Environmental Health Sciences PhD Candidate | University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Megan E. Damico
About me & Research interests
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I am a first-generation college and graduate student from a low-income background and 5th-year PhD Candidate in the lab of Dr. Kasie Raymann at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro studying the evolution and fine-scale dynamics of the honey bee gut microbiome.
Both in my lab and outside of it, I am a driven leader in public engagement in science policy and advocacy. I co-founded Spartans for Science and Policy, a student group dedicated to creating training opportunities for early-career scientists at UNCG in science policy and advocacy, in my 2nd year of graduate school and turned this project into a career. After completing my Ph.D. in 2023, I will be pursuing a career in science policy and advocacy, where I hope to apply to science policy fellowships or work in the nonprofit space.
My work with the honeybee gut microbiome began in my junior year of undergrad when I worked at the University of Texas at Austin as an R.E.U student in the Summer Undergraduate Program for Experiential Research (SUPER) Program. I researched under then graduate student, Erick Motta, in the lab of Dr. Nancy Moran looking at the Lactobacillus gut species in honey bees and bumble bees. After graduating with a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, I continued my work on the honey bee gut microbiome by joining Dr. Kasie Raymann's lab as a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Environmental Health Sciences Program.
Both in my lab and outside of it, I am a driven leader in public engagement in science policy and advocacy. I co-founded Spartans for Science and Policy, a student group dedicated to creating training opportunities for early-career scientists at UNCG in science policy and advocacy, in my 2nd year of graduate school and turned this project into a career. After completing my Ph.D. in 2023, I will be pursuing a career in science policy and advocacy, where I hope to apply to science policy fellowships or work in the nonprofit space.
My work with the honeybee gut microbiome began in my junior year of undergrad when I worked at the University of Texas at Austin as an R.E.U student in the Summer Undergraduate Program for Experiential Research (SUPER) Program. I researched under then graduate student, Erick Motta, in the lab of Dr. Nancy Moran looking at the Lactobacillus gut species in honey bees and bumble bees. After graduating with a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI, I continued my work on the honey bee gut microbiome by joining Dr. Kasie Raymann's lab as a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the Environmental Health Sciences Program.
Current Work
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What Influences the Structure of a Microbiome?
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How do honey bee probiotics affect the gut microbiome?
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