Owl Update

Aileen Ferraro, ’14

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Minnesota Medical School

WHILE MAJORING IN BIOLOGY AT SOUTHERN, Aileen Ferraro, ’14, was among the first five students to receive a summer Undergraduate Research Grant of $3,000, funded by the SCSU Foundation. In October 2020, Ferraro — having earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Georgia earlier in the year — returned to campus, albeit virtually. Her goal: to help students enrolled in Management 450, Business Policy and Strategy, a capstone course for business majors. The course challenges teams of students to “run” a computer-simulated global business — a company that creates and sells genetic testing devises. The highly immersive business simulation was developed by Capsim, creator of programs used by more than 1,000 academic and corporate institutions from more than 60 countries.

Aileen Ferraro, ’14

Working online and in a socially distanced classroom, each Southern team draws on everything learned in previous business courses: accounting, economics, management, marketing, and more. Experience with genetics, or even biology, is not a prerequisite. But with knowledge comes power. And so, Linda Ferraro, an adjunct professor of management who teaches the course, issued an invitation to the newly minted Dr. Aileen Ferraro — an expert in the field of microbiology who is also her daughter. On a sunny fall afternoon, the students, all donning protective face masks, met in the School of Business building to virtually connect with the younger Ferraro, who offered a wealth of guidance.

Linda Ferraro, adjunct professor of management

Ferraro was screened in from the University of Minnesota Medical School, where she became a postdoctoral research associate in August. Her research focus is Candida auris (C. auris), a multi-drug resistant yeast (a type of fungus) that can cause severe infections and spreads easily among hospitalized patients and nursing home residents. “You may have seen it mentioned in the news,” says Ferraro, of C. auris, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has categorized as an urgent threat. Some 1,625 clinical confirmed/ probable cases were reported in the U.S. as of January 2021. “We basically are trying to figure out what makes it resistant to drugs,” says Ferraro of her research.

At Southern, her advice to the business students touches on many topics. Among them, how genetics are used in the medical field (research on pediatric cancer, cancer survivorship, sickle cell disease, etc.), the benefits and challenges of four types of genetic-sequencing platforms in use, and risks to consumers (learning that you or someone in your family has or is at-risk for a disease can be upsetting and tests can cost more than $2,000). Equally important, Ferraro relates the importance of mentorship and credits her first mentor, Elizabeth Lewis Roberts, associate professor of biology and chairman of the department at Southern, with changing the course of her life.

During a follow-up conversation in November, Aileen Ferraro shares more of her Southern story. A nontraditional student, she came to Southern when she was 28 years old — an experience that was simultaneously invigorating and challenging. “This was a point when a lot of my friends were starting to get settled into their careers. They seemed to have their lives figured out, and here I was basically starting over,” she says.

Ferraro was working in Southern’s Department of Biology through the Federal Work-Study Program, a position that led her to meet most of the professors. In the office one day, Professor Roberts shared that she was looking for someone to assist in the lab. Ferraro signed on. “We looked at grasses that make a compound that, when it goes into the soil, attracts bacteria that helps [the grasses] grow. It’s a symbiotic relationship,” says Ferraro, who received Southern’s Excellence in Research Award (2013) and professionally presented her undergraduate research capstone.

I still talk with Dr. Roberts, and she reminds me, ‘I’m always here for you. I’ll always be your mentor.’ And there are other members of the biology department who I can always talk to as well. There is a culture of everyone keeping in touch at Southern.

— AILEEN FERRARO, ’14

Active as an undergrad, she was president of the student organization Southern Women in Math and Science and a member of the Botany Club — and went on to graduate magna cum laude. But, Ferraro says, she wouldn’t have considered graduate school without Roberts’ urging. “I owe a lot to her,” says Ferraro, who was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Georgia from 2015-2020, when she earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology.

Looking forward, she foresees several career options: working for the federal government with the CDC or the National Institutes of Health or joining industry as a field application specialist/scientist. “You act as a liaison between the customer, the sales team, and research and technology. You might help customers with the equipment they purchase. You might train them or help them design experiments with the equipment. It’s a mix of science, sales, and communications,” says Ferraro.

Her advice to students reflects her educational path. “Faculty members are there to support you — at least, that was my experience at Southern. Don’t be afraid to ask them for help, because they want to give it.” •