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Gilliam Fellows Program

The program provides awards to pairs of dissertation advisers and their graduate students based on what HHMI values and considers essential components of the environment, particularly the institution and adviser’s commitment to creating a healthy academic ecosystem and the student’s potential for scientific leadership.

In the News

51 Gilliam Fellowships Awarded

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2019 Gilliam Awardees
2019 Gilliam Awardees

The goals of the Gilliam program are to ensure that students from groups historically excluded from and underrepresented in science are prepared to assume leadership roles in science and science education, and to foster the development of a healthier, more inclusive academic scientific ecosystem by partnering with faculty and institutions committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the sciences.

Gilliam Advisers

Gilliam Advisers play a key role as change-makers who can foster the development of a more inclusive academic scientific environment. To facilitate this role, all Advisers participate in a year-long, culturally responsive mentorship development course, which is a hallmark of the Gilliam program.

Advisers are empowered to disseminate lessons learned to their lab, department, and institution to make an exponentially greater impact on creating a healthy academic scientific ecosystem. Additionally, Advisers receive a modest award to address challenges to diversity and inclusion at the graduate level.

Through their development of diversity and inclusion projects, Advisers can leverage their influence and implement activities to lessen undue burden from populations historically excluded and underrepresented in science.

Read about Advisers’ Projects »
“I used the knowledge gained from the Gilliam mentor training to develop workshops for faculty in my department on how to create and maintain an inclusive and diverse work environment. Faculty that participated see a visible change in the confidence of their underrepresented mentees.”

Gilliam Fellows

Becoming part of a diverse, supportive, and strong community of scholars is a highlight of the Gilliam Fellows’ experience in the program.

Fellows’ attendance at the Gilliam Annual Meeting and participation in HHMI leadership training gives them the tools to use their strengths and experiences to the benefit of science, to influence the environment, maximize their collaborations, and elevate their voices as scientific leaders.

Gilliam-specific sessions at the HHMI Science Meetings further enable Fellows to engage with their peers, increase their scientific knowledge, and gain important insight and advice from leading HHMI scientists.
“The Gilliam community constantly inspires me. It has given me a group of peers to whom I can relate, who are passionate about scientific discovery, pursuing careers in academia, and making science a more inclusive space for people of all backgrounds. The support of my Gilliam family has been invaluable throughout graduate school, and I know these relationships will remain throughout my entire career.”

About James H. Gilliam, Jr.

The Gilliam Fellows Program was created in 2004 in honor of the late James H. Gilliam, Jr., a charter Trustee of HHMI and chair of its Audit and Compensation Committee. Mr. Gilliam was a respected business and civic leader who spent his life nurturing excellence and diversity in science and education.

Gilliam Fellows group photo in 2019
2017 Gilliam Advisers
  • Fellows are supported for up to three years of dissertation research, typically in years
    3–5 of PhD study.
  • For the 2023 fellowship cohort the award amount is $53,000 per year. This includes an annual fellow stipend of $36,000, an institution allowance (in lieu of tuition and fees) of $10,000, a fellow’s discretionary allowance of $4,000, and an adviser allowance of $3,000 to support diversity and inclusion efforts at the graduate level.

Advisers' Benefits

  • Engage in a thirty-hour, year-long culturally responsive mentorship development course through interactive online modules and in-person meetings
  • Build a community of advisers and share knowledge and experiences
  • Learn best practices in improving communication, managing expectations, and developing equitable and inclusive mentoring relationships from nationally recognized facilitators
  • Develop an implementation plan to disseminate mentor training with feedback from facilitators
  • Receive support to address challenges to diversity and inclusion at the graduate level

Read about Advisers’ Projects »

“I chose to focus my initial dissemination efforts from the Gilliam Adviser training on teaching the faculty in my department about culturally aware and inclusive practices. Faculty learn specific actions they can take to improve mentoring and create a more inclusive culture in science. Most importantly, they appear to be discussing cultural awareness regularly and taking individual actions to effect positive changes in our graduate training environments.”

Fellows' Benefits

  • Become part of a vibrant, supportive community of Gilliam Fellows
  • Enhance leadership and professional development skills in annual training
  • Present research and network with other trainees and scientists at the Gilliam annual meeting and at HHMI science meetings
  • Gain career advice and insight from HHMI investigators at Gilliam-specific discussion sessions
  • Receive support to participate in discipline-specific meetings, advanced courses, and other professional development events and activities
“The Gilliam Fellows’ discussion with HHMI Investigator Dr. Samara Reck-Peterson was very worthwhile. I will utilize her advice in collaborating with lab members, being truly invested in their research, and effectively communicating my most valuable attributes when applying to postdoc positions. She was very open to sharing her own hardships and showed her humility and honesty in that teamwork is a key contributor to academic breakthroughs.”

HHMI’s Gilliam Fellows Program is open to eligible pairs comprising thesis advisers and PhD students (“adviser-student pairs”). Application for the Gilliam Fellows Program is by invitation only.

  • Adviser-student pairs must be nominated by the HHMI-designated nominator.
  • Adviser-student pairs must be studying scientific problems in biomedical sciences, life sciences, and biological questions in related disciplines. This includes basic research on a variety of biological systems and at all scales including at the molecular, cellular, organismal, and ecological levels. This initiative does not support social science research.
  • Prospective fellows must be (i) U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents, undocumented childhood arrivals, or undocumented individuals who have been granted temporary permission to stay in the U.S. (DACA), and (ii) be from populations excluded from and underrepresented in science because of ethnicity, race, or disability status, or alumni of the HHMI EXROP program and (iii) be at the appropriate stage of their PhD training.

Notifications will be sent to the designated nominator by HHMI in August, and the deadline for nominations for the competition is late-September. (See Application tab)

Nominations should be made of students who (i) are in their second or third year of a PhD program, and/or (ii) have at least two full years of study remaining as of September 1, 2023.

Students who are enrolled in or affiliated with a funded MD/PhD or other dual-degree program are not eligible (e.g., MSTP or institutionally funded program).

Note: Application for the Gilliam Fellows Program is by invitation only.

HHMI’s Gilliam Fellowships are awarded on the basis of:

  1. The student’s promise as a scientific investigator and leader in the scientific community;
  2. The commitment and/or demonstrated ability of the thesis adviser and institution to develop scientists, especially persons from populations historically excluded from and underrepresented in science;
  3. The demonstrated commitment by the thesis adviser and institution to facilitate institutional change to create a healthy and inclusive academic scientific ecosystem for all members (e.g., graduate students, postdocs, early career faculty);
  4. An evaluation of all submitted materials from the nominator, adviser, student, and previous research adviser. All these materials will be critical elements in the evaluation of the application.

Components of the application

Nomination and Eligibility Confirmation (from the nominator)

  • Due: September 29, 2022

Application (nominator, thesis adviser, student)

  • Opens: October 20, 2022
  • Closes: December 8, 2022

External Letter of Support (from student’s previous research adviser)

  • Opens: October 20, 2022
  • Closes: December 8, 2022

Please note that the application prompts are subject to change for each new competition. For more information about the nomination and application components, please refer to the 2023 Gilliam Program Announcement (PDF). 

Current Fellows and Advisers

Cohort Year Fellow Adviser/Co-Adviser Institution
2022 Karim Abdelaal Kafui Dzirasa Duke University
2022 Jaquesta Adams Markita Landry University of California, Berkeley
2022 Joseph Aguilera Erica Larschan Brown University
2022 Ifé Akano Yael David Weill Cornell Medicine
2022 Aura Alonso-Rodriguez Taylor Ricketts University of Vermont
2022 Natasha Baas-Thomas Donald Katz Brandeis University
2022 Laymon Ball Laura Lagomarsino Louisiana State University
2022 Myles Bartholomew Richard Freiman Brown University
2022 Albit Caban Steve Ramirez Boston University
2022 Jose Campos Duran Sarah Henrickson University of Pennsylvania
2022 Alexis Carey Ashani Weeraratna The Johns Hopkins University
2022 Jesus Castor-Macias Carlos Aguilar University of Michigan
2022 Lennice Castro Matthew Daugherty University of California, San Diego
2022 Carlene Chinn Marcelo Wood University of California, Irvine
2022 Elaida Dimwamwa Garrett Stanley Georgia Institute of Technology
2022 Ryan Elbashir Matthew Vander Heiden Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022 Yesenia Garcia Shannon Gourley Emory University
2022 Melanie Gil Vivian Gama Vanderbilt University
2022 Tania Gonzalez-Robles Kelly Ruggles New York University Grossman School of Medicine
2022 Billie Goolsby Lauren O'Connell Stanford University
2022 Ayress Grinage Chelsea Specht Cornell University
2022 Miguel Guardado Ryan Hernandez University of California, San Francisco
2022 Nadia Holness Sarah Ewald University of Virginia School of Medicine
2022 Yanabah Jaques Daniela Kaufer University of California, Berkeley
2022 Jarildy Javier Larry Young
Malavika Murugan		 Emory University
2022 Jessica Jones John Tuthill University of Washington
2022 Krisangel López Albert Auguste Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
2022 Maya Lopez-Ichikawa Matthew Spitzer University of California, San Francisco
2022 Peter Lotfy Jose Ordovas-Montanes Harvard Medical School
2022 Ricardo Lozoya Richard Daneman University of California, San Diego
2022 Kimberly Lukasik Stephanie Gupton The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2022 Ahmed Mahmoud Karuna Ganesh Weill Cornell Medicine
2022 Vanessa Mariscal Fitnat Yildiz
Seth Rubin		 University of California, Santa Cruz
2022 Reo Maynard Gordon Bennett University of California, Merced
2022 Daniel Mendez Thomas Bastian
Michael Georgieff		 University of Minnesota Medical School
2022 Katherine Morillo Coleen Murphy Princeton University
2022 Lauren Neal Leslie Vosshall The Rockefeller University
2022 Katia Niño Eric Pietras University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
2022 Maria Ortiz-Juza Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2022 Alexander Paredes Aaron Smith University of Maryland, Baltimore County
2022 Leila May Pascual Sam Sober Emory University
2022 Zeena Rivera Alicia Izquierdo
Andrew Wikenheiser		 University of California, Los Angeles
2022 Cristina Rivera Quiles Michelle Mazei-Robison Michigan State University
2022 Leeza Santiago Millan Fred Winston Harvard Medical School
2022 Franklin Staback Rodriguez Janis Burkhardt University of Pennsylvania
2022 Eric Stokes Jason Aoto University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
2022 Héctor Torres Vera Alanna Schepartz University of California, Berkeley
2022 Axel Vera Ronald Raines Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022 Jillian Walton Alison Buchan University of Tennessee, Knoxville
2022 Franceine Welcome Michael Airola Stony Brook University
2022 Maya Woolfolk Hopi Hoekstra Harvard University
2021 Briana Aboulache Karolin Luger University of Colorado Boulder
2021 Analine Aguayo Sonya Neal University of California, San Diego
2021 Robin Aguilar William Noble
Brian Beliveau		 University of Washington
2021 Carlos Alvarado Joseph Puglisi Stanford University
2021 Ester Alvarez Benedicto Daniel Siegwart The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2021 Kwasi Amofa Sanjay Kumar University of California, Berkeley
2021 Aldo Arellano Kerri Coon University of Wisconsin-Madison
2021 Emily Ashkin Monte Winslow Stanford University
2021 Dante Avalos Catherine Drennan Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2021 Daniel Barrero Sue Biggins Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center/University of Washington
2021 Bobbie Brown Robert Gereau Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
2021 Micah Burton Martin Jonikas Princeton University
2021 Marvic Carrillo-Terrazas Hiutung Chu University of California, San Diego
2021 Jessica Castrillon Lal Feixiong Cheng Case Western Reserve University
2021 Ya'el Courtney Maria Lehtinen Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard University
2021 Kimberly Diaz Perez Elizabeth Leslie Emory University
2021 Christopher Doering Michael Laub Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2021 Lisset Duran Jose Avalos
Daniel J. Cohen		 Princeton University
2021 Chelsy Eddings Shigeki Watanabe
Seth Margolis		 The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2021 Mélise Edwards Agnes Lacreuse University of Massachusetts Amherst
2021 Dwayne Evans Cassandra Extavour Harvard University
2021 Michael B. Fernando Paul Slesinger
Kristen Brennand		 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
2021 Jaime Fuentes Eric Martens University of Michigan
2021 Jesse Garcia Castillo Michel DuPage University of California, Berkeley
2021 Karla García-Martínez Cynthia Leifer Cornell University
2021 Alfredo Gonzalez Paul Boutros University of California, Los Angeles
2021 Angel Gonzalez-Valero Christopher Chang University of California, Berkeley
2021 Elijah Hall Emily Elliott University of Pittsburgh
2021 Kelly Kennewick Steven Bensinger University of California, Los Angeles
2021 Arden Lee Virginia Cornish Columbia University
2021 Lindsey Lopes Daniel Kronauer The Rockefeller University
2021 Chloe Lopez-Lee Li Gan Weill Cornell Medicine
2021 Gabriel Luna-Arvizu Daniel Grimes
Karen Guillemin		 University of Oregon
2021 Matthew McDonough Jonathan Staley The University of Chicago
2021 Sofia Moraes Reuben Harris University of Minnesota Medical School
2021 Evan Morrison Olivia Rissland University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
2021 Tiara Napier Anna Sorace University of Alabama at Birmingham
2021 Martha Ordonez Edward Chouchani Harvard Medical School
2021 Gabrielle Paniccia Charles Rice The Rockefeller University
2021 Sara Ricardez Hernandez Christian Lorson University of Missouri-Columbia
2021 Maria Pia Rodriguez Salazar Cagla Eroglu Duke University Medical Center
2021 Loranzie Rogers Joseph Sisneros University of Washington
2021 Amanda Ruiz Jonathan Kurtis Brown University
2021 Nancy Sey Hyejung Won
Joyce Besheer		 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
2021 Nicolas Shealy Mariana Byndloss Vanderbilt University
2021 Tara Spencer Rachel Dutton University of California, San Diego
2021 Fernando Valbuena Benjamin Glick The University of Chicago
2021 Tammi van Neel Ashleigh Theberge University of Washington
2021 Alejandra Villegas Vasant Muralidharan University of Georgia
2021 Abbey Williams Lisa Arendt University of Wisconsin-Madison
2020 Jessica Aguilar Noah Whiteman University of California, Berkeley
2020 Aurora Alvarez-Buylla Lauren O'Connell Stanford University
2020 Katherine Aracena Luis Barreiro The University of Chicago
2020 Marissa Baccas Kelly Liu Cornell University
2020 Erika Bueno Yolanda Chen University of Vermont
2020 Jillybeth Burgado Nicola Allen Salk Institute for Biological Studies/University of California, San Diego
2020 Clara Cano Kathrin Plath University of California, Los Angeles
2020 Daniel Cardozo Pinto Robert Malenka Stanford University School of Medicine
2020 Nicole Claiborne Karen Zito University of California, Davis
2020 Alvin Crespo-Bellido Siobain Duffy Rutgers University-New Brunswick
2020 Ryan Daniels Robert Mauck Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
2020 Briana Davis John Rawls Duke University School of Medicine
2020 Ulises Diaz Wallace Marshall University of California, San Francisco
2020 Nadia Fernandez Lisa Komoroske University of Massachusetts Amherst
2020 Nina Marie Garcia James Alvarez Duke University
2020 Andrea Guerrero Gina Turrigiano Brandeis University
2020 Michael Hopkins Seth Margolis The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2020 Lillian Horin Timothy Mitchison Harvard Medical School
2020 Ilenna Jones Konrad Kording University of Pennsylvania
2020 Kody Mansfield Shruti Naik New York University Grossman School of Medicine
2020 Matthew Maxwell Diana Hargreaves Salk Institute for Biological Studies/University of California, San Diego
2020 Hernán Méndez Thomas Kash The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
2020 Thomas Mota Ritchie Ho Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
2020 Priscila Muñoz-Sandoval K. Mark Ansel University of California, San Francisco
2020 Sofia Neira Thomas Kash The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
2020 Nghia Nguyen Mark Andermann Harvard University
2020 Jacob Ortega Swathi Arur The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center/Baylor College of Medicine
2020 Ana Ortiz Genevieve Konopka The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
2020 Miguel Pacheco Rachel Green The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
2020 Jacqueline Peña Douda Bensasson University of Georgia
2020 Gabriella Perez Joanna Jankowsky Baylor College of Medicine
2020 German Rojas Aakanksha Singhvi Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center/University of Washington
2020 Jessica Schwarz Amita Sehgal Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
2020 Candilianne Serrano-Zayas David Ginsburg University of Michigan Medical School
2020 Mariluz Soula Kivanc Birsoy The Rockefeller University
2020 Alana Van Dervort Douglas Melton Harvard University
2020 Carlos Vasquez Alexis Komor University of California, San Diego
2020 Sheena Vasquez Catherine Drennan Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2020 Santiago Yori Restrepo Andreas Martin University of California, Berkeley
2019 Elise Adamson Kafui Dzirasa Duke University
2019 Devin Gibbs April Pyle University of California, Los Angeles
2019 Kelly Montgomery Jason Gestwicki University of California, San Francisco
2019 Ferra Pinnock Susan Daniel Cornell University
2019 Josue Regalado Priya Rajasethupathy The Rockefeller University
2019 Donte Stevens Samara Reck-Peterson University of California, San Diego
2019 Alexis Toliver Judy Liu Brown University

2019-2022 cohorts active as of September 1, 2022.

Program Alumni


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Fellows’ Perspectives

Stefany Rubio

2018 Gilliam Fellow, University of California, Santa Cruz

“The discussion sessions with HHMI Investigators are very motivational. For me, their stories are the most memorable part of each Science Meeting. I am so grateful for their honesty and openness – they share failures and successes. Storytelling has a profound way of making someone that may feel like an outcast feel included and shift the way they fit into the scientific community. It allows us to identify with someone who we didn't know we shared so much with and makes us feel welcomed.”

Willow Coyote-Maestas

2018 Gilliam Fellow, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

“The HHMI Science Meeting was one of the most inspiring experiences of my academic career so far! The talks were extraordinary. I shared my science with a Nobel laureate in my field and I was inspired by how excited he got about what I was working on. Overall, I loved talking science with and felt supported by the investigators.”

Marc Sprague-Piercy

2019 Gilliam Fellow, University of California, Irvine

“The Gilliam annual meeting was invaluable for helping me believe that I can make a larger impact in my community than before. The connections and training that were offered by the meeting will be sure to have a profound impact on the rest of my career.”

Patricka Williams-Simon

2018 Gilliam Fellow, University of Missouri

"Imagine having a community of graduate students nationwide that support each other and create an environment where everyone can thrive while being their authentic and best self. That’s the Gilliam family. I love my Gilliam family!”