"I was interested in wellness," recalled Steed, who instead found her niche in physiology, a career that allows her to help the sick by doing biomedical research. Steed is now in the doctoral program at the University of Louisville's Department of Physiology & Biophysics where her aim is to advance knowledge about diseases that have a high incidence among minorities, including hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

Steed discovered physiology with a bit of luck, and now wants to tell other minority students in elementary, middle, and high school about the interesting things physiologists do. The American Physiological Society recently named Steed its first K-12 Minority Outreach Fellow. In the coming year, she will encourage pre-college minority students who are underrepresented in science -- African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics and Pacific Islanders -- to think about becoming biomedical researchers.

Minority education aim of fellowship

As the APS Fellow, Steed will visit classrooms to tell students about her career path and to model for minority students what they can achieve. As the K-12 Minority Outreach Fellow, Steed will:

• Serve as a physiologist-in-residence at the APS science teaching forum, a week of hands on science training for middle school and high school teachers
• Visit two minority student classrooms to do career presentations and hands-on activities
• Attend the 2006 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) to reach out to undergraduate students and present APS research awards
• Conduct outreach activities for high school teachers and students at Experimental Biology 2007

The fellowship pays Steed's registration and travel costs
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2-May-2006