O. Hecmarie Mélendez-Fernández, PhD

Hecmarie is an advisor at Eli Lilly & Company. She obtained her BS in Integrative Biology from the University of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras, and then went on to complete various research experiences including a summer internship at The Ohio State University under Randy J. Nelson, PhD, (who would later become her graduate advisor), and a postbaccalaureate research year at Baylor College of Medicine. She earned her PhD in Neuroscience, studying how exposure to artificial light at night impairs vascular endothelial function, metabolism and sleep, in a sex-dependent fashion.
Throughout her career, Hecmarie has experienced the value of mentors and advisors throughout her career, so her goal in volunteering with CL is to pay it forward. She is passionate about mentoring and contributing to the formation of future scientists, focused on the inclusion, education, and retention of underrepresented minorities and Latinx populations in science - whatever form that science takes (academic research, non-academic research, clinical trials, industry, sci comm, sci art, etc).