Verónica 中央大学博士.D. 完成了她的博士学位.D. 生物物理和生物化学博士. 作为一名本科生，她获得了B.S. 获得生物化学学士学位和学士学位.A. 在化学 他在迈阿密大学工作. 从2015年到2022年，她担任生物学助理教授 at High Point University (HPU), a private regional college in High Point, NC, where she earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in the spring of 2022. 从 2020-2022, she served as the Interim Chair of Biology at HPU. 她目前是 Professor and the Maryland E-Nnovation Endowed Chair in Biological Sciences and Chemistry 在云顶集团.
The 中央大学 lab studies how cells activate pathways such as autophagy and protein transport in order to survive and respond to different forms of stress. 项目 the lab are driven by undergraduate researchers, and rely on budding yeast as a model 生物. Lab 成员 are supported by one-on-one mentoring as they master techniques in the lab and develop unique identities in science and research. Dr. 中央大学参与 in several funded projects designed to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM fields, particularly by uniting scientific societies to exchange promising practices and data, and by creating and implementing innovative professional development programming 对于早期职业科学家.
2022 Best Teacher Award, Inaugural Vanderbilt University Basic Sciences’ Hispanic 和拉丁传统月庆祝活动
The purpose of this award is to honor trailblazers and important figures who may otherwise 难以识别. Awardees were selected by an external committee composed of staff and faculty, considering nominees’ achievements in science and diversity, equity, 包容努力.
美国100位鼓舞人心的西班牙裔/拉丁裔科学家
Dr. 中央大学于2020年亮相 Cell Mentor’s list of 100 Inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America. The scientists highlighted on this list were selected based on scholarly achievements, mentoring excellence, and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. 目的在于 assembling the list is to put an end to the harmful myth that there are not enough diverse scientists to deliver scientific seminars, serve as panelists or fill scientific 职位. The list, published by Cell Press, includes scientists with careers within 学术界，政府和生物技术.
2018年高点大学 首届教学创新及创意奖
This award recognizes an individual who has created a unique body of research using 发散思维、想象力和冒险精神. 这个奖项也是创新的典范 in the classroom by putting curiosity, problem solving, critical thinking, deep understanding and creative brainstorming at the center of the course curriculum and classroom practice.
国家科学基金(NSF)资助的项目
联合署长 促进STEM成功中的公平变革联盟 (ACCESS; NSF Grant Number 1744098). 这个项目建立了一个五人联盟 scientific societies in the life sciences to examine, assess, and disseminate best practices related to the diversification of the STEM workforce.
研究小组首席研究员 LED-BIO研究协调网络 (NSF资助号2134725). 这个项目是与美国社会合作的 for Cell Biology and it focuses on the establishment of a Research Coordination Network focused on finding solutions to persistent cultural challenges in scientific disciplines.
联合首席研究员 云顶集团+ (NSF资助号2017953). This project is a collaboration with the Women in Engineering 主动网络(WEPAN). 该项目旨在扩展ACCESS项目，包括 超过25个科学学会.
该项目的联合首席研究员 The Influence of Climate, Social Networks, and Cultural Models on the Retention of Women and Racially/Ethnically Marginalized Engineers in 研究生 School and the Workforce (NSF资助号2301217). This project follows engineering graduate students, professors, and those in industry to learn about their experiences and the climate they face in engineering, including the factors that relate to their persistence in the profession. This research explores multiple explanatory angles to understand persistence, including the knowledge and beliefs engineers have, the people whom they go to for advice and 资源，以及他们在工程领域所经历的气候. 这个项目推进了科学 knowledge about the multiple intersecting phenomena that shape the engineering workforce (both industry and academia) not representing the broader U.S. 人口人口. This knowledge will ultimately help craft more inclusive engineering environments 扩大在该领域的参与. 更具代表性的工程人员队伍 can improve society in multiple ways, such as by supporting advancements in engineering practice and education made possible by diverse perspectives.
美国国立卫生研究院(NIH)资助的项目
联合首席研究员 an Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT)资助(NIH资助号2R25GM116706-03). 本教育研究项目重点 关于STEM劳动力多样化的最佳实践. 作为共同负责人，Dr. 塞加拉领导着 完成职业转型 program, a capacitation and mentoring program for senior post-docs and junior faculty 成员.
巴勒斯惠康基金资助的项目(BWF)
研究小组首席研究员 ACCESS to PUIs, a Career Guidance for Trainees Program (BWF资助编号1072792). This program leverages well-established resources (Collaborative Teaching Fellows Program 在云顶集团 and Stevenson University, Center for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching 在云顶集团) to create a cohort-based model for future-faculty career exploration at primarily undergraduate institutions that can be adopted by others, especially those in close proximity to biomedical and life sciences doctoral and postdoctoral trainees at research intensive institutions.
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB)
美国化学会(ACS)
美国细胞生物学学会(ASCB)
美国微生物学会
东南生物学家协会
Sigma Xi(科研荣誉学会)
Dr. 中央大学 is an elected member of the ASCB Council and editor of the ASB journal eBio.