Janet Joseph is one of four Gilliam Fellows now studying at Brown.
When pathobiology student Janet Joseph PhD’28, who was recently selected as an NSF fellow, found out in June she would receive a Gilliam Fellows award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she was in disbelief. One of her advisers, Associate Professor of Medicine Patrycja Dubielecka, PhD, called Joseph with the news moments before her poster presentation at the sixth annual Dr. Samuel M. Nabrit Conference for Early Career Scholars.
“I probably said ‘no, no, I didn’t’ about 10 times,” Joseph recalls with a laugh. “Pat said she wasn’t lying. I was sweating bullets and didn’t know what to do.” Still in shock, Joseph completed her presentation just fine.
Joseph understands the importance of this distinction not only for herself, but for up-and-coming researchers in her field. As a first-generation college student and immigrant who moved with her family from Nigeria to Illinois when she was 17, she wants to leverage her success and mentor others with similar backgrounds.
“I always say I’m doing this for the underdogs,” she says. “I want to be the person who holds the door open for everyone to come in, so more women of color and those from underserved and underrepresented areas see they can do it too.”
The Gilliam Fellows Program supports graduate students who are committed to advancing equity and inclusion in science and empowers them as future leaders in scientific fields through financial assistance for three years of doctoral research. It also supports faculty thesis advisers to enhance their mentorship skills and ability to develop more inclusive training environments. HHMI honored 50 student-adviser pairs with Gilliam Fellowships this year. There are currently four Gilliam Fellows at Brown.
Gilliam fellows receive an annual stipend of $36,000, a $4,000 discretionary allowance for professional development, and an institutional allowance of $10,000 toward tuition and fees. The fellowship also awards their faculty advisers $3,000.
Joseph’s research is focused on the impact of biological and chemical stressors on the transcriptomic inflammatory and neuroinflammatory profile of the placenta and its potential impact on the neurobiology of infants—a topic that she says was inspired by her interest in infectious diseases and a passion to help her home country fight disease.
“Ultimately, the goal is to examine the underlying neurobiology and look at broadly understood stressors that cause inflammation or disease,” she says.
The opportunity to do research in an interdisciplinary setting is what first drew Joseph to Brown. After she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2018 with a Bachelor of Science in cellular and molecular biology, she trained in a post-baccalaureate program at the Mayo Clinic and then in the Intramural Research Training Award Fellowship Program at the National Institutes of Health. As she considered graduate schools, she found herself drawn to Brown’s curriculum and research opportunities.
“We’re in an age where we have everything at our fingertips, whether these are intricacies of cell biology, RNA biology, or anything else. I want to be able to employ these different methods and techniques to answer important health questions without being hyper-focused on just a single subject,” Joseph says. She envisions a future as an interdisciplinary pathobiologist, integrating research with advocacy, as she mentors underrepresented students in research and leads groundbreaking studies linking immunological pathways with neuro- and behavioral biology.
Joseph’s co-advisers, Dubielecka and Laura Stroud, PhD, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, of obstetrics and gynecology, and of behavioral and social science, plan to apply the Gilliam allowance toward a Brown Next Gen Path to Professoriate program, to prepare senior graduate students who are committed to advancing diversity, inclusion, access, and equity for faculty careers. Joseph says she is looking forward to being involved in this initiative.
“I’ve realized I really want to empower and equip other people,” Joseph says. “I feel that with my research plan, fantastic advisers, and HHMI support, I have some credibility and resources to actually help, and we are really excited to start on that path.”
