Glendale resident Nancy McQueen awarded 2017 Clare Boothe Luce Scholarship

Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) is pleased to announce that Nancy McQueen, professor of microbiology and associate dean for the College of Natural and Social Sciences at California State University, Los Angeles, was selected to attend the 2017 HERS Institute at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania from July 9-22, 2017.

A Glendale resident, McQueen was awarded a CBL (Clare Booth Luce) Scholarship that provides full tuition, accommodations, meals and travel to women in STEM higher education to attend the HERS Institute at either the University of Denver or Bryn Mawr College. McQueen will be part of the HERS Luce Program for Women in STEM Leadership.

A Cal State LA faculty member since 1989, McQueen teaches a wide variety of courses including general medical microbiology, pathogenic bacteriology, virology, hematology and molecular diagnostics. In addition, she provides research training to undergraduate and graduate students in the University’s Department of Biological Sciences.

McQueen's research is focused on the structure and function of Sendai virus proteins as they relate to viral pathogenesis. The long-term goal of her lab is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in viral infection.

She is a licensed clinical laboratory scientist in the state of California, and is an associate member of the American Society of Clinical Pathology. McQueen received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the UCLA Medical School, followed by post-doctoral training in biology at Beckman Research Institute at the City of Hope.

In November 2015 HERS was awarded a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation in celebration of 25 years of extraordinary support for individual women students and faculty in science through the Clare Booth Luce (CBL) Program. Agreeing with the Luce Foundation that the advancement of women in STEM education requires advancing more women into leadership roles in STEM fields and into senior positions supporting STEM, HERS will draw upon over 40 years of providing leadership development experiences for women in higher education through its intensive residential programs, the HERS Leadership Institutes.

A key part of the HERS Luce Program is the development of a HERS STEM Community. The goals of the community are to provide support and encouragement to women in STEM and to develop strategies for advancing a diverse cadre of women into STEM leadership roles. Based on experience with HERS alumnae in STEM fields and research on women’s leadership paths, HERS has identified the importance of women leaders having structured peer and mentor connections at various stages of their careers. Working together this community of women leaders can thrive and shape a new environment for equality and excellence in STEM higher education.

McQueen will join a group of approximately 60 women leaders from across the United States as part of the HERS Institute at Bryn Mawr College, six of whom were awarded the CBL Scholarships.

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