WIB-Seattle Leadership Spotlight: Carina Pizzano

Carina Pizzano
PhD student at Columbia University
Past WIB-Seattle YWIB Outreach Coordinator 

Carina Pizzano served as WIB-Seattle’s Young Women In Bio Outreach Coordinator in 2023. She is currently a PhD student in the Neurobiology and Behavior program at Columbia University in New York City.

“I was always a very curious child, asking three million questions,” she said. “That curiosity was something that drove me to like science.” Carina earned her bachelor’s degree in genetics from Rutgers University in New Jersey, where she realized she wanted to pursue research. “Through my major, I was required to do three semesters of research. I got to pick interesting topics; it had to just be related to DNA in some way. I’ve always been interested in how genetics and psychology were tied together.” After completing her undergraduate degree, Carina moved to Seattle. “I took three gap years and moved to Seattle, where I worked as a research technician at a neuroscience lab at the University of Washington,” she said. “I was really focused on building up my research experience before applying to grad school.”

While living in Seattle, Carina found Women In Bio by Googling outreach positions related to science. “I did a lot of outreach in college, and that was something that I missed. Even though I was part of the University of Washington, a lot of the outreach resources were geared toward students and faculty, and not really staff. I just couldn’t find anything through UW that was a good fit for me,” she said. “I Googled ‘science outreach in Seattle’ and came across Women In Bio. I was super interested in YWIB. I came to a couple of meetings, and the board wanted to try a new position with the outreach coordinator. WIB is a bit more of a career-oriented organization, but there was space for me to work with kids and try to help the younger generation’s access to science. Being able to try to make a difference in young women’s lives was super important to me.”

Since Carina wrapped up her time at WIB-Seattle, she’s been pursuing her passion for neuroscience. “My research focus is mostly on neuropsychiatric disorders and their molecular underpinnings, exploring why we have psychiatric disorders on a molecular level. It’s an up-and-coming field, but it’s still underfunded and not studied enough compared to, for example, cardiac care. The discrepancy is acute,” she said. “It’s something I’m passionate about, helping people in a way that is more than just what we have available now. I find that to be very fulfilling.” 

During her time in academia, Carina has noticed disparities not only when it comes to available funding for her chosen field of study but also when it comes to imbalanced gender ratios in her courses and labs. “It’s getting better, but academia is stereotypically majority men in the field, especially as you get higher up. For example, in my cohort for grad school, there are 15 of us: 10 women and five men. But as you look up to PhD students, then postdoc fellows, you see fewer women. And then looking at the principal investigator level, men completely outnumber women,” she said. “That has to do with access to resources for women in these careers. A lot of women who want to have children but have an equally demanding job as when they were a PhD student, and then they have to decide if they want to have a family. Postdocs do not get paid enough and don’t have typical job benefits. The woman who does make it has to be a powerhouse of a woman—extremely hardworking, awards, fellowships—and that’s impressive, but that shouldn’t be what you have to do to get to that step. And furthermore, often the onus is on women to recruit more women, if you want more women in your field.”

Carina’s advice to overcome gender disparities in academia is to be persistent. “Especially for women, there are so many barriers. Even just getting into research without the exact right background, or there are things you don’t quite know how to do. Sending 50 cold emails can make you feel defeated, but just keep going,” she said. “There is a place for you here, even if it doesn’t feel like it. You belong. If you have a passion, you’ll find it, for sure.” Now that Carina has found her passion and her place in academia, she’s also found a way to reframe her professional goals. “It’s not necessarily about where or what you get to, whether it’s a principal investigator or not. I think it’s mostly about whether you feel driven in what you’re doing and able to think critically in a way that will help the field grow,” she said. “I try not to think about what’s the highest stage of my career I can get to because I don’t know exactly what I want at this point. But I’m excited for how I will grow scientifically and help the community.”

Thank you, Carina, for all the work that you did for our YWIB community! We wish you all the best in your research in NYC.

Submitted by Mariana Huben