I recently had the honor of meeting and speaking with Dr. Chantrell Frazier about how she balanced showing up authentically in academia, navigating grief and loss while remaining motivated and inspired to complete her doctoral degree in biochemistry from Florida International University.  

(The following was written by Michelle Chernicoff)  Chantrell Frazier grew up a competitive athlete but, when it came to her education, the only person she was trying to beat was herself.  After earning her bachelor’s degree at an HBCU–Savannah State University –Chantrell looked for a place to combine her passion for forensics and biochemistry. She applied for the PhD program at FIU and found a place in the Furton Research Lab.  After her successful defense, she became the first Black woman at the university to earn her PhD in biochemistry. 

The Florida Education McKnight Fellow and Florida AGEP Pathways Alliance (FL-AGEP) scholar’s groundbreaking research has received departmental funding and funding from the Dubai Police. Her work has sparked collaborative efforts within the FIU research community, as her optimized protocols have been applied to examine human odor profiles to understanding the odors that attract mosquitos. 

Chantrell was encouraged by a mentor to take up space as a woman of color in the field. She hopes she is the first of many to successfully defend their degrees. Her volunteer work includes the FIU Student Access and Success Center (SASC), the City of Miami Gardens, and mentorship of students on the secondary and tertiary level to conduct research at FIU. Upon graduation, Chantrell will join the faculty at Framingham State University in Massachusetts as a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship in Chemistry and hopes to encourage more women of color to pursue STEM fields.  

By Michelle Chernicoff 

Communications Program Director Global Forensic and Justice Center 

https://commencement.fiu.edu/real-triumphs-graduates/people/spring-2022/chantrell-frazier.html

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