WiNS President

Marlene McKinney is the President of CCNY Women in Science (WinS). She is a third-year majoring in Physics with aConcentration in Biomedical Physics. She also has minors in Biology and Mathematics and is a pre-medical student in the CCNY Pre-Health Program.

Marlene is passionate about community outreach and leadership, especially regarding mentorship. Her motivation comes from her background as a Black queer woman; the discouraging lack of representation in both physics and her dream field of neurosurgery has driven her to guide younger students who were in the same place that she was. Bringing STEM, and physics especially, to students from Harlem is a large goal of hers during her years at CCNY. She does this primarily through the Harlem Gallery of Science’s mentorship program with the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP). She engages in the STEM community heavily within and outside of City College. She is the president of the CCNY Physics Club, which proudly represents the Physics Department in numerous capacities, and is on the executive board for Physicians for Human Rights at the CUNY School of Medicine. She also is the City College Undergraduate Student Ambassador for the American Physical Society (APS), a CCNY Honors Program student, and a NIH MARC/U-RISE Fellow. She is a proud member of
APS, NSBP, and Biophysical Society.

She engages in intense research in her free time at the Center for Discovery and Innovation on City College’s South Campus. Her research focuses on the use of elastic protein derivatives for structural applications under the mentorship of Professor Ronald L. Koder. She hopes to develop this project into therapies for artery grafting for patients with vascular conditions or
ischemia. She plans on entering an MD/PhD program after her undergraduate education. She will pursue her PhD in biophysics to become a neurosurgeon-physicist and contribute towards health equity in Black and Brown communities nationwide. She aspires to become a provider and scientist who can guide her mentees towards their goals and allows for a safe space for patients that look like her to access care.