Gennifer D. Goode, PhD
Gennifer Goode (“GG”) is the Student Programs Manager for the Science Education group at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Dr. Goode is a scientist, former cancer researcher, and STEM outreach advocate who is passionate about supporting young people. She is a “military brat” who has lived in eight states and two countries. She is also a foodie, a crafter, and a sports fan.
What does a STEM outreach advocate do?
In her current role at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Dr. Goode manages the Pathways Research Explorers program, a two-week summer program for rising 10th and 11th graders who are interested in biomedical research. She also manages the Explorers Virtual Interns (EVI) program, a school-year internship available to Explorers alumni. Dr. Goode helps coordinate the Hutch Advance Shared - Resources program, a five-week summer program for students enrolled at Bellevue College who are studying molecular biomedical sciences. In addition, she facilitates tours and field trips to the Fred Hutch campus.
“I grew up all over the place and into everything!”
— Dr. Goode
Dr. GG's Story
With both of her parents serving in the military, Dr. Goode’s family moved frequently. She was born in El Paso, Texas, but her family (including an older brother) soon moved to Memphis, Tennessee and then Frankfurt, Germany. She started Kindergarten back in Memphis, then moved to Fort Riley, Kansas for third grade. Next, it was Tacoma, WA for a few years, and then she completed middle school in Clarksville, Tennessee. She spent her high school years living in Hampton, Virginia where she played basketball, ran track, and participated in several summer STEM programs. Growing up, she was strongly interested in science and had dreams of becoming a physician.
Dr. Goode’s mother is a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force currently stationed in Japan. She is a nurse by training and is the Commander of the 18th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron. Dr. Goode’s father is retired from the U.S. Army. Dr. Goode reflected that a positive impact of moving so frequently throughout her childhood was that she was “exposed to different cultures, ethnicities, and people, and different environments,” but she noted that one impact is that it was difficult to develop close childhood friendships.
Educational Pathway
When making decisions about college, she prioritized HBCUs, which are Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Dr. Goode explained that “growing up in a military family and being exposed to different environments, I definitely wanted to go to an HBCU.” There are 107 HBCUs located across 20 states, Washington D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Dr. Goode chose Tennessee State University for her undergraduate studies and Meharry Medical College for graduate school; both are HBCUs.
Milestones along Dr. Goode’s educational pathway include:
- Undergraduate: Bachelor of Science (BS) in Biological Science from Tennessee State University, an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee.
- Graduate School: PhD in Biochemistry and Cancer Biology from Meharry Medical College, an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee.
- Postdoctoral: Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, where she studied cancer metabolism with a focus on breast and pancreatic cancer.
- Postdoctoral: Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she was involved in STEM outreach programs through the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach.
Choosing between a clinical or research career. As a child, Dr. Goode thought she would grow up to become a physician. However, she recalled a defining moment that changed her trajectory. Around her freshman or sophomore year of college, she remembered seeing a poster in her department head’s office that showed all the career options available to someone with a science degree. At the time, she had not thought much beyond being a doctor, but she also questioned if she “really wanted to have someone else’s life in her hands” and began to wonder about different routes. The department head talked with her about the possibility of a career in biomedical research. After completing a short internship in his lab focused on techniques for culturing yeast, she became more confident that she wanted to pursue a research career.
As a sophomore who was interested in potentially pursuing a biomedical focused doctorate, Dr. Goode received a MARC (Maximizing Access to Research Careers) Award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. This training grant helped support her tuition and related fees during her final two years of college and provided her with “a lot of exposure as far as what research is and what it can do.” The summer after her sophomore year, Dr. Goode participated in a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. Her research project focused on studying the role of Vitamin D in breast cancer.
Check out the Summer Research Experiences & Internships section of Becoming the Next Cancer Researcher or Clinician for more information on REU programs.
Instead of medical school, she chose a PhD program. During her undergraduate years, Dr. Goode’s interest in biomedical research began to focus on breast cancer. She was motivated by the statistic that white women are more likely to be diagnosed with breast cancer, but African American and Hispanic women are more likely to die from it. She wondered why this was happening and how she might be able to help.
Dr. Goode earned a PhD in Biomedical Research in 2013 from Meharry Medical College, an HBCU located in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Goode's dissertation research was focused on finding alternative therapeutic targets for triple negative breast cancer, a particularly difficult cancer to treat that is more common in Black women and those younger than 40 years old. Dr. Goode explained that this type of breast cancer lacks the expression of the estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors, which are “major targets in treating breast cancer.” Without these targets, researchers “need to find other molecules to target” when developing therapies. Her dissertation was focused on the potential of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) to serve as a therapeutic target for developing treatments for people diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer. Dr. Goode’s research was supervised by her advisor, Dr. Sakina Eltom, Professor of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology.
Dr. Goode then continued with her interest in breast cancer research by taking the position of Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. There, her research focused on understanding cancer metabolism as a way to develop treatments for pancreatic and breast cancer. She explained that “we know that cancers use a lot of glucose…so what are ways that we can target our natural metabolism to help treat cancers?”
The shift from bench science to STEM outreach. After two years as a postdoctoral researcher focused on cancer research, Dr. Goode recognized that she had reached a point in her career where she needed to decide if she was interested in continuing as a researcher and writing grants to sponsor her own lab. At this point, she began exploring other opportunities outside of bench science, inspired by experiences in STEM outreach through her Sorority.
Dr. Goode is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an African-American sorority founded by 22 women in 1913 at Howard University. Dr. Goode explained that the sorority was founded on three basic principles: “Sisterhood, Scholarship, and Service.” It is an international organization (with local chapters in Seattle and Bellevue) with lifelong membership. Both her mother and great aunt are also members. The sorority’s Dr. Betty Shabazz Delta Academy is focused on “exposing students to STEM'' and provided Dr. Goode with some of her early experiences working with youth.
One day, Dr. Goode read a Science article, “Transitioning from Researcher to Outreacher,” that featured Dr. Jennifer Ufnar, the Executive Director of the Center for Science Education Outreach (now known as the Collaborative for STEM Education and Outreach) and a Research Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Goode explained, “I was just reading her story on how she took her scientific degree and turned it around, and is now doing outreach.” At the time, Dr. Goode thought, “hey, that sounds like a really interesting career!” She took a chance and emailed Dr. Ufnar, and that led to her next postdoctoral position working with Dr. Ufnar.
Taking on the role of a scientist-in-the-classroom. Dr. Goode’s second postdoctoral fellowship, this time at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, appealed to her growing interest in STEM outreach. In this role, she worked as a scientist-in-the-classroom at Stratford STEM Magnet School in Nashville. With this position, Dr. Goode helped design and facilitate a research course for STEM-interested high school students. As a postdoc, she also served as Program Director of the Research Experience for High School Students (REHSS) program at Vanderbilt University, a six-week summer internship program for rising high school seniors.
These experiences at Vanderbilt cemented her interest in STEM outreach and advocacy. Dr. Goode reflected that it was at this point that, “I felt like this is what I really need to do.” Working with students gave her “the opportunity to talk about my research experience and the many opportunities it afforded me,” and to “stand in front of students that look like me” and talk to them about graduate school. She felt “a push, not only for the younger people in my family, but also just for individuals that look like me, that yes, [to show them] it’s hard, but it is doable.” She felt there was value in sharing her personal stories about graduate school and breast cancer research with younger students interested in pursuing STEM careers. She believes that at every level, representation matters.
Next, she worked as the Director of the Center for Undergraduate Research and Graduate Opportunity/Trio Programs at Xavier University of Louisiana, an HBCU located in New Orleans. In this role, she supported undergraduate research experiences and advised students on graduate school applications.
“Growing up, most of the individuals that I saw [working in STEM careers] did not look like me or represent people that I knew.”
— Dr. Goode
Serving as a judge for national science fairs. Building on her passion for STEM outreach, for the past few years Dr. Goode has served as a judge for the Broadcom MASTERS, a national science and engineering competition for middle school students. Additionally, she served as a guest judge for the Regeneron Science Talent Search, a national high school competition. This judging opportunity came from her participation in a professional development program through the Society for Science & the Public.
What does she enjoy most about the experience of being a judge? “Just seeing the kids still have that sparkle in the eye, and being able to wonder and not being put in a box… At that age, everything is possible! Your mind is running wild.” She explained that a highlight is “getting to meet the students and talk to them to learn about their stories and just to share my story with them.” Dr. Goode also stressed the importance of “being a representation of what scientists look like.” In addition, through the field trip experiences built into the science competitions, she was excited to meet a Black marine biologist for the first time at the Smithsonian environmental research center.
Dr. Goode noted that there are local Seattle-area students participating in these national competitions. For example, the 2022 Regeneron first place award was given to Christine Ye, a student from Sammamish, WA who analyzed the gravitational waves emitted from collisions between neutron stars (collapsed, super-dense stars) and black holes. Watch the Society for Science video to the right to hear Christine explain her project. Other Washington participants competing in 2022 included students from Bellevue High School (Bellevue, WA), Inglemoor High School (Kenmore, WA), Interlake High School (Bellevue, WA), and Tesla STEM High School (Redmond, WA).
A Day in the Life
Working with high school students at Fred Hutch. As manager of the Pathways Research Explorers program at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, summer is Dr. Goode’s busy season when she works in-person with high school students. This can include introducing them to different roles within the field of cancer research, supporting their development of basic laboratory skills like pipetting, and developing their ability to make sense of data. During the academic year, she is busy with administrative work such as planning guest speakers, helping with a monthly journal club, pairing interns with research mentors, and communicating with students about college and career planning. Her goal is to expose students to the many different facets that are available to career scientists and how students can “take your passion and make a career out of it.”
The best part of her job? The students! Dr. Goode explained that she enjoys teaching the high school students hands-on laboratory techniques, introducing them to new terminology used in research labs (What is a PI? What does it mean to have a grant?), and sharing her own career story. One of the questions she gets asked frequently by the Explorers students is, “So, you’re a scientist?!” She answers that “I am always going to be a scientist.” Representation in cancer research careers is important. Dr. Goode reflected that one thing that she appreciated about the lab she worked at the University of Nebraska Medical Center was that she “considered it to be a brown lab” where there were “people of all different shades of brown.” She wants students to know that it is important to “represent your full self” and that “there are different facets to being a scientist and we are not all one.” She wants students to know that “scientists come in all different shapes and sizes and colors, and we all have different hobbies and likes, but we all have one main goal focused on increasing the betterment of patient care and research for individuals that have cancer.”
Along her career trajectory, two people stand out as mentors. Dr. Goode identified her mother as one of her most important influences. She shared that her mom “has always provided a sense of support,” and in particular, has been a role model in regards to her “trials and tribulations as an African American woman functioning in a society that doesn’t mirror you.”
The second important mentor was someone who provided guidance while Dr. Goode was in graduate school at Meharry Medical College. Dr. Ifeanyi J. Arinze, now deceased, was a professor/biochemist that she met with frequently as a graduate student. Dr. Goode shared a memory of a time during graduate school that felt especially challenging. She went to Dr. Arinze, crying “oh my goodness, I am never going to finish, what am I going to do?” Dr. Arinze told her that “success comes from failure, after failure, after failure, with a great deal of enthusiasm.” She tucked away that advice, that things will get hard but that it is all part of the process. She reminds herself frequently, “just make sure that you are learning something in every instance you are going through.”
Outside of work, Dr. Goode can be found sharing meals with her family. She loves eating and cooking, and dreams one day of attending culinary arts school to pursue that passion. She explained that her interest in cooking ties back to her research into cancer metabolism. She believes that “healthy living equals healthy bodies” and that “food can positively impact patients who have cancer.” In addition, she noted that time with her family is especially important. Growing up as a military family, “it was always us against the world.” Dr. Goode values her time spent with extended family who live in the Greater Seattle area. She also enjoys arts and crafts, including painting and loom knitting.
Dr. Goode is a sports fan who cheers for a variety of teams that have ties to her childhood. As a NFL fan, she and her family root for the San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, and Dallas Cowboys. For basketball, she cheers for the Memphis Grizzlies and on the ice, she’s a fan of the NHL team the Nashville Predators.
Advice for Students
Her advice for high school students? Explore and tell your story! For students interested in a career in biomedical research, she encourages them to “always be willing to explore and be open-minded” with every experience, and to focus on the skills and techniques you can develop in one situation and then apply to other labs and research contexts. For students interested in working in STEM outreach and education, she encourages them to “always tell your story, you never know who you may impact.” She also encourages students to “always be willing to look back” on the experiences they have had and to look for opportunities to support one another as a community.
“If you are really passionate about something, don’t allow a ‘no’ to deter you, because in life we’re always going to get a ‘no’. It’s either a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, so those chances look good. Always pursue your passion.”
— Dr. Goode
U.S. Wage Information
The median wage for an education outreach program manager in the U.S. is $85,696.1
Additional Resources
1 According to ZipRecruiter as of May 2024 for an Outreach Manager.
Credit: Thank you Dr. GG for participating in this project. Career profile written by Dr. Kristen Clapper Bergsman.