Sará King, Ph.D., and Aqilah McCane, Ph.D., have been named fellows by the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) as 2020 Neuroscience Scholars Program.
Dr. King is a postdoctoral fellow mentored by Barry S. Oken, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Neurological Disorders at OHSU, and Raina Croff, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurology, OHSU School of Medicine. Dr. McCane is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Bita Moghaddam, Ph.D., chair and professor of behavioral neuroscience, OHSU School of Medicine.
The Neuroscience Scholars Program fellowship provides neuroscience trainees from underrepresented and diverse backgrounds with career development and networking opportunities to help them reach their career goals. Only 18 such fellows were selected from applicants across the United States. Highlights of the program include travel to the annual SFN meetings during the two years of the fellowship and formal mentoring teams with experience in diversity mentoring.
Sará King, Ph.D.
Dr. King’s work includes developing community-level approaches with Dr. Croff to help prevent the spread of Alzheimer’s disease in the African-American community of Portland and cultural approaches to cognitive health. She holds an OHSU Fellowship for Diversity in Research.
Dr. King earned her Ph.D. at UCLA, where her research included the impacts of mindfulness-based practices on the relationship between student behavior, wellbeing, and emotion regulation in low-SES K-12 settings. She completed her M.A. in African American/Black Studies and Political Science at UCLA.
Aqilah McCane, Ph.D.
Dr. McCane investigates the neural mechanisms in adolescent rodents which may underlie addiction vulnerability in adulthood using in vivo electrophysiology and optogenetic techniques.
“This award will provide an invaluable experience,” said Dr. McCane. “I am hoping to expand my networking circle and take full advantage of all the resources allocated by this award.”
Dr. McCane received her Ph.D. from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis under the dual mentorship of Dr. Cristine Czachowski and Dr. Christopher Lapish in 2017. While in graduate school, she investigated the neural circuitry of cued alcohol seeking and drinking in selected rodent lines using in vivo electrophysiological and behavioral pharmacological techniques.
