UR Biology Professor Omar Quintero-Carmona Serving as Senior Education Advisor at BioScience Research Institute
UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — University of Richmond biology professor Omar Quintero-Carmona has been named senior education advisor at The Allen Institute, a non-profit, bioscience research facility located in Seattle.
The Allen Institute is focused on research related to studying the brain, cells, and immune system to accelerate science and disease research. Quintero-Carmona, a cell biologist, will focus on education outreach at the college level within the field of modern biology, which focuses on the structure and function of living organisms.
Quintero-Carmona will be part of the team that manages education and engagement.
“Our goal is for educators to use the Allen Institute’s open data and tools as part of their teaching, providing them and their students unprecedented opportunities to engage in hands-on learning and even make novel discoveries of their own, right there on their computers in the classroom,” said Kaitlyn Casimo, who leads the program.
“Currently, knowledge about the resources available through the Allen Institute is limited in the college biology education sphere,” Quintero-Carmona said. “Part of my role is to facilitate a broader understanding of the institute itself that will benefit modern biology students and make connections among educators.”
The Allen Institute currently develops curricula, partners with educators, and offers educator professional development workshops for college educators. Quintero-Carmona will help bring this work to more educators and students in post-secondary institutions across the US, as well as facilitate new opportunities for educators to provide input into the Allen Institute’s program offerings.
Another main goal is developing a workshop that will bring teachers to the Allen Institute during the summer for an immersive, hands-on experience about incorporating research resources into their classrooms.
“The Allen Institute has generated large sets of data that are critical to multiple fields of biology research,” Quintero-Carmona said. “One focus for the Education & Engagement team will be ensuring that data can find its way into more classrooms and labs.”
“Omar’s deep connections with the collegiate biology education community will help us foster a network of educators who are excited to partner with our program and develop resources that suit their classes and needs," Casimo added.
Quintero-Carmona has served on a number of Allen Institute advisory boards over the last five years. He has taught at UR since 2012. He was selected as the 2020 Keith R. Porter Fellow and received the 2021 Prize for Excellence in Inclusivity from The American Society for Cell Biology.
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