Upstander training

Ashalla Freeman, PhD, is the Director of Diversity Affairs in the Office of Graduate Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine (UNC SOM) and has served as Director of the UNC Initiative for Maximizing Student Development since 2014. She develops, administers, and oversees the evaluation of programs and services that support the success of underrepresented students in biomedical research. She mentors graduate students to aid their successful navigation of higher education, manages underrepresented graduate student recruitment, and serves on admissions committees for UNC’s biomedical PhD programs. Dr. Freeman also serves as Director of Underrepresented Postdoctoral Access & Success in the Office of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (ODEI) at the UNC SOM. In the ODEI, she works to elevate DEI priorities from the basic sciences, and to develop and deliver DEI educational workshops/trainings, and enhance the recruitment, retention, and success of BIPOC across the SOM. Dr. Freeman has significant pedagogical training and preparation in mentoring, professional/career development, and broad background in biomedical research, science education, and DEI-education and training.

She holds a BS degree in Chemistry from Tougaloo College, a PhD in Microbiology/Immunology (bacterial pathogenesis) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and she completed her postdoctoral training in UNC’s SPIRE Program and the Department of Microbiology/Immunology (bacterial genetics & protein biochemistry).