How a small group of scientists and educators are enhancing the diversity of the genomics workforce

Dr. Alcazar’s passion for bringing more scientific research to community colleges came from her own experiences and challenges gaining research experience.

After graduating high school, she went straight to work at an office. “I was the first person in my family to graduate high school, so there was no expectation that I would do anything more than that. It was already a huge accomplishment that I was working at an office,” she says.

She started taking classes at a local community college, Pasadena City College, in the evenings after work. Her curiosity in biology classes led her to become a biology major. But working at a nine-to-five job prevented her from taking laboratory classes since they were not offered in the evenings.

“I had to quit my job to be able to take laboratory classes. But to do that, I had to save money for a year and apply for financial aid,” she said. “It was really the support and inspiration from my mentor Jose Macias, a math instructor, that gave me the courage to do this. Many people would not be willing to take that risk because of even greater responsibilities.”

Dr. Alcazar transferred to the University of California, Riverside, where she had the opportunity be part of the McNair Scholars program over a summer. “That really opened a lot of opportunities for me,” she says. “I had mentors and other faculty who could see my potential and recommended me for graduate school.”

After completing her Ph.D. in biology at Johns Hopkins University and a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, she intended to stay in research but was then pulled towards education, with an aim to remove barriers for community college students to enter the scientific field.

Since 2017, Dr. Alcazar has been an instructor with tenure at Clovis Community College, where she teaches biology to science and non-science majors and brings genomic data science to her students. In addition to being part of the Genomic Data Science Community Network, she co-founded C-MOOR at Clovis Community College, which provides genomics modules embedded in required courses that allows students to use genomics data in a small research project and present their own scientific poster at an annual symposium.

“One significant challenge I encountered upon transferring to University of California, Riverside was my lack of experience and knowledge about basic research,” she said. “Recognizing the potential barrier this poses for people like me, especially those from community colleges, prompted my interest in offering early research opportunities and mentorship within institutions serving students who may have limited resources or our first-generation college students. I firmly believe that by doing so, we can enhance retention rates in the sciences and increase resilience among this population of students.