 Dr. Betsy Gekonge |
Dr. Betsy Gekonge was born and raised in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya in East Africa. She initially came to the United States to pursue a college education (Hamilton College, Clinton NY and Pennsylvania State University, University Park PA) and has since established a robust career working as a Clinical Scientist at Pfizer, Inc where she is contributing to the development of novel vaccines to help prevent pneumococcal disease. Prior to her current role, Betsy spent several years working in the Montaner Laboratory at the Wistar Institute working to understand the response of a subset of immune cells (monocytes/macrophages) to HIV-1 infection, and three years working in antiviral drug development at Merck & Co Inc. Betsy joined MTAWA in 2016 as a mentor, and with the support and guidance of MTAWA sistren established an incredible mentor-mentee relationship (now friendship) with her mentee who in the fall semester of 2017 successfully enrolled in the Department of Cell, Molecular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Riverside. When not busy poring over clinical documents, Betsy enjoys volunteering to various causes, hiking and traveling with her children. |
Category: Member Profile
Meet Our Mentors: Dr Nomali Ngobese
 Dr Nomali Ngobese |
Dr Nomali Ngobese is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Zululand, in South Africa. She is an Applied Plant Scientist with a specialization in Food Processing. She joined MTAWA in 2016, while still a Ph.D. student at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and was mentored through the network. She graduated in April 2017 and, thereafter, did her first postdoctoral research at the South African Agricultural Research Council. As part of the Agricultural Research Council, Nomali worked towards sourcing and characterizing starch from the seeds of wild mango (a non-conventional source). Her current research focuses on the incorporation of African leafy vegetables on flour-based staple foods, to improve their nutritional value, for the alleviation of malnutrition challenges in Africa. |
MTAWA 