SEB 2018 Student Representative Ballot

Council  –  Danielle Cicka  |   David Felipe Rodriguez Mora

Cast your BALLOT here

The Election Closes Friday, May 11, 2018

Student Representative

Danielle Cicka

Danielle is an MD/PhD student at Emory University in the Molecular and Systems Pharmacology program. As she constructed her academic path and learned from ethnobotanists, she envisioned how to sustainably utilize plant-based therapies to fill the gap in the world’s health care needs. For her PhD research, she is working on discovering novel therapeutic targets for cancer treatment. In her career, she hopes to incorporate an ethnobotanical approach to drug discovery from natural products in ultimate support of finding novel therapies, supporting local communities, treating neglected diseases, and providing accessible health care.

As an MD/PhD student, I desire to use my unique position, straddling the research and the medical community, to bring knowledge and respect of the role of botany in health into the allopathic medical community. I believe the connection the medical field has with the botanical field can be strengthened and can be transformed into a strong ally. I would love to continue my time working with SEB as I will have even more time to devote to developing the new ideas the student committee and I have developed this year- including the map of locations of student members around the world and facilitating student-mentor relationships within the society. Over my graduate career, I have had the pleasure of learning from Dr. Cassandra Quave, and as President of the Emory chapter of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, I have been organizing research projects for students to develop oncology clinical trials for nutraceuticals around the world with Global Cures. This will hopefully lead to less expensive adjunct treatments for cancer, utilizing inexpensive natural sources.  I would love to continue to utilize my connections with the medical school and biomedical research community to assist SEB. Further, having had the pleasure of attending a Council call this year, I feel I have gotten to know how the society operates and would love to be a student representative.

David Felipe Rodriguez Mora

I am eagerly contacting you to express my motivation and interest in your student representative elect position for the Student Committee of the Society for Economic Botany (SEB). I am very inspired by the mission and trajectory of the SEB and the Student Committee, promoting research collaborations, outreach, and financial support for economic botany students. I believe that this is a superb opportunity for me to continue to expand my leading and networking skills, to potentiate the impact of new student intitiatives and the maintenance and expansion of the current ones. My drive to lead in this committee, centers on my desire to help the economic botany field to grow, by fostering meaningful cutting-edge multidisciplinary collaborations and community partnerships that make a difference in the protection and conservation of our biocultural heritage worldwide.

Your student representative elect position represents a unique opportunity for me to inspire and encourage economic botany students and scholars to further collaborate in research and community partnerships that create solutions our local and global culture and environmental challanges. I am confident that I will be a strong asset leading your student committee, for I have extensive communication and outreach skills.