These judges will choose the 1st, 2nd, and 3nd place awardees from among the finalists at the live Postdoc Slam event on September 19, 2023. See also the screening judges who reviewed initial video entries and selected the finalists.
Curtis Chinn, MA is a teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District, where he has taught science at Galileo High School since 1996. A longtime partner with UCSF’s Science and Health Education Partnership (SEP), Chinn helped teach SEP’s summer 2023 Cellular Construction Workshop, a 10-day educational program for SF public school teachers and high school students. Chinn is also producer and host of The InfatuAsian Podcast, a weekly show that highlights and amplifies the voices of Asian creators, featuring guests from all different fields and passions. Chinn earned a bachelor’s degree from UC Davis, and an MA from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.
Harold R. Collard, MD, MS, is the vice chancellor for Research at UCSF. In this role, he oversees and stewards UCSF’s research mission. Collard is also professor of Medicine and Health Policy in the UCSF School of Medicine. A board-certified pulmonologist, he joined UCSF’s faculty in 2005 and served for 12 years as director of the Interstitial Lung Disease Program. Collard has written seminal articles on the epidemiology, natural history, and management of interstitial lung disease, and is an internationally recognized clinical researcher. In his previous role as associate vice chancellor of Clinical Research and director of UCSF’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Collard helped lead the UCSF research community through the early phases of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, advocating strongly for their needs. Collard received his MD from Duke University, and completed internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF. He also earned an MS in Health Policy and Law from UC College of the Law and UCSF.
Won Ha, MA, is UCSF's vice chancellor of Communications. Ha oversees the Office of Communications’ integrated strategies across all media and channels to increase awareness and support of UCSF’s mission, vision, and strategic priorities. Before joining UCSF in 2019, he served as vice president of Strategic Communications at the Energy Foundation, an organization focusing on climate change, where he led a team working in state and federal venues. Prior to that, he was executive director of Issues and Brand Management at Kaiser Permanente, where he led the national issues, crisis, and brand management function and advised the leadership team during a period that encompassed health care reform and the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Ha received a bachelor's degree in Rhetoric and an MA in History from UC Berkeley.
Audra J. Johnson, PhD, is a Medical Science Liaison at Genentech, focusing on the areas of Rheumatology, Immunology, and Gastroenterology. She most recently received global recognition for her efforts as part of a team that located and helped to provide medication to patients with COVID-19 during the height of the pandemic. Before starting her career in the pharmaceutical industry, Johnson was an IRACDA postdoctoral scholar at UCSF, working with mentor Jody Baron, MD, PhD. Through the IRACDA program, Johnson also served as an instructor at SF State University for undergrad and graduate students in pharmacology. Johnson earned her PhD in Chemical Biology and Stem Cell-Focused Therapeutic Development at The Scripps Research Institute, and received her undergraduate degree from SF State University. In her free time, she continues to be insatiably curious, is an avid reader and aerialist, and loves volunteering time to support diversity programs and initiatives.
Helen Willsey, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UCSF and an investigator with the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Willsey is passionate about mentoring and using frogs to do the legwork of interpreting psychiatric disorder genetics. The Willsey Lab uses the powerful Xenopus tropicalis (diploid frog) model to translate success in psychiatric disorder genetics into actionable mechanisms of risk and resilience. Going forward, her lab is focusing on how these risk genes affect neurogenesis, how estrogen signaling interacts, and expanding this experimental platform to begin work on other disorders with large-effect risk genes, including Schizophrenia, Tourette Disorder, ADHD, and OCD. Willsey received her PhD in genetics from Yale University and postdoctoral training from Richard Harland (UC Berkeley) and Matthew State (UCSF). While a postdoc at UCSF, she received the 2020 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Graduate Division. Outside lab, Helen enjoys the performing arts and crafting.