reinforced polymeric composites with reclaimed thermoplastics;

* Dr. Sara K. McMillan, assistant professor, environmental engineering, Lee College of Engineering, awarded for ecosystem restoration through integration of ecological modeling with experimental research;

* Dr. Christine Richardson, associate professor, department of biology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, awarded to enable attendance at annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, to present her research in leukemia and lymphoma; and

* Dr. Qingfang Wang, assistant professor, geography, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, awarded for investigation of ethnic and women entrepreneurship.