ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Takita Sumter, dean of Winthrop University’s College of Arts and Sciences, was recently re-elected to the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) Council.
The ASBMB Council serves as an advisory board to the society’s president and the executive director for setting priorities and strategic directions, overseeing resources and ensuring that all activities align with the mission of the society. Councilors are elected for three-year terms and can be re-elected or reappointed to serve one additional term.
Terms for Sumter, along with two other members - Charles Craik, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and Susanna Fletcher Greer, clinical cancer research and immunology director at the American Cancer Society - will begin immediately and end in 2023.
Sumter already has served a three-year term on the council, beginning in 2017. Before that, she led the ASBMB Minority Affairs Committee for three years, during which time she co-directed the society's IMAGE grant-writing workshop.
She has been involved with ASBMB since the beginning of her career in academics and is passionate about inspiring burgeoning scientists. “This is critically important in an age when the health and safety of our citizens depends on high-risk, data-driven research that can be quickly and accurately verified,” Sumter said. “The ASBMB’s publications and its annual meeting will be more important than ever over the next few years, given the national state of affairs.”
She is excited about continuing to provide input on the society’s work on these and other issues. Other outstanding initiatives sponsored by the ASBMB that speak to her values as a scientist include the IMAGE program, the Marion B. Sewer Distinguished Scholarship for Undergraduates, the undergraduate poster competition and Student Chapters.
For more information, contact Sumter at sumtert@winthrop.edu.
