Kaitlyn Miranda Earns McKnight Fellow Award

Congratulations to Kaitlyn Miranda, an ENCOURAGE Diversity intern under the mentorship of Dr. Elsa Flores, for being selected as a McKnight Fellow. The McKnight Fellowship program is designed to address the underrepresentation of African American and Hispanic faculty at colleges and universities in the state of Florida by increasing the pool of citizens qualified with PhD degrees. Upon graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering in spring 2024, Kaitlyn will begin earning her PhD in Cancer Biology at Moffitt in collaboration with the University of South Florida.

Kaitlyn has been characterizing microtumors as an ex vivo model and repurposing a diabetes drug as an anti-cancer agent for squamous cell carcinoma in the Flores Lab. This experience will serve as a catalyst for Kaitlyn to pursue her career goal of becoming “a principal investigator (PI), bridging bioengineering and cancer biology concepts to find innovative treatment solutions.”

Kaitlyn Miranda is doing great work in cancer research and we cannot wait to see her career and educational journey continue to flourish as she becomes a Cancer Biology PhD student in fall of 2024!