Elizanette Lopez: I almost left STEM during grad school because I just wasn't feeling the support I needed, seeing the people I needed to see in certain positions. But I'm glad I stuck with ORISE because it did give me that opportunity. So I think it's very important that while you're going through school and after school, while you're working, is to create a community so that things that are hard, that can't really be changed, you still have those people to fall back on. Speaker 2: This is the ORISE Featurecast. Join host Michael Holtz for conversations with ORISE experts on STEM workforce development, scientific and technical reviews, and the evaluation of radiation exposure and environmental contamination. You'll also hear from ORISE research program participants and their mentors as they talk about their experiences and how they are helping shape the future of science. Welcome to the ORISE Featurecast. Michael Holtz: Welcome to the ORISE Featurecast. As ever, I'm your host, Michael Holtz, in the communications and marketing department at the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education. And I'm really excited today to be joined by a new friend from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talking about, as we love to do here on the Futurecast, about her experience as an ORISE fellow and her ambitions, how she got involved in science, all of those fun things. So I'm thrilled to introduce Elizanette Lopez. Elizanette, welcome to the ORISE Featurecast. Elizanette Lopez: Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk about my journey. Michael Holtz: Awesome. Well, I'm so glad to have you here. So first of all, you're an ORISE fellow working at the CDC. Talk a little bit about what your role is specifically. Elizanette Lopez: So I started out the CDC biorepository in November of 2020, which was the height of COVID. It was a crazy time, a big transition for me coming from grad school, straight out of grad school. And I mostly worked with sample accessioning and disposition. And then we also were preparing for our CAP inspection. We were CAP accredited, so it was a very hectic time. And during that time, I started doing extra projects when I was out of the lab. And that included working with my now mentors in the DLS preparedness team. So now I work 100% with the DLS preparedness team, with the National Laboratory Response System branch. And we mostly work on private-public partnerships during public health emergencies on the clinical laboratory testing. Michael Holtz: Got you. Okay. So I have to imagine you start a role at the CDC at the height of a worldwide pandemic, and you mentioned it was a crazy time. You had to have learned a lot on the fly, though, I imagine. Elizanette Lopez: Yeah, I joke about this a lot and say that I'm learning, a lot of people are just winging it, and that's okay. I thought I had to be the perfect scientist, know everything, but you really do learn as you go. And furthermore on that, when I started with the DLS preparedness team, we also had to respond to, it was COVID, a little bit of Ebola, and Mpox all at the same time. Michael Holtz: Oh my gosh. Elizanette Lopez: It was a lot of work. It was hectic, but I feel like I thrive in that kind of environment. Michael Holtz: Yeah. Okay. Well, that's helpful when you're dealing with three worldwide communicable diseases and all of the things that come with that. Has science always been an ambition for you? Is science something you've been interested in from a young age, or did you come to it later? Elizanette Lopez: No, it's always been there. So we wrote a story with ORISE, and if they publish it, you'll see that there's a picture of 7-year-old Nette with a title that says, "What I want to do when I grow up." And it does say scientists, that part, I'm not exactly sure. It might've been the things I was exposed to, like Dexter's Laboratory, having Animal Planet, things like that. I was one of those kids who liked to play outside in the dirt, look- Michael Holtz: Nice. Elizanette Lopez: ... at animals. And then, while I was in elementary school, we actually did research projects. So every year, you got to pick a different animal or bug and do a little, whole long research project on it. So I think that's where it came from. Michael Holtz: Awesome. So do you think childhood Nette would be proud of today scientist Nette. Elizanette Lopez: Definitely. So also, CDC was always the dream. I think in eighth grade, I read World War Z, and I was like, "Oh, I want to be that guy that writes the report that goes out there, talks to people." And so that's when I started looking into CDC. So yeah, that's always been on my mind. Now that I'm here, I'm like, "Okay, I thought it would take longer to get here, but here I am." Michael Holtz: You read a book about a zombie apocalypse, and then you come to the CDC in the middle of what had to feel like sort of apocalyptic circumstances with everything that was going on. Elizanette Lopez: Oh yeah. It was very surreal. And like I said, I still can't believe I'm already here. Michael Holtz: That's awesome. I really love that. I know one of the hallmarks of the ORISE fellowship system is being mentored. Talking about the mentors that you've had, both where you're currently, but really throughout your life. How have mentors played a role in who Nette is today? Elizanette Lopez: I take my mentors very seriously. I grew up in a predominantly white area, so it was hard to find people who looked like me that I could look up to. So sometimes it would just be the older kids going down the same route. Family members who I knew. Most of my family members are first-generation college students, so I had that to look up to, including my parents. And then once I got to undergrad, I had gone to a Hispanic-serving institution. So that was incredible to have this huge community of people that looked like me that were following some of the same routes I wanted to go down. I never thought about grad school, didn't know that was really a thing until I went to undergrad and started joining organizations with older students who told me their plans of going. So that was really helpful for me. And then, I think it was my sophomore year, I started volunteering for the Angelo State Natural History Collections, and I volunteered to do some ornithology preparations. And the person who ran our collections, Marcy Revelez. She became my mentor. I worked with her all my years of college until she actually left to go manage the CDC biorepository. Michael Holtz: Wow. Elizanette Lopez: So that was really cool for her, really cool for me to see her go, both of us being Texas girls, just loving science. So that was really cool. And then, by the time I got to grad school, I still reached out to Marcy every once in a while just to say hello, see what was going on. And when I finished my thesis, she was like, "Hey, I think it'd be a good idea for you to apply to ORISE." And I was like, "That's awesome. I will do it." And I had been telling someone that I wanted to go to the CDC, but I'm not sure how to get there. And I actually went to, I think it was a MANRRS, it's minorities in agriculture, something at Oregon State, and they mentioned ORISE in one sentence. On one slide. That was it. From there, I went and did a little research, and I was like, "Okay, this could be a pathway for me." Michael Holtz: And it got you straight into your dream day and so, at least, your dream organization. Elizanette Lopez: Yes. And so I was very excited to be working with Marcy again. She's a really great mentor, similar family backgrounds, which was really nice. And then also, once I started working with the other people at CBR, I was able to be mentored by them, and one of them, Angela Butler, actually recommended me to Jasmine Chaitram, who was their boss and was like, "Hey, Nette's a great ORISE fellow if you need her. I know you were looking for a new ORISE fellow, so if you're interested, we'll send you her information." So that's when I started working with the DLS preparedness team, and it was really awesome to be mentored by two women of color, especially in a STEM field. That's really important to me. And now I work with her, and Sean Courtney is my current mentor, and he's really great. He's very down to earth, tells it like it is, and mentorship is so important to me, and I'm really glad I have good mentors. Michael Holtz: On the flip side of that mat, have you had the opportunity to mentor others? Elizanette Lopez: Maybe not directly, but I did help someone become an ORISE fellow, which was really cool. I had posted something on Instagram with a hashtag that said ORISE fellow, and that person actually reached out to me and was like, "Hey, can you tell me more about it? Can you look at my resume, et cetera." So we looked through it, got it polished up, and now she's also an ORISE fellow. Michael Holtz: Awesome. Elizanette Lopez: And then someone else reached out to me on LinkedIn and the same thing. He was not sure if he would take it or not, and now he is their new ORISE fellow. So I do like mentoring. I feel like I'm still early in my career, but far enough into this ORISE fellowship, I would be able to help mentor others. Michael Holtz: Awesome. You said that you're early in your career. What are you thinking career aspiration-wise? Where do you see yourself? the classic question, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" Elizanette Lopez: I still see myself doing some kind of public service position. I hope it's here at the CDC, but I'm also open. I know I don't want to close any opportunities, any doors, but hopefully CDC. Yeah. Michael Holtz: Awesome. And I know you've talked about this, we talked about this a little bit before we officially started. You've been mentored by two women of color, and I know representation certainly matters. It mattered for you growing up to be able to see people who look like you and sound like you, and I know how important that is. Just from other fellows that I've talked to. Talk about, from your perspective, how important it's to see people that you can look up to because they look like they sound like they come from the same kind of background that you do. Elizanette Lopez: Yeah. Sometimes I think you just need an example to see how far you can go. I think sometimes my purview is very narrow until I go and listen to speakers or I join different clubs, and they open up things for me that I just didn't know about before. So I think that's really important. I think it's also really important to imagine yourself in other positions, and sometimes that can be hard if you don't see people that look like you. I almost left STEM during grad school because I just wasn't feeling the support I needed seeing the people I needed to see in certain positions. But I'm glad I stuck with ORISE. It did give me that opportunity. So I think it's very important that while you're going through school and after school while you're working, is to create community so that things that are hard, that can't really be changed, you still have those people to fall back on. So while I was an undergrad, I was in the association of Mexican-American students. I was the president, the historian, the secretary for different years. And then now here at CDC, I'm part of Unidos, the Hispanic Latino employees at CDC and ATSDR. And that's been such a source of comfort for me to see these professionals who have been here 30 years plus, 20 years plus, 10 years plus, and hearing about their journeys through their whole career. Seeing their career journeys has been really helpful for me too because sometimes I'll have interviews with them and other people in my teams, I ask them how they got where they are, not necessarily what they're doing now. It might not align with what my skill sets are, but I just want to know their pathways. Michael Holtz: That makes sense. You talked about you almost left STEM. What would you have done? Did you have any thought what that might look like? Elizanette Lopez: So when I was in high school, I don't know why I didn't think about going to college. I thought I was going to go to cosmetology school, so that was on my mind until I started getting letters from colleges that were recruiting, and I was like, "Wow, there's so many schools, there's so many opportunities. I don't know what direction to take." But once I started getting that, that made me want to pursue STEM. And I think my grad school experience was just not exactly what I expected. And so I was not sure if I should stay, if this is somewhere I was wanted, if this was an area I could contribute to. But I'm very glad I stuck it out and met people that did help me finish my grad school experience. And then now I feel like that I'm here at CDC as an ORISE fellow that where I'm supposed to be. Michael Holtz: Awesome. That's great. Nette, what about other family members? How do your parents feel about where you're, your extended family? Do they look up to you as someone that they can follow in your footsteps is... I'm imagining younger cousins and brothers, and sisters. Elizanette Lopez: Yeah. I'm actually one of the younger cousins. My dad is the youngest of 11. We're some of the youngest ones, but it does strike me. Every time I get text messages from my aunts, they're like, "Hey, have fun at this." I went to my first scientific conference and they were like, "Have fun, learn a lot." And that struck me at that time that was like, "Wow, this is probably one of the first times on our side of the family where someone is going to something like this, that someone has these opportunities." Like I said, most of my family are, my aunts and uncles are first-generation college students. It's still really important for me to continue my education and expanding my knowledge because it is still an example to my family members, and they're all very proud. My grandparents did not get to finish elementary school. My grandmother made it to fourth grade. My grandfather are not, both on my dad's side, only made it to sixth grade, but they wanted more education. So I was really lucky growing up that all my family members knew the importance of education and very much encouraged us leaving the nest. And my dad always said, "Do better than we did." So I always try and lead with that. And I do look up to my mom a lot, too. She is one of the first... Her and her sisters were some of the first to go to college in their city, so I know that was such a big thing. That was back in the '70s. Being some of the first Hispanic women, Mexican women, to go to college was a very big deal back then. And she also did not plan to go to college. She just had, I think, the teacher was like, "You should apply to this school." And she was like, "Well, okay, sure. Why not?" Michael Holtz: Why not? Elizanette Lopez: Yeah. Now she's a retired teacher. She taught for over 30 years. Michael Holtz: Oh my gosh. Elizanette Lopez: And yeah, I look up to her a lot. Michael Holtz: So I mean, it sounds like on some level you have an entire family of mentors who've got a mom and dad who are like, education is critical, and aunts and uncles, and cousins who support you. I love the image of you getting texts while you're at a scientific conference and the support from your family for- Elizanette Lopez: Yeah, and I think that was really important to me because sometimes I'm like, "Oh, well, my aunt already did her master's in this or that," so what I'm doing is not that special. But that showed me it is. We still work so hard to get here. I shouldn't minimize that. I know how hard it was to get through undergrad, grad school and to be where I'm at. Not everyone can say they work at the CDC that they finished their masters before they were 25. So it's really important to me to remember my roots where I came from, and that puts in perspective for me. Michael Holtz: Right, absolutely. I love that. It sounds like with all of this amazing support, though, I imagine there have been obstacles along the way, and I know we've talked a little bit about your almost decision not to drop out of STEM. Are there other obstacles that you can point to that you've overcome to get to where you are? Elizanette Lopez: Family is really important to me. So to go to grad school across the country and be 24 hours away from family, and then now to be 14 hours away or 12 hours away from family, that part is really hard, especially coming from our close-knit family. Not being able to see them for the last, almost like the last 10 years, that's been hard. Maybe not the last 10 years, maybe the last six years. That's still a long time. Michael Holtz: Still a long time. Yeah. Elizanette Lopez: Yeah. Even when I was in undergrad, my aunt was only an hour away. So if I really wanted to go take a nap over there, it's an hour drive, whereas here I have to either drive 12 hours or book a plane ride. So that part is really hard for me. Michael Holtz: Okay. Nette, last question for you. What brings you joy? Elizanette Lopez: What brings me joy? I'd say just working with my hands a lot. That makes me feel connected to the things I do, which has also been tricky. Now I'm 100% out of the lab, so I have to figure out things to do at work that I still enjoy. And I like that. Now that I'm out of the lab, I actually have more interactions with people, which is nice. And then in my home life, I like to build things with my hands for my home. I have over a hundred house plants I take care of. I have a dog that's been with me across the country multiple times, named Petri after Petri dish. Michael Holtz: Nice. Elizanette Lopez: So spending time with her is great, and I still do some cosmetology stuff for myself. So yeah, making sure I take time to care for myself, have work-life balance, and work with my hands is really important to me. Michael Holtz: Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. Nette, is there anything that we haven't talked about that you want to make sure that we cover before we close up? Elizanette Lopez: Let me think. Yeah, I think I just really want to emphasize how important it is to me to remember my roots through all this. My grandparents were ranchers and sharecroppers. My father also picked cotton when he was young, so I just really always want to remember where we came from and where we are now. We're a family of doctors, lawyers, teachers, scientists, and that's just very important for me to remember as I continue my journey. Michael Holtz: Absolutely. I love that. And our roots are important to us, so thank you for sharing that. Elizanette Lopez, thank you so much for spending this time with me today. I really appreciate it. Elizanette Lopez: Of course. Thank you so much for having me. Michael Holtz: Absolutely, my pleasure. Talk to you soon. Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to the ORISE Featurecast. To learn more about the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, visit orise.orau.gov or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @oriseonnect. If you like the ORISE Featurecast, give us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. The Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education is managed by ORAU for the US Department of Energy.