What is “The Jessica Effect?”

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 10:02:29 -0400
academic-enrichment, advising, agep, development, gradschool, gradstudents, learning, maryland, nsf, ph-d-completion, postdoc, professor, professoriate, promise, support, teaching

The “Jessica Effect” was named for the late Jessica Soto Pérez, former graduate student at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, member of the first cohort of PROMISE Peer Mentors. We wanted to invite, involve, and engage family members of graduate students in an effort to promote a more inclusive environment that caters to the whole person, and that values the importance of family and friends.

First PROMISE Peer Mentors at UMBC, circa 2004

About Jessica:

Daughter of Antonio Israel Soto and Luz N. Pérez

Undergraduate degree: Univ. of Puerto Rico Mayagüez

P. B. Certificate in Biochemical Regulatory Engineering

Graduate School: Chemical & Biochemical Engineering (Research: Novel methods for chromatofocusing), University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)

Peer mentor: National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP.

Instructor: UMBC Upward Bound Math Science

Member, American Institute for Chemical Engineers (AIChE)

Member, American Chemical Society (ACS)

Jessica’s research: The effect of pH transients formed by salt gradients on protein ion-exchange chromatography

The article on the Jessica Effect can be found here: https://www.aacu.org/peerreview/2014/spring/tull

More background can be found here: https://renettatull.wordpress.com/2014/08/12/the-jessica-effect-and-women-in-stem-mujeres-en-stem-en-memoria-de-jessica/