Committee Members

	MariaElena B. Zavala Chair (07 - 10) California State University Maria Elena Zavala is a full professor at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is a native Californian, and she earned her undergraduate degree from Pomona College and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California – Berkeley. She has conducted research on a wide range of projects, including pollen and embryo development and secondary metabolites in opium poppies and the rubber-producing desert plant guayule. Her current research is focused on root development and cytokinin metabolism. Dr. Zavala has been recognized for her success in mentoring students at the local, regional, and national levels. For more information on the NIH-sponsored programs that she directs at CSUN, which include MARC U*STAR, MBRS RISE and MBRS SCORE, see http://www.csun.edu/~csunmore.
	John J. Harada (07 - 10) University Of California John Harada received his undergraduate degree from UCLA, earned his Ph.D. degree at the University of Washington, Seattle, did postdoctoral research at UCLA, and is currently Professor of Plant Biology at UC Davis. His research interests cover broadly the areas of plant developmental biology and gene regulation. NSF and DOE-funded research in his lab focuses on embryo and seed development in higher plants, with particular emphasis on defining the genes required to make a seed and understanding their functions. Dr. Harada has been recognized by UC Davis for his teaching of undergraduate classes on plant development and the molecular and cellular biology of plants. Dr. Harada actively mentors underrepresented scientists in his lab and regularly participates in outreach activities for UC Davis.
	Eleanore T. Wurtzel (04 - 10) Lehman College CUNY Elli Wurtzel is a full professor at Lehman College, a minority serving institution in the Bronx and one of 19 campuses of The City University of New York (CUNY). She also chairs the CUNY-New York Botanical Garden joint Ph.D. program in plant sciences. Dr. Wurtzel’s NIH-funded research addresses a global problem of vitamin A deficiency, which is linked to diets lacking in plant-derived pro-vitamin A carotenoids. The present goal is to understand how crop plants in the grass family (Poaceae) regulate biosynthesis and accumulation of provitamin A carotenoids in seed endosperm amyloplasts. To facilitate this type of interdisciplinary research, Dr. Wurtzel founded a new Gordon Research Conference on Plant Metabolic Engineering. Dr. Wurtzel actively mentors underrepresented scientists who participate in numerous CUNY programs funded through NIH, NSF, USDA and others. Urban students have the unusual opportunity to participate in the only research corn field in New York City. Information on Dr. Wurtzel’s research and training opportunities available through the CUNY plant sciences Ph.D. program may be found at http://a32.lehman.cuny.edu.
	Adan Colon-Carmona (07 - 10) University Of Massachusetts Adán Colón-Carmona is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, the only public 4-year college or university in the Boston area. Dr. Colón-Carmona’s research uses molecular, cellular and genetic tools to study growth control during development. He is specifically interested in studying how plants respond to and biodegrade the petroleum pollutants polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and how cell division contributes to growth responses to light cues. Additionally, his lab investigates the roles of the motor proteins kinesins in organ development, and bacterial-plant interactions in the rhizosphere of plants. Dr. Colón-Carmona is an advocate of inquiry-based learning that incorporates hand-on laboratory experiences at the high school and undergraduate levels. His education and research projects are supported by 2010 and GK12 grants from NSF and a NIH U56 Partnership grant. Further details on his work are found at http://www.acc.umb.edu/.
	Beronda L. Montgomery (09 - 12) MSU Plant Research Laboratory
	Michele B. Garrett (05 - 11) Guilford Technical Community College
	Linda Different Cloud (09 - 12) Montana State University Linda Different Cloud is a doctoral student at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. She taught ethnobotany and Native science at Sitting Bull College, a tribal college on the Standing Rock Reservation, for seven years. Her research interests focus on land restoration for the purposes of reestablishing culturally important plants. She is also interested in studying the ways in which mycorrhizal fungi, sustainable grazing, and controlled fires may be used as restoration tools in degraded ecosystems. Linda has been working within the tribal college system and with the NSF to recruit Native Americans into STEM fields, particularly into the plant sciences. Linda is currently an NSF-GK12 Fellow and a Center for Learning and Teaching in the West Doctoral Fellow.
	Anthony L. Depass (07 - 11) Long Island University Anthony DePass is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean of Research at the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University. His plant-related research interests include those of second messenger signal transduction and cancer-related gene regulation in response to plant-derived compounds. Dr. DePass' background in the areas of student and faculty development is quite extensive. He was principal investigator and co-director of the NSF-funded Multimedia and Interactive Learning (MIL) project. The MIL project trained math and science faculty from five institutions in the New York metropolitan area in the development and utilization of multimedia applications designed to enhance the active role of students in the learning process. Additionally, Dr. DePass is a co-PI (LIU award) and a member of the Administrative Core of an NIH-NCI funded partnership between Long Island University and Columbia University. This partnership promotes and funds collaborations between LIU-Brooklyn and Columbia University faculty in cancer research. He has been very active in programs focused on strengthening the pipeline aimed at increasing the representation of underrepresented minorities in the sciences.
	Crispin Taylor Staff Liaison American Society of Plant Biologists