Dr. Shana Stoddard, associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College, was presented the Tyrone Mitchell Mentor-on-the-Map Award at the 50th annual meeting of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE), held Sept. 11-14 in New Orleans. This is Stoddard’s fifth award from a national organization since joining Rhodes in 2017 as a tenure track assistant professor of chemistry.
The award from NOBCChE honors individuals who have played a significant role in mentoring the next generation of scientists of color. Stoddard is the founder of the STEM Cohort Mentoring Program at Rhodes, which was designed to support the needs of Black/African American students pursuing majors or careers in STEM. The program boasts a 96 percent graduation rate, and many scholars from the program have gone on to pursue graduate degrees.
One STEM Cohort scholar said this about the program: “It gave me a sense of purpose and belonging at Rhodes... It was my driving force to stay at Rhodes, and I was successful. It helped me find a community of people who I truly enjoy and who are like-minded.”
“I am excited to see Rhodes support diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus by investing in the STEM Cohort Mentoring Program and believe this program helps us to achieve our goals in inclusive excellence and fostering a sense of belonging expressed in the college’s IDEAS framework and strategic plan,” said Stoddard.
Stoddard also is one of the inaugural co-chairs of NOBCChE’s National Mentoring Committee. In this role, she will be developing a nationwide mentoring system to support the organization’s undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and early career professionals. In addition, she will help foster mentoring relationships and partnerships in academia, government, and the STEM workforce.
Stoddard, who earned early tenure at Rhodes, has maintained an active research program mentoring a total of 99 students (91 undergraduate). Her research focuses on understanding the structure of proteins and how they bind to their targets and using the information to improve patient outcomes with autoimmune disorders, cancers, neurological disorders, and coronaviruses. She has published with 57 students including 50 undergraduates and two high school co-authors. Of the 57 student co-authors, 36 are students of color, and 20 students of color are from backgrounds underrepresented in STEM. Through her research program, Stoddard has predicted the structure of kidney proteins leading to corrections in protein structure of international databases, designed drugs for diseases of cancer and coronaviruses, and developed an imaging protocol to detect osteosarcoma in pediatric patients.
Stoddard was the inaugural director for student mentoring at Rhodes in 2021, and that year she received the Mentor Award presented by the Council on Undergraduate Research’s (CUR) Health Sciences Division. In 2022, the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers presented her the Henry C. McBay Outstanding Teacher Award. In May of this year, she was presented the CUR’s Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award, and in August, she was named the 2024 recipient of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology’s Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award.
Students interested in joining the STEM Cohort Mentoring Program should can contact Stoddard at stoddards@rhodes.edu