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STEM Ambassadors

The STEM Ambassador Program began in 2016 as a training program for a small cohort of University of Utah scientists. Since then, we have grown to work with over 170 graduate students, post-docs, faculty, staff, and undergraduate students. Scroll down to learn about the scientists who have participated. Contact us if you would like to reach out to a STEM Ambassador.

Note that many Ambassador bios were uploaded when the Ambassador joined the program and may not be current.

Rebecca Goldstein Zitnay

Photo of Rebecca Goldstein Zitnay

Rebecca Goldstein Zitnay works at Huntsman Cancer Institute in the Lab of Michelle Mendoza. She is interested in how the environment around cells informs and directs their behavior and is pursuing her Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with an emphasis in biomaterials. In Dr. Mendoza’s lab, she is investigating how features of the environment around a lung tumor instruct cancer cells to invade away from the tumor. Her favorite part of this research project is getting to observe fluorescently labeled cells moving around in 3-dimensions under the microscope. When she is not in the lab, she is likely talking about science, reading books about inspiring people, outside playing in the Wasatch mountains, or exploring the southern Utah desert.