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19 May, 8 tweets, 3 min read
Today, my dad and my PhD dad get to witness me getting an honorary degree from UNC. I didn’t “walk” after defending my dissertation. So today... I walk.

So many full circle moments this year.

Honored.
1/n: I hope that no one to which I owe manuscript edits is reading this, but I felt a thread on my spirit as I listened to my UNC commencement address entitled "Home". instagram.com/tv/CPEMTyPHthd…
2/n: I just got an honorary doctorate from the institution (@unc) that I also received my PhD in Microbiology and Immunology in 2014. I cried during my "thank you", and I cried when I defended my dissertation, and I cried when @HarvardChanSPH announced my faculty appt last wk.
3/n: Before me, no one in my family had successfully finished a 4-yr degree. I did it, at @UMBC, on a full scholarship (@MeyerhoffAlumni ) and multiple other monies (NIH UGSP, etc.). I typed those scholarship applications from a typewriter in my childhood home's kitchen.
4/n: A "home" that was home to a mixed family. Of 7 siblings, only one of us is the biological child of my mom and dad. At times, because my parents curated "home" for a "community", there were friends and neighbors who rested their heads there.
5/n: Statistically I am NOT supposed to have done anything that I have done. I speak at prisons about the COVID vaccines because my cousins are locked-up. My first "home" ... Gateway Apartments... is considered the Projects. (wait for the book). But...
6/n: That is the beautiful thing about "home". It's the makeup of your being...

...It is the pieces of you that are unparalleled to anything that anyone else has to offer. Your being will come from remembering from where you came… from where you conquered.
7/n: Who you are to the world is going to be different than WHO YOU ARE. Scientist and vaccine developer are cool, but ... I am so much more. I come from so much more. And, you do too. Basking in those things ... that's how you "become" who you were destined to be.

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More from @KizzyPhD

KizzyPhD Profile picture
4 Mar
Congrats to the 2021 @unc graduates!!! ... It’s an honor to be your commencement speaker alongside Dr. Fauci! 💙

TARRRRRRRRR!!!
“She was also involved in several extracurricular activities, including serving as a representative on Student Congress, a delegate to the Association of Student Governments, a staff member in the Attorney General’s office and as a member of the science policy advisory group.”
This quote is a reminder to all students far and wide to not allow anyone to put you in a box. You are not “just” a PhD student. You are a citizen first. Do you, Boo.
Read 5 tweets
KizzyPhD Profile picture
20 Feb
1/n: I had to forego the only midday nap I’ve had in over a yr yesterday to address my @instagram DMs b/c so many are hurriedly writing about vaccine dosing, w/o remembering the current dosing is great, safe, effective AND (surprise) public trust matters.
instagram.com/stories/kizzyp…
2/n: We understand things can change for science-driven efficiency. Would delaying a second dose be “ok”, probs; but ppl know about efficacy data from the current schedule. I'm often scrambling to find solid data to match X scientist's op ed so of course lay ppl are confused af.
3/n: Remember how confused ppl were when masks were first deemed not needed then suddenly science suggested that in fact they are?! That was us (scientists) on our high horses, not waiting for the data to policy circle to be completed. Just stop!
Read 6 tweets
KizzyPhD Profile picture
18 Feb
1/n: Good morning esp. to our animal techs, who bled ~200 mice last yr on this day. It was the 2-wk post-prime timepoint, & we just had to peek at the antibody responses.

Do you think they knew those mice had gotten the vaccine they would themselves get only a year later? 💉 ❤️
2/n: We’d immunized 3 mouse strains, w/ multiple doses of mRNA-1273 to not just be prepared to show protection (ala @Baric_Lab @SarahRLeist), but also to be prepared to show that sub-protection was not a cause for vaccine-induced enhancement.
3/n: These figs never make it into my talks cause who care about mice when u have 94.1% human efficacy?
So fig. 2 (nature.com/articles/s4158…) shows IgG antibodies that bind the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein 2 wks after the 1st dose, particularly in the modestly-high dose (1 ug) groups. Image
Read 7 tweets
KizzyPhD Profile picture
5 Feb
1/n: I’m about to use this morning’s “woke up in a panic ‘cause my ‘to do’ list is longer than my day” rant to address this consistent and *flawed* argument

... “wHy ThEy cAn’T fInD a VaCcInE fOr X vIrUs?”
2/n: Because I work at the center that the Clinton Administration erected in with the purpose of developing a HIV vaccine, I’m privileged to have watched HIV vaccine development from “point A” to ummmm let’s say ‘bout “point M” over the years.
3/n: Which is darn good, considering HIV is so genetically diverse, a retrovirus, decorated in glycans, hides from immunity, probs needs a little more than “just” antibodies, etc etc etc
Read 8 tweets
KizzyPhD Profile picture
29 Jan
1/n: People are asking me for comments, and I'll tell you how my ex project manager used to tell me re: me overachieving & striving for "perfection" in some things...

"Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good enough."

This is darn good for 1-dose ... "in a pandemic".
2/n: I feared that actually... that ppl would be spoiled by mRNA and any vaccine to come after would be looked at as "lesser than". Vaccines are being transformed in front of all of our eyes, but science is going to science...
3/n: ...and the fact that science is producing multiple good-enough candidates with utilities in various niches of global acceptance/distribution/pricing/etc in only a year is...
Read 5 tweets
KizzyPhD Profile picture
25 Jan
*feels the spirit*

Here’s a thread on how working in a lab that allowed me to come as my whole self, inclusive of my acrylic nails also lended to my happiness. Diversity is one thing. Inclusion another. BELONGING a third. @BarneyGrahamMD does all three to perfection.
1/n - With my @KFellowship, it was time to travel to Colorado to present to the scientific board. The board is inclusive of THE experts in any field. I, a 32 year old woman, was to come back to host a boho-themed bridal shower so I needed boho braids.
2/n - I asked Dr. Graham if I should wear boho braids to that type of meeting. He said “I think you should wear your hair how you want when speaking about our work. Now I’m going to have to ask @annedereaux what boho braids are.” 😂
Read 7 tweets

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