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by Aurora Washington

I feel that this was a short yet productive two years. I participated in multi-disciplinary research projects in my areas of interest: biotechnology, autism, neurotissue engineering, genetics and artificial intelligence (AI).

I built scholarly connections on campus and across the country. I had the opportunity to collaborate with people in the psychiatry, genetics and neuroscience and that is not to mention how nice it was to get to know and work with colleagues in the Center for Bioethics.

These collaborations led to two manuscripts and me developing and hosting the workshop “In Vitro Neural Platforms: Development and Integration into Health Care.”

I also have a manuscript that was recently accepted to the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders.

Publications from my time include:

  • Washington, AM, et.al. Parent Attitudes Towards Predictive Testing for Autism in the First Year of Life. Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. 2024 July 17,
  • Washington, A. et.al Considerations of the Beneficiary Inducement Statute on Access to Health Care Systems’ Population Genetic Screening. Public Health Genomics. 2023 Sep 29;26(1):183–7. doi: 10.1159/000534365
  • Canter, C., Foley, K., Callier, S., Meagher, K., Waltz, M., Washington, A., Cadigan, J., & Prince, A. (2023). The Slippery Slope of Prenatal Testing for Social Traits. The American Journal of Bioethics, 23(3), 36-38. doi:10.1080/15265161.2023.2169395

I don’t think of my time as a postdoctoral intern in the Office of Graduate Education as work; it is more a fulfilling extracurricular passion.

However, I participated in education research for Biological and Biomedical Science graduate students which aims to improve mental health and wellness for graduate student and improve mentor-mentee matching. During my time in the OGE office, I published a two-part opinion piece in Inside HigherEd:

I was also fortunate of enough to continue my passion  for teaching while enhancing my  pedagogical practices, by becoming an adjunct assistant professor at Elon University in the Biology Department.

In my spare time, I continued to generate content for my podcast, make guest appearances on other’s podcasts, guest lecture, participate on panels, moderate discussions, present at conferences and so much more.

While my time at UNC has been brief it was rewarding and I was able to expand on existing interests as well as gain experience in new research areas.

I am looking forward to continuing my academic training at Drake University Law School as a first-year law student in the fall of 2024, where I plan to focus on Intellectual Property law, artificial intelligence and Health Law, but of course I am open to exploration as I find it is the best way to learn.