Professional Development Series (PDS)

Dr. Harriott was born and raised just outside of Cleveland, Ohio.  She graduated with Honors in both Chemistry and Biology from Ashland University in 1999.  She went on to study organic and peptidomimetic synthetic chemistry as a NIH predoctoral fellow under Professor Murray Goodman at UCSD earning her PhD in 2004. In the Goodman lab she designed and synthesized unnatural amino acids and incorporated them into novel peptidomimetic opioids.  She then went on to expand her synthetic skills as an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Viresh Rawal at the University of Chicago.  In Professor Rawal’s lab, she worked towards the total synthesis of Haouamine A.  In 2006, Nicole returned to San Diego as a Research Scientist at Neurocrine Biosciences.  It’s here that Nicole expanded her Medicinal Chemistry skills resulting in the discovery of Ingrezza, which is approved in the US and Japan for the treatment of Tardive Dyskinesia.  Nicole is now the Vice President of Chemistry and Enabling Technologies at Neurocrine Biosciences heading up the small molecule discovery platform. 

Bonnie Bertolaet, Ph.D., has been the Executive Director with Science Club for Girls (SCFG) since 2019. Founded in 1994, Science Club for Girls is a nonprofit organization that addresses inequities in STEM around race, gender, and socioeconomics. With women making up less than 29% of the STEM workforce — and Black and Latina women at less than 4% — Science Club for Girls addresses a critical need, offering a continuum of engaging STEM activities for K-12 girls and gender-expansive youth by providing free, experiential programs and by maximizing meaningful interactions with women-in-STEM mentors. Under Dr. Bertolaet’s leadership, SCFG has experienced continuous expansion, including the addition of virtual programming in response to the pandemic, spring and summer vacation programming, and creation of a weekly online TV show, all while expanding engagement from corporate and community partners. SCFG’s current K-12 strategy, and storied 30-year history, places it in a unique position to address systemic inequities in STEM around gender, race and socioeconomic factors to transform the face of STEM and build the pipeline for a future of diverse, skilled STEM workforce. Prior to SCFG, Dr. Bertolaet conducted research in cancer and inflammation in the fields of biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology and as a drug discovery scientist in biotech before transitioning to STEM education. She worked with educational organizations in public and private schools in a variety of roles before then moving to the non-profit sector and joining leadership at Science Club for Girls. Dr. Bertolaet received her B.A. from Amherst College and her Ph.D. from Harvard University and trained as an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of California San Diego and The Scripps Research Institute. She also currently serves on The Kenneth C. Griffin Graduate School Alumni Association Council for Harvard University.