June 12, 2017

Congratulations to Carli Moorehead, recipient of Drexel's 2017 Fellowships Graduation Award! 

The Fellowships Graduation award recognizes a student who exemplifies the traits at the core of the fellowships process: academic excellence, dedication, self-reflection, and clarity of focus. Those who know Carli Moorehead (BS Biomedical Engineering / MS Materials Science and Engineering '17, Honors) are unlikely to be surprised that we see these characteristics so clearly in her. 

Since she first came into our office in the fall of 2015 to attend a fellowships information session, Carli has continually impressed us with her strong intellect, determination, and tenacity. She has been an active member of the Pennoni Honors College since her first year at Drexel, enrolling in Honors Program courses and as a STAR Scholar with Dr. Kenneth Barbee, studying the effect of nitric oxide on wound healing. She has continued to participate as a member of the Honors Program, the Undergraduate Research Leaders, and earning designation as a Supernova Research Fellow, while also conducting advanced research at the Army Research Lab in Bethesda, MD and completing a rigorous combined BS/MS curriculum in biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering.

She has demonstrated resilience and resourcefulness in the pursuit of her goals. After becoming involved in research as a STAR Scholar in the Cellular Biomechanics Lab (PI: Kenneth Barbee), she joined the Biomaterials Laboratory Group (PI: Michele Marcolongo) to study biomimetic tissue regeneration and repair scaffolds. With an interest in developing novel, hard-soft composites, Carli has conducted research on both bulk ceramics – studying strong magnetic fields can be used to engineer microstructure through co-ops at the Army Research Lab – and synthetic proteoglycans – as a student researcher in the Drexel Biomaterials Lab studying collagen-proteoglycan interactions. As a junior, Carli received the prestigious Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes the nation's top undergraduates in science & engineering. She recently completed her Master’s thesis in materials engineering, under the guidance of Dr. Michele Marcolongo.

Along the way, Carli has been generous in lending support to others – in the lab, as member of Drexel’s Society for Women Engineers and Undergraduate Research Leaders, as well as volunteering as a peer tutor in the School of Biomedical Engineering and serving on the STEM Outreach Team in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.  She has also continued to be involved with the Center for Scholar Development, both as a fellowships applicant and through outreach events and providing advice and support to other students applying for fellowships. 

Carli will soon depart for Italy, where she will spend a year as a Fulbright Student Scholar conducting research on “smart” bioactive ceramic-polymers at the Università di Bologna and ISTEC-CNR (Institute for Science and Technology in Ceramics) in Faenza, Italy. She will then begin a PhD in biomaterials at the University of Washington as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow. These achievements reflect Carli's talents and promise as a scholar, as well as her hard work, resilience and focus on her goal of developing new materials and approaches to improving the lives of those living with chronic conditions and injuries. 

We are incredibly happy for her. For all of her accomplishments and embodiment of fellowships culture, we celebrate her with our Fellowships Graduation Award.