Sherilynn Black

Dr. Sherilynn Black is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in Medical Education in the Duke University School of Medicine. She completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology (Biology minor) as a Morehead-Cain Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated with Highest Honors. She then completed her doctoral studies in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University and completed additional studies in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current research focuses on identifying the common variables associated with successful STEM student-development interventions in higher education, and in creating computational models that are predictive of the success of higher education intervention programs. Dr. Black currently serves as the founding Director of the Office of Biomedical Graduate Diversity for the Duke University School of Medicine. Her office works to bring talented underrepresented graduate students to Duke and to enrich their experiences over the course of their doctoral studies through a series of professional development opportunities, academic enrichment programs, mentoring programs, and cohort-formation activities. Dr. Black is also a co-Principal Investigator of the Duke Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) program referred to as the Duke Biosciences Collaborative for Research Engagement (BioCoRE). Duke BioCoRE provides extensive mentoring and scientific engagement opportunities for talented and diverse undergraduate and graduate students in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. Dr. Black also serves in a number of additional roles in the Duke community, including serving as a member of the a President's Council on Black Affairs, the co-Advisor for the Duke Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), a faculty advisor for the Duke Bridges to the Doctorate Program, and as a faculty affiliate for the Duke Center for Science Education. Dr. Black is deeply engaged in promoting STEM diversity efforts on a national level. She currently serves the international membership of the Society for Neuroscience as a faculty stakeholder in the Neuroscience Scholars Program and as a member of the Online Programs Steering Committee, and she is also an appointed member of the AAMC Group on Graduate Research, Education, and Training (GREAT). She also works with the National Institutes of Health to lead national workshops on diversity initiatives in the basic sciences. Dr. Black continues to form institutional partnerships across the nation to build programmatic and institutional collaborations directed towards increasing diversity in the biomedical and basic sciences.