K-12 to undergrad, Stevens–Truss helps all students

“Education is the great equalizer. If you have an education, people can’t take anything away from you. That’s part of who you are.”

This core belief motivated Regina Stevens–Truss to pursue her Ph.D. and remains a reason for all she does as a professor.

Regina Stevens-Truss

Growing up in Panama wasn’t easy for Stevens–Truss; her unwed mother, who had immigrated from Colombia, died when she was 5. But she always loved science and math. After her father brought her to the United States, she continued her education.

With the encouragement of mentors over the years, Stevens–Truss earned a Ph.D. in medicinal chemistry from the University of Toledo. Now a professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, she will receive the 2023 ASBMB Award for Exemplary Contributions to Education in recognition of her commitment to students.

In addition to teaching and mentoring, Stevens–Truss has co-organized numerous ASBMB-sponsored workshops and meetings and co-chaired several interest groups, all focused on innovative teaching approaches.

A decade ago, when she was a member of the ASBMB’s Minority Affairs (now Maximizing Access) Committee, Stevens–Truss said, the society had no programs to get high school students interested in science and ready for college. In 2012, she became a principal investigator of a National Science Foundation grant that funded a K-12 outreach initiative called the Hands-On Outreach to Promote Engagement in Science, or HOPES, project.

Also important to Stevens–Truss are social justice and inclusion. “I am always looking for the next way of impacting kids that look like me at all ages,” she said.

Stevens–Truss organized the NSF-funded Science and Social Justice Think Tank conference in 2016, which helped people think about ways to teach science in a more socially just way. She teaches a class called Infection: Global Health and Social Justice, and she directs a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Inclusive Excellence grant that helps level the educational playing field for students from underrepresented backgrounds.

With creatively engaging teaching methods, Stevens–Truss brings science alive and sparks her students’ continued interest in biochemistry. She’s a compassionate role model as well as a pillar of support and guidance. And it’s a two-way street.
“They inspire me, they keep me going, they really help me think hard about what I do,” she said. “My students teach me, I think, just as much as they say I teach them.”