Assistant Director of Postdoctoral Services
As assistant director of postdoctoral services, Karena Nguyen builds community through social and academic events and develops career and professional development programming for postdocs. Nguyen has volunteered with and led committees through organizations such as the National Postdoctoral Association, the Graduate Career Consortium, and the POD Network. She is currently serving as a member of the National Postdoctoral Association’s Board of Directors and is a co-chair of the Employee Engagement and Culture Council within Georgia Tech's Office of the Provost. She has completed a Global Strengths certification from Gallop and Entering Mentoring facilitation training from the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER).
Nguyen earned a Ph.D. in integrative biology from the University of South Florida and a B.S. in ecology and evolution from Saint Louis University. She was a postdoctoral fellow with the Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program at Emory University, where her research focused on characterizing the epidemiological impact of human-cattle hybrid schistosomes in Tanzania and elucidating temporal patterns of water quality indicators in the Chattahoochee River. As a part of the FIRST program, she developed and taught 'Parasites and Peoples: Can You Worm Your Way Out?', an upper-level parasitology and disease ecology course, at Morehouse College.