Watch a recording of this event.
The Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction is very proud to welcome Dr Stanley Andrisse, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins and Howard Universities and founder of the ‘From prison cell to Ph.D’ project, to discuss how black lives matter in science and medicine.
Stan will lead an interactive discussion around the Black Lives Matter movement, how it relates to science and medicine, what has worked in the US, how we could apply these successes in the UK. He will pin down why diversity is, in fact, good for PI research outputs and good for Universities.
Dr. Stanley Andrisse is an Endocrinologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. His ‘From prison cell to Ph.D’ program gives incarcerated men and women the opportunity to obtain a Bachelor’s degree while still in prison. It is one of the only programs of its kind in the US that offers full degrees – furthering one’s education is critical to successful reentry into society.
Stan has a personal interest in this. Growing up in Ferguson-Florissant, Missouri, he fell into the pattern of poor decision making from a very young age. By his early 20’s, he found himself sitting in front of a judge facing life for drug trafficking charges. The judge sentenced him to 10 years in a maximum-security prison. Stan turned this to good. He did a lot of reading, writing, and soul searching in prison. After many letters to judges and correctional officials, he was accepted into a drug rehabilitation program while still in prison.
Fast forward a few years and determined to be a different person to what so many people expected, he completed a master’s in business administration and a PhD focused on diabetes and physiology in four years, and finished at the top of his class. He is now a tenured academic with an international reputation in his field.
Watch a recording of this event.
Main Photo Credit: Bonnie Jo Mount/Washington Post