ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA — Winthrop University Chemistry Professor Takita Felder Sumter recently was elected to serve on the council for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).
The council is the society's governing body that includes the society's president,
past-president, treasurer, secretary and nine councilors. Of the nine councilors,
six are elected by society members.
Sumter was one of the two councilors elected this year by the membership. Her three-year
term begins July 1.
The society is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization with more than
12,000 members worldwide. Most members are faculty who teach and conduct research
at colleges and universities or researchers in various government laboratories, at
nonprofit research institutions and in industry.
Sumter was selected earlier this year as Winthrop's first Provost's Faculty Fellow in order to gain administrative experience and to provide a faculty perspective to
institutional leadership discussions. Sumter also mentors Winthrop students to conduct
research on high-mobility group A (HMGA) proteins in cancer signaling. After previous
service as chair of ASBMB's Minority Affairs Committee, Sumter is currently co-leading
the society's Interactive Mentoring Activities for Grantsmanship Enhancement (IMAGE)
program, a $500,000 National Science Foundation-funded initiative to mentor early-career
faculty across the country.
A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Sumter received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from
the University of South Carolina and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine prior to joining the faculty at Winthrop in
2004.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at longshawj@winthrop.edu or at 803/323-2404.