2015 Bouchet Scholars inducted into UW–Madison chapter of national honor society

Saili Kulkarni

Saili Kulkarni achieved a PhD and MS from the Department of Special Education at UW–Madison. Her research examines teacher beliefs and intersections of race and ability. As a special education teacher, Saili helped create the district’s first Inclusive Teacher Network which enabled special education teachers to share resources and build partnerships with universities to increase inclusive opportunities for students with disabilities. For her dissertation, Saili looked at how beliefs about disability, race and culture inform special education teachers’ retention in urban school districts.

Alexandra Law

Alexandra is a doctoral candidate in Cancer Biology at UW–Madison pursuing research on the Human Papillomavirus and HPV-associated cancers. As a member of Dr. Paul Lambert’s lab she is investigating the role of a specific cellular oncogene, EGFR, that has been implicated in causing HPV-associated cancers. While at UW–Madison Alex has been involved in the Science and Medicine Graduate Research Scholars, a community for underrepresented graduate students in the sciences, as well as in the Ford Foundation Fellowships. Alex is Mexican-American and also suffers from moderate-to-severe hearing loss. Alex hopes to continue to advocate for underrepresented and disabled students and encourage them to pursue scientific research careers.

Patrice Leverett

Patrice Leverett received an MS in the School Psychology Program in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her dissertation, Redirecting the Pipeline: Behavior interventions and treatment acceptability with African American middle school males, explores the cultural relevance of Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) in school settings. Additionally, Patrice worked at the Center for Women’s Health Research (CWHR) on a National Institutes of Health grant examining the impact of mentoring relationships on the outcomes of underrepresented students in STEM fields.

Gerardo Mancilla

Most of Gerardo’s research has revolved around the area of the “leaky-education pipeline”, which is based on the fact that only 46% of Latinos will graduate from high school. Therefore, his work has focused on what can we do to support Latino students, through a focus on how to build school connectedness for Latino youth at the middle school where he teaches and helping to develop the Latino Youth Summit to encourage Latino middle school students to explore college and careers. In the Madison area, he also serves as the Post-Secondary Chair of the Latino Education Council, Secretary of Nuestro Mundo Incorporated Board, and Secretary of the Vera Court Neighborhood Center Board. He exemplifies the Bouchet qualities by being the first person in his family to earn a bachelor’s degree and hopes to inspire his cousins to believe in themselves so that they will also graduate from college.

Debraj Mukherjee

Dr. Debraj “Raj” Mukherjee received his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School, where he was named a C. Everett Koop Scholar, Rhodes Scholar finalist, Gold Humanism in Medicine Honor Society member. He served as a health policy fellow under Surgeon General Richard Carmona while at Dartmouth. Dr. Mukherjee is also leading burgeoning efforts in comparative genomics within neurosurgery, with a focus on more personalized and targeted neuro-oncological care.

Kelli Brianna Pointer

Kelli Pointer achieved a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology as well as a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. Kelli joined Dr. John Kuo’s lab at SMPH and her project currently focuses on studying the tumor microenvironment in glioblastoma. She hopes that combining a clinical practice with research will provide her the ability to recognize unanswered questions that arise in clinical medicine and use those questions to develop research aims that are translatable.