HEROES
AMONG US
Humanitarianism + Scientific Discovery = Impact Junior Girl Scouts working toward the new STEM Career Exploration badge learn about becoming future neuroscientists from Joyonna Gamble-George, MHA ’05, a former Girl Scout and now the focus of an official Scout badge activity. As one of 125 IF/THEN Ambassadors for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Joyonna inspires girls to become the next generation of science pioneers. Through Vanderbilt University, she’s also taught hands-on STEM labs to boys and girls in rural schools; volunteered with an aspirational student pen-pal program; and helped establish a biomedical summer workshop for high school students.
“You have to see something to believe it and eventually become it,” she says. “My hope is they’ll see what I’m doing and say, ‘I can do the same,’ or – better – ‘I can do more.’ ’’ A National Institutes of Health neuroscientist, Joyonna has also teamed with fellow Bull Gloryvee Cordero, ’00 and MEd ’05, to found SciX, LLC, a company that aims to prevent health crises such as heart attacks and strokes using wearable health-tracking devices and blockchain technology. “I grew up on a farm in rural Alabama, where my grandmother always gave back to the community – helping the elderly, the homebound,” she says. “Seeing that allowed me to connect humanitarianism to scientific discovery and see the impact, how I could make a difference in society.”
Above: Joyonna Gamble-George Left: The new Junior Girl Scouts STEM Career Exploration badge
WINTER 2020 41