Jill McCourt

Background

About Jill McCourt

I graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2012. Since then, I have worked in higher education as a professor, lab instructor, lab manager, and safety and equipment specialist. I currently work at the University of Washington Tacoma as a Science Instructional Support Technician in the Science and Math Department in the School of Integrated Arts and Sciences.As part of my dissertation work, I mastered several techniques applicable to cell and molecular biology as well as biochemistry. I am an accomplished microscopist, having attended the Analytical and Quantitative Light Microscopy course at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. I have managed a cell culture facility, produced clones and purified proteins, and analyzed the evolutionary background of my protein of interest. During my postdoc at the University of Georgia, I managed over 30 human subjects in a multi-institution, NSF-funded project. I interacted with faculty, performing interviews, collecting survey data, and regularly reporting results during monthly meetings. This coincided with teaching Introduction to Biochemistry at UGA.Upon moving to the Pacific Northwest, I began working as a lab instructor and manager at the University of Puget Sound. I taught lab sections, managed all of the general chemistry students in the school's LMS, prepared reagents for and set up equipment for general and analytical chemistry labs, maintained equipment, and processed hazardous waste. Following the pandemic, I made a move to Tacoma Community College where I taught general chemistry, GOB chemistry, and introductory biology. I helped support the MESA Center (Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement) by writing a grant to fund a cohort model to support students of color, which was selected by the Board of Trustees. That and my work as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Fellow supported many students from marginalized backgrounds achieve in STEM career pathways.