2024

Oct 17: SAR, 6:30 pm, National Academy of Sciences, RSVP here by Oct 7

Oct 23: Joint ARCS MWC/Business Women's Giving Circle (Virtual), RSVP here

Dec 5: Holiday Party, 6-9 pm, home of Holly Coyne

2025

Feb 9: Winter Membership Meeting Luncheon, Ruth's Chris Steakouse, Fairfax

Feb 27: Senior Members Afternoon Tea, home of Julie Hohl

Apr 4: Eagle Award Gala, Army Navy Club

May 15: Annual Membership Potluck Luncheon Meeting, Location TBD

Jun 8: Picnic/Barbeque, home of Patty Sparrell

Dear ARCS MWC Members,

Our chapter is off to a great start this year! A wonderful evening was had by all at the Fall Membership meeting on Sept 22 hosted by Amy and Mark Mykityshyn. Thank you, Amy and Mark, for sharing your beautiful home and thank you to Charlotte Knight and Mary Jo Ruane for organizing the event. Everyone enjoyed the delicious dishes shared for dinner and dessert. We had the largest membership meeting turnout since COVID and enjoyed seeing five emerita members (Karen Finkbiner, Alice Laning, Toni Schierling, Margie Shanklin and Connie Watts) and welcomed our three newest members (Gina Kim-Ahn, Helen Miller and Hilary Sparrell). Click here to see more photos of the event.

Claudia Benack, Toni Schierling, Charlotte Knight, Amy Mykityshyn and Lynn Dillon.

New members Helen Miller, Gina Ahn and Hilary Sparrell with Neela Babu, VP of Membership.

The Membership Meeting was very positive:  

• Finance Committee reported the chapter raised over $250,000 in 2023-24 –including $46,000 dollars from events – which will fund 17 graduate scholar awards (not including Endowment Scholars) for next year (2025-26)! This is a significant increase compared to recent years.
• We reviewed our goals for next year: Increasing the number of graduate scholar awards by one; welcoming 10 new members to the chapter; increasing member, scholar and scholar alumni engagement; developing a leadership pipeline and succession plans, developing a planned giving program, increasing the strategic focus of the Board; and having fun.
• We celebrated Charlotte Knight and Chi Pham as National ARCS Sparks for their leadership of the 55-year Anniversary Celebration and Eagle Award Ceremony. (see article below)
• And last but not least, Amy Mykityshyn (2023-24 ARCS Light) introduced Anne Wingo as this year’s ARCS Light. We are all so appreciative of Anne’s work for so many years with our scholars. (see article below)
• Other special Thank Yous to Neela Babu for completing the re-registration of all members and to Beth Czaban for preparing this year’s Blue Book directory. If you did not pick up a Blue Book you will receive one in the mail.

There is so much positive energy in our Chapter this year. Let’s continue the momentum! We hope to see you at the SAR on Oct 17 to celebrate this year’s scholars. Thank you to Jane Riddle and her committee for all their hard work planning this year’s event and to the event member sponsors’ generosity. As a result the ticket price is only $75 per person. Please bring a friend to our best opportunity to recruit new members and donors. (Registration details are included below.)

See you at the SAR!

~ Julie Hohl and Patty Sparrell, ARCS-MWC Co-Presidents

The ARCS Sparks Award honors ARCS members who exhibit small, everyday acts of kindness or displays of leadership or commitment to the ARCS Foundation within the chapter or at the national level.

Congratulations to our ARCS Sparks recipients, Charlotte Knight and Chi Pham! Charlotte and Chi organized a fabulous 55 Year Anniversary event celebrating Metro Washington’s rich history of members, scholars, and university partners! Their leadership and commitment to ARCS MWC resulted in an evening that was a success in both fun and fundraising. We are thankful for their hard work and dedication to this celebration!

ARCS Light recipients are symbols of success within their chapters by promoting the ARCS mission of advancing science in America. ARCS Light recipients enthusiastically give their time and expertise to support their chapters and are the unsung heroes of the ARCS Foundation.

This year’s recipient of Metro Washington Chapter’s ARCS Light award is Anne Wingo! Her quiet, but steadfast demeanor and commitment to the scholars we support has been apparent since she became a member. Her three children have pursued scientific and medical careers themselves, following their parents’ commitment to military service and public health. She has shared her gift for mentorship and enthusiasm for advanced STEM education with our scholars since becoming a member in 2016 and has recently completed a long tenure as co-Chair of the University Relations Council. Congratulations, Anne!

Our Scholar Awards Reception is on Oct 17 at 6:30 pm at the National Academy of Sciences. Join us in celebrating this year's scholars! Click here for more information and to RSVP by Oct 7.

Join us on Wed, Oct 23, from 12-1 pm, for a free, virtual fireside session with two impressive scientists who help lead the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). In a session moderated by Elli Nesbitt (ARCS MWC), Stacey Adam, PhD, and Courtney Silverthorn, PhD, will discuss their career journeys and their perspectives as women leaders in STEM fields. Click here to learn more and register!

This year‘s Holiday Party will once again be held at Holly and Jim Coyne’s beautiful home in McLean, VA. Mark your calendars for Thurs, Dec 5, from 6–9 pm. Mindy‘s Catering will provide a delicious buffet dinner. Wear your festive attire and come join in the holiday fun! Registration info is coming next month. Valet parking will be available.

On Aug 26, 5 ARCS members and 2 guests enjoyed the second annual ARCS friends sailing event on the Schooner Woodwind in Annapolis. We departed the dock under sunny skies and, just as we returned, the rain started. As all good sailors do, we completed our adventure and went to an early dinner at Pussers Caribbean Grill right on the dock. Come join us next year for an afternoon of nautical fun!

Lorraine Nordlinger stands at the ship’s wheel.

From left: Mary Jo Ruane, Lorraine Nordlinger, Hans Schierling, Charlotte Knight, Toni Schierling, Karen Finkbiner, Tenley Raithel.

From front: Lorraine Nordlinger, Karen Finkbiner, Toni Schierling, Hans Schierling.

Cynthia Howes was sponsored as an ARCS MWC member by BJ Cantus in 1982. We thank Cynthia for her ongoing commitment to our chapter over the past 42 years! 

Cynthia says that she was aware of ARCS because her husband was employed by an aerospace company in Washington that desperately needed scientists and engineers like the ones that ARCS MWC supports. She also knew several members and was terribly impressed by the caliber of the members that the chapter attracted and their mission.  

Her proudest achievement was her work with the Development Council. She says she contacted many corporations that donated to ARCS MWC! Cynthia was selected as an ARCS Light and was also named an ARCS Angel in 2004.

Cynthia commends our chapter’s members, saying: “Continue the good work! You are performing a very necessary and important job for our country’s future. The United States definitely needs more scientists and engineers.”  

Hilary Sparrell joined ARCS MWC in September and is sponsored by her mother, Patty Sparrell. Hilary received her BS in Hotel and Restaurant Institutional Management (minor Business Admin) from the University of Delaware in 2008. She then worked at multiple hospitality venues, including the Mansion on O Street in DC.  

Hilary changed the direction of her career and returned to college and received her teaching license in 2016. Since then she has been employed as a Physics teacher at Wakefield High School in Arlington. While teaching, she continued to study and completed the Masters of Education in Curriculum, Development, and Instruction at George Mason University in 2018.  

Hilary continues to be active in the Delta Gamma fraternity post graduation from UDel. She has held multiple leadership positions in the Washington DC Alumni Chapter including: VP Programming, Founders Event Chair, Cooking Club leader, member of Nominating Committee (multiple times), and Chair, 100 Year Anniversary Committee.

She is excited to join ARCS to support STEM research and build relationships between college scholars and aspiring high school students. She coordinated multiple Wakefield HS students attending the 2023 SAR event and spoke with scholars about high school networking/mentoring opportunities while attending the Neil deGrasse Tyson Scholar/Scholar Alum event.  

Hilary has enjoyed meeting many ARCS ladies at multiple ARCS events including: the 2023 Eagle/SAR event, the 2023 Winter Meeting, the 2023 Scholar Alum event, the 2024 SAR, and the 2024 BBQ Gathering.

Emma Glass – Evelyn Soucek Memorial Scholar

1st Year Scholar, PhD candidate, Biomedical Engineering

University of Virginia

Research: The aim of Emma's research is to develop innovative ways of treating bacterial infection without the use of conventional antibiotics. Specifically, computational metabolic models of bacteria in conjunction with big-data and machine learning techniques will be used to uncover unique functional signatures in groups of pathogens. These unique functions can guide predictions of new antimicrobials, which will be validated with wet-lab experiments. 

How will an ARCS Award Benefit Your Research? 

An ARCS award will give me the freedom to explore more avenues of my research that I have not yet had the chance to explore. This award will allow me to continue to think creatively about solving the problem of antimicrobial resistance by developing computational models to guide the design of innovative therapeutics. Specifically, I hope to use computational metabolic network modeling to identify therapeutic probiotic consortia for treating pathogenic bacteria as an alternative to antibiotics.

Further, outside of my research, becoming an ARCS scholar will allow me to connect with other like-minded young scientists who are devoted to DEI in science. I believe it is so important to bring different perspectives into the scientific conversation and remove barriers to achievement that are so often present in minority groups. I am proud to be an ARCS scholar and be a part of an organization that so highly values both scientific achievement and DEI.

Career objectives: After graduate school, I plan to enter the biotechnology industry. I hope to use my computational skills including high performance computing, machine learning, and data science to solve healthcare-related problems. Furthermore, as a scientist who both generates computational models and performs in vitro validation experiments, I have been able to see first-hand the value of interdisciplinary work. Because of this, biotechnology companies collecting experimental data to inform models generated by computational teams are most exciting to me. Down the road, I would hope to become a senior director within a biotechnology company managing projects that have significant potential to improve the lives of real patients.

Sabahat Rahman – Danaher Foundation Scholar

Undergraduate Scholar, Senior, Biomedical Engineering

Johns Hopkins University

Research: Two cancer research projects will be focusing on personalized care and treatments. The first project will develop a device that measures individual patient melanoma stiffness in situ, with the intent of diagnosing melanomas earlier. The second project will use computational tools to model patient-specific reactions to various immunotherapies such as neo-antigen vaccines. These specialized treatments could prevent the deleterious side effects associated with nonspecific therapies.

How Will Your Research Benefit Society?

I have had the incredible opportunity of working on various research projects, which highlight personalized approaches for cancer patients. In the Zaidi Lab at Johns Hopkins Medicine, I worked with my mentors to study neoantigen vaccines, which include peptides derived from tumor-specific mutations—thus eliciting targeted immune responses against tumor cells. These vaccines present an avenue for patient-specific treatments that prevent the deleterious side effects associated with nonspecific therapies.

My work on a biomedical engineering design team emphasized the need to elucidate the mechanisms behind melanoma progression and similarly use these findings in a patient-specific manner. I am also eager to be starting a new research project in the Karchin Lab at Johns Hopkins’ Institute for Computational Medicine, where I will be working to computationally predict immunogenic viral antigens.

For me, these research endeavors highlight the shift towards patient-tailored approaches in cancer prevention and treatment. As an aspiring physician-scientist, these various experiences helped me become more cognizant of the impact research findings ultimately have in the clinical sphere.

Career objectives: I intend to graduate in May 2025 and apply to top MD/PhD programs. I aspire to work as a physician-scientist and undertake research in personalized immunotherapies, simultaneously using my clinical experience to guide my research endeavors and remain grounded in patients’ stories.

Submit articles, pictures, pdfs, and website links by the 20th of each month for publication the following month to Helen Miller at mwccommunications@arcsfoundation.org.