Denneal Jamison-McClung
Interim Director of UC Davis Biotechnology Program, Director of BioTech SYSTEM
Dr. Denneal Jamison-McClung earned her PhD in Genetics with a Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology from UC Davis in 2003. During the UC Davis ADVANCE award period, she contributed to the management team as program coordinator, including strategic communications, operationalizing project plans, recruitment and management of personnel, NSF reporting and sustainability planning. She continues to serve as a member of the CAMPOS Initiative Committee and on special projects to promote diversity and inclusion in STEM.
As Interim Director of the UC Davis Biotechnology Program, a unit of the Office of Research, she leads efforts to accelerate the development and use of new technologies in the life sciences and engineering through innovative graduate education programs, such as the Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology (DEB) and the Advanced Degree for Corporate Employees (ADP), development of public-private partnerships to support interdisciplinary education, and service as a public intellectual (papers, short courses, workshops and seminars).
In the broader context of fostering science literacy across diverse segments of society, Dr. Jamison-McClung interacts with international scientists, policy makers, media outlets, corporate and community groups. She directs the BioTech SYSTEM K-14 STEM outreach consortium and administers the Teen Biotech Challenge website design contest which reaches several hundred California high school students each year. In both professional and public arenas, Dr. Jamison-McClung aims to facilitate rational evaluation of emerging technologies and their societal impacts, actively communicating about biotech discoveries in healthcare and agriculture, as well as best practices in STEM education and workforce development across the educational pipeline (Twitter handles (@yggdrasil13751; @UCDavisBiotech and @GammaSigmaDelta).