Colleen Kearney Rich

Mason Lighting the Way: Sharrell Hassell-Goodman

Colleen Rich — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 14:15:27 +0000

Mason Lighting the Way: Sharrell Hassell-Goodman Colleen Rich Wed, 03/31/2021 - 10:15

Mason Lighting the Way

Spotlights from the Task Force

More than 130 faculty, staff and students are working on George Mason University’s Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force, which is taking a hard look at the current state of diversity and inclusivity efforts at the university and making recommendations for the future.

These individuals come from across our campuses and bring their different skill sets and expertise to this work. In this series, we will spotlight members of the task force and find out what drives them.

Sharrell Hassell-Goodman. Photo provided

Sharrell Hassell-Goodman
Doctoral Student, Higher Education Program

Committee: Co-chair, Student Voice

One of the things Sharrell Hassell-Goodman loves about George Mason University is its diversity. Prior to coming to Mason, Hassell-Goodman studied at Miami University in Ohio, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in early elementary education and two master’s degrees, an MEd in education leadership and MS in college student personnel.

Mason’s diverse student body was a welcome change for her.

“I loved seeing so many Black and brown faces,” she said.

She also worked on the student services side of universities, including a stint as director of sorority and fraternity life at Ohio State.

Now Hassell-Goodman is working on a PhD in higher education with a specialization in women and gender studies and social justice, and enjoys working on the academic side of Mason. She has taught courses in the School of Integrative Studies on identity, social justice, and social science research.

As a first-generation college student herself and one of the founders of the Black Graduate Student Association at Mason, she understands the importance of supporting students and has focused some of her research on first-generation students. Her research interests also include Black women in higher education, social justice advocates in higher education, identity and leadership, and critical participatory action research.

“I really wanted to look at the experiences of those who are historically marginalized,” said Hassell-Goodman.

For her dissertation research, Hassell-Goodman has been inspired in part by a group of Black women in academia, a movement that is often called #Blackintheivory in social media. In fact, she has her own “research collective.”

“It was students and alumni talking about their experiences in the academy, and then the world shifted,” Hassell-Goodman said of how George Floyd’s death changed the conversation. “[Then] Black women, who identify as first-generation college students, from across the country were interested in being a part of this research collective.”

The stories and experiences of these women are informing Hassell-Goodman’s research. Her dissertation is titled “An Endarkened Feminist Critical Participatory Action Research Project: First-Generation Women of the African Diaspora.”

As co-chair of the Student Voice Committee of the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force, Hassell-Goodman had the opportunity to present at both town halls and bring forward recommendations from the committee that included adding anti-racism to the university’s research agenda, more courses on anti-racism and inclusion topics, and faculty training to create more inclusive classrooms.

“The students on this committee represent many different demographics, but all want to interrupt all forms of oppression,” she said. “I am so impressed with these students and how committed they are.”

She also feels this task force provides a great opportunity. Not only have all the student committee members learned more about how a university works, they are involved in this process at an optimal time.

“We are at a place where we are creating action,” she said. “Students are so central to this process, and Mason is thinking of students first.”

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Campus News

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

Mason Lighting the Way spotlights

Students

Graduate Education

Doctoral student combines love of lab research with practical applications

Colleen Rich — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 17:48:56 +0000

Doctoral student combines love of lab research with practical applications Colleen Rich Mon, 03/29/2021 - 13:48

Mason doctoral student Marissa Howard has worked at the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM) since 2016. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

When Marissa Howard first came to George Mason University as an Honors College student and a scholar in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Program, she was a biology major.

As she began looking for hands-on research experiences, her LSAMP mentor, Volgenau School of Engineering professor Alok Berry, suggested she give bioengineering a try.

“It really clicked for me,” said the Richmond, Virginia, native, and she ended up switching her major to bioengineering.

In her junior year, Howard participated in Mason’s Aspiring Scientists Summer Internship Program (ASSIP). That’s when she met Mason researchers Lance Liotta and Alessandra Luchini. She spent the summer studying the electrical properties of their Nanotrap technology.

“I really loved it,” she said. “I really loved them, and they were excited by the work I was doing and asked me to continue working with them. Since 2016, I've been in [the Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM)] lab.”

Biosciences PhD student Marissa Howard tests vaccine efficacy in healthy and immunocomprised patients by running a rapid COVID-19 antibody test. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Creative Services

For her senior capstone project in 2016-17, Howard led a team of bioengineering students—Sara Sharif, Sameen Yusuf, and Rohit Madhu—to create a noninvasive urine-based tuberculosis (TB) test called TB Assured, and the invention garnered a lot of attention for the team and many awards.

In addition to winning several Mason awards for being the best project of the year, the team also won the $15,000 prize from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering’s Design by Biomedical Undergraduate Teams (DEBUT) challenge to help develop the test further.

TB Assured started as a dipstick test, much like pregnancy tests, that would find biomarkers of TB in urine. In an effort to make the test more sensitive and user friendly, Howard came up with the idea of using a paper origami cup as a next generation urine collection cup for the test instead of a test strip.

The biomarker-harvesting Nanotraps are in a glass wool-like substance embedded in the cup. After use, the cup is emptied, collapsed back into its original flat, two-dimensional form, and can be mailed in an envelope for processing.

“Everything that's in the urine is captured by the Nanotraps, and you don't need a centrifuge or other equipment,” said Howard, who completed her bachelor’s degree in bioengineering in 2017. “People loved it. They keep asking when it is going to be available at their local pharmacy.”

Howard is now a doctoral student in biosciences at Mason. During the coronavirus pandemic, Howard was able to get back into the CAPMM lab, but now all the researchers are working on COVID-19-related research.

“We are doing some of the analytical validation studies to help different companies file for FDA approval for their rapid COVID-19 antigen tests,” Howard said. “That's been really interesting and fun—seeing all these different tests that come in.”

For her dissertation, Howard is focusing on cancer research. She is looking at how cancer exosomes (small, membrane-wrapped packages released by cells) communicate. The findings could help create a new kind of immunotherapy.

“[Looking at the exosomes in a tumor sample] is going to tell you a little bit more information than just the pathology would,” she said. “It's sort of telling you what that tumor is thinking and how it is communicating to its neighboring cells.”

With completing her PhD still about a year away, Howard is planning a future in a lab, possibly in an academic setting.

“I love the research space and the creative potential that comes with it,” Howard said. “You never know when your next idea is going to pop up.”

Topics

Students

Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (CAPMM)

doctoral students

Graduate Education

Colleen Kearney Rich

Mason Lighting the Way: Sharrell Hassell-Goodman

Mason Lighting the Way

Spotlights from the Task Force

Sharrell Hassell-GoodmanDoctoral Student, Higher Education Program

Committee: Co-chair, Student Voice

Topics

Doctoral student combines love of lab research with practical applications

Topics

Sharrell Hassell-Goodman
Doctoral Student, Higher Education Program