Mission
To promote equal access to health, education, and opportunity for all people through teaching, research, practice, advocacy and service.
Education
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. (2005). M.A. in Bioethics and Health Policy. Interests include genetics and ethics, ethics of the use of 'race' in biomedical research, public understanding and application of bioethics, rural health care ethics, research ethics, access to biomedical and bioethics careers.
Emory University, Atlanta, GA. (2000). Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology. Dissertation: Characterization of human and Drosophila homologues of two Drosophila dosage compensation genes. John C. Lucchesi, Advisor.
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. (1993). B.A. in Biology. Oak Leaf Award recipient.
Little Rock Central High School, Little Rock, AR. (1989). Graduated cum laude.
Professional Experience
Emory University, Atlanta, GA (June 2007 - present) Adjunct Assistant Professor of Biology. Course Director for the Values in Science responsible conduct of research graduate course.
Garbrook Knowledge Resources, Beverly, MA. (March 2007 - present) Curator for the biofuels and bioproducts knowledgebase.
Emory University, Atlanta, GA.
(January 2005 - present) Senior program associate for a National Science Foundation FACES Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, which is aimed at broadening participation in the sciences and science professoriate
Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL. (January 2006 - May 2006) Visiting lecturer in the Genetics and Bioethics course. John Hardt, PhD, Instructor.
Incyte Corporation, Beverly, MA.
(July 2002 - January 2005) Editor for mammalian databases.
Incyte Genomics, Beverly, MA.
(March 2000 - June 2002) Assistant editor for the mammalian databases.
Proteome, Inc., Beverly, MA. (February 2000) Scientific curator for the G Protein Coupled Receptor Targeted Database.
Arkansas School for Mathematics and Science, Hot Springs, AR. (June 1993 - June 1994) General, organic, and biological chemistry teacher at the selective, statewide, public residential high school.
Certification
Invited Seminars, Professional activities
National Black Arts Festival DNA Institute, Atlanta, GA (2008) Guest speaker for the seminar for K-12 science teachers. Presented “’Race,’ Ancestry, and DNA Testing.” Collette M. Hopkins, PhD, Director of NBAF Education and Family Programs.
Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, GA (2006, 2007, 2008) Guest lecturer in Biotechnology and Social Change. Presented: "Bioethics and Genetic Technology" Linda A. Treiber, PhD, Assistant Professor.
Southeast Regional Society for Developmental Biology Meeting, Atlanta, GA (2008) Presented “Promoting Broad Participation in STEM: The experience of the Atlanta Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate.” Robert DeHaan, PhD, organizer.
Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA (2008) Guest speaker for Chemistry Department seminar series. Presented “Doing the Right Thing: Ethics and Responsibility in Chemistry”. Myron Williams, PhD, organizer.
Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA (2008) Presented: "Myths and Misperceptions about Cultures and Cultural Awareness: “Race”, Ethnicity, and Genetic Testing"
Spelman College, Atlanta, GA (2007) Guest speaker for Freshman Chemistry Seminar. Presented “Do the Right Thing: Selected Cases in Medical Ethics” Kimberly Jackson, PhD, Professor.
Spelman College, Atlanta, GA (2007) Guest speaker for Office of Science, Engineering and Technology Careers. Presented “Do the right thing: Issues and Cases in Bioethics”. Nina Walker, Director.
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA (2007) FACES Monthly Seminar Speaker. Presented: "Do the right thing: A workshop in responsible conduct of research" Kimberly Haynes, Organizer.
Atlanta Clinical and Translational Science Institute, Atlanta, GA (2007 - present) Member of the Section for Ethics in Research and Participant Advocacy. John Banja, PhD, Chair.
South Cobb High School, Austell, GA (2007) Guest speaker in Advanced Healthcare Sciences Technology. Presented: "A brief introduction to biomedical ethics" Michelle G. Hutchinson, DMD, Instructor.
Georgia Biomedical Partnership, Atlanta, GA (2006) Monthly meeting. Presented: "A brief overview of the ethics of human embryonic stem cell research."
Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia, Atlanta, GA (2006) Annual meeting. Presented: "Rethinking 'race' and justice in an ethnically diverse society."
Pope High School, Marietta, GA (2006) Guest speaker in Introduction to Healthcare Sciences Technology and Advanced Healthcare Sciences Technology. Presented: "A brief introduction to biomedical ethics" Michelle G. Hutchinson, DMD, Instructor.
Emory Clinical Trials Office Symposium: Ethics in Action, Atlanta, GA (2006) Ethics discussion group facilitator.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Washington, DC (2005) Presented: "Use and misuse of 'race' in biomedical research."
Black Women's Health Study, Howard University, Boston University. (August 2004 - present) Member of the Participant's Advisory Group. Lynn Rosenberg, Sc.D, prinicipal investigator.
Emory University, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Atlanta, GA (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) Served as panel member and keynote speaker (2004, 2005) for the annual Gradate Career Symposium. Hilary Ford, Assistant Dean and organizer.
Swarthmore College, Department of Biology, Swarthmore, PA (2004) Served as panel member for the Career Symposium. Amy Cheng Vollmer PhD, Professor and organizer
Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA (2002) Masters Thesis Committee for Carissa Grant, M.B.A., M.P.H.
Emory University, Department of Biology, Atlanta, GA (2002, 2003, 2004) Lectured on bioinformatics and proteomics to the undergraduate students in Genetics to Genomics. Victoria Finnerty, Ph.D., professor.
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Department of Education, Pine Bluff, AR (2001) Lectured on the fundamental of human genetics to the undergraduate students in three classes: Human growth and development, Foundations and Development of American Education, and Tests and Measurements. Linda Joshua, Ph.D., professor.
Emory University, School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA (1999, 2001) Lectured on the fundamental of human genetics to the high school students in the Emory Summer Science Discovery Camp.
Selected Conferences
University of Pittsburgh Survival Skills and Ethics Train-the-Trainer Conference, Snowmass Village, CO (2006)
Emory University Faculty Ethics Seminar, Atlanta, GA (2006) Discussant for human embryonic stem cell presentation.
Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia, Atlanta, GA (2006) Annual meeting.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Washington, DC (2005) Moderator for genetics paper session.
Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia, Decatur, GA (2005) Annual meeting. Student Scholarship recipient.
National Science Foundation Joint Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2005) Represented Emory NSF FACES AGEP.
South Carolina EPSCoR Retention Conference Rock Hill, SC (2005) Represented Emory NSF FACES AGEP.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Philadelphia, PA (2004)
National Conference of State Legislatures , Using Health Care Dollars Wisely, Denver, CO (2003) Workshop facilitator.
O'Reilly BioInformatics Technology Conference, San Diego, CA (2003) Represented Incyte Genomics.
Genetics and Disease, Cold Spring Harbor, NY (2002) Represented Incyte Genomics
O'Reilly BioInformatics Technology Conference, Tucson, AZ (2002) Represented Incyte Genomics.
IBC: Alzheimer's Gene Discovery to Therapeutic Applications, Atlanta, GA (2001) Represented Incyte Genomics.
American Society for Cell Biology, San Francisco, CA (2000) Represented Incyte Genomics.
Honors and Awards
University of Pittsburgh Survival Skills and Ethics Train-the-Trainer Conference, Snowmass Village, CO (2006) Travel Award recipient.
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, Washington, DC (2005) Early Career Travel Award recipient.
Health Care Ethics Consortium of Georgia, Decatur, GA (2005) Annual meeting. Student Scholarship recipient.
NIH Minority Predoctoral Fellowship, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. (1996)
NIH Training Grant, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. (1994)
Who's Who Among Students at American Colleges and Universities. (1996)
Oak Leaf Award for senior woman excellent in leadership, scholarship and service, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. (1993)
Pew Fellowship for Minority Undergraduates, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA. (1991)
McNeil Pharmaceuticals Summer Scholar, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. (1991)
Laboratory Research Experience
Emory University, Atlanta, GA. (Summer 1994 - Summer 2000) Characterized human homologues of Drosophila dosage compensation genes. John C. Lucchesi, Ph.D., principal investigator.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY. (Summer 1996) Studied advanced Drosophila genetics. Michael Ashburner, Ph.D. and R. Scott Hawley , Ph.D. course directors.
Rockefeller University New York, NY. (Summer 1992) Characterized expression patterns of the yes and yrk proto-oncogenes. Marius Sudol, Ph.D., principal investigator.
Temple University Philadelphia, PA (Summer 1991) Studied genetic aspects of Drosophila larval photokinesis and courtship behavior. Laurie Tompkins, Ph.D., principal investigator.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Little Rock, AR (Fall 1988 - Summer 1989, Summer 1990) Examined the regulation of the Drosophila lsp-2 gene. Helen Benes, Ph.D., principal investigator.
Academic Writing
Neal, KC. (May 22, 2008) "Google Health: Organizing Your Medical Information" in Bioethics Forum.
Neal, KC. (2008) Use and Misuse of "Race" in Biomedical Research. Online Journal of Health Ethics. 1(1). PDF PDF
Neal, KC. (2007) Health Literacy: More than a One Way Street. American Journal of Bioethics. 7(11):29-30.
Neal, KC. (2006) Analogical Trends in US Umbilical Cord Blood Legislation. American Journal of Bioethics. 6(6):68-70.
Neal, KC. (Apr 28, 2006) "P3/4 and the Coming Revolution" in Bioethics Forum.
Neal, KC, A Pannuti, ER Smith , JC Lucchesi. (2000) A new member of the MYST family of histone acetyltransferases with high sequence similarity to Drosophila MOF. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1490(1): 170-174.
Eisen, A, M Sattah, T Gazitt, K Neal, P Szauter, JC Lucchesi. (1998) A novel DEAD-box RNA helicase exhibits high sequence conservation from yeast to humans and localizes to the cytoplasm in Drosophila. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1397(2): 131-136.
Benes, H., KC Neal, RL Willis, D Gadde, AB Castleberry, SE Korochkina. (1996) Overlapping Lsp-2 gene sequences target expression to both the larval and adult Drosophila fat body. Insect Molecular Biology 5(1) 39-49.
Gordesky-Gold, B., JM Warrick, DP Kutzler, KC Neal, CM Coughlin, L Tompkins. (1996) Interstrain variability of larval photokinesis in Drosophila melanogaster. Behavior Genetics 26: 49-54.
Benes, H., DW Spivey, J Miles, K Neal, RG Edmondson. (1990) Fat body specific expression of the Drosophila Lsp-2 gene. SAAS Bulletin of Biochemistry and Biotechnology 3: 129-133.
Community Writing and Forums
So What Can I Do? (October 2005 - present) - The public service weblog promoting ethics in action. Editor and creator.
XO Users Group - For users and fans of the XO laptop from One Laptop Per Child. Creator.
Arkansas ExPat (Launching in 2009) - For Arkansans everywhere. Editor and creator.
