Career Pathways: Meet Asia Mitchell, PhD

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text]

CAREER PATHWAYS: Women in Science PortlandA series of interviews with local extraordinary womenwhose stories need to be told as a source of inspiration

MEET Asia Mitchell, PhD, Clinical Analyst within Medical Affairs at Invitae 

What is your background and what brought you to Portland?Born and primarily raised in Southern California, I spent middle school in the Salt Lake City suburbs and high school in the Denver suburbs. My mom is a carpenter by trade and my dad left behind his small-business in California to support my mom’s career in construction project management. I studied biochemistry in undergrad, earning a BS in 2008 from Chatham University in Pittsburgh. I also worked part-time as an ICU nursing assistant at a large cancer hospital. Through my clinical experience, I learned that I was not interested in a career directly caring for patients. I was, however, deeply interested in the connection between biomedical data and improving outcomes in human disease. A summer internship in bioinformatics further encouraged me to pursue graduate studies. In 2009, I completed a graduate certificate in biomedical informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2009, the recession made job searching extremely difficult. I recall applying to over 100 jobs within 4 months. During my job search, a position as a research assistant in primate genetics at the Oregon National Research Center (ONPRC) stood out. I took a chance, reached out directly to the lab and asked for an interview. My directness worked! I scheduled an interview, moved from Pittsburgh to Portland, and earned the position. I worked at ONPRC for two years, where I established and managed data and biological infrastructure for heritability studies in rhesus macaques. In 2011, I chose to attend Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to complete my PhD in molecular and medical genetics. I completed my PhD in 2018 and subsequently worked briefly as a post-doc in computational biology at OHSU.I met my now husband during graduate school. While neither of us are from Portland, we’ve established some Portland roots through our careers and in our family of 3.What influenced you to pursue a degree in science? Most of my career influence comes from my cousin David and my grandma. David was one of my first-cousins and was born with a genetic condition (muscular dystrophy). My grandma was the reason all her grandchildren had a strong sense of family and community. We lost David around the same time I first learned about Mendel’s experiments with pea plants, punnett squares, and patterns of inheritance. As I learned more about biology, and other areas of science, I felt a sense of duty to support my community and contribute to our understanding of the relationship between human disease and genetics. Tell us about your current role at work and what led you to this position.I provide analytics and informatics support for research and business operations involving our reproductive products. We’re a clinical genetic testing company, meaning that our products screen for or diagnose human disease. It’s extremely motivating work as someone who enjoys data, improving accessibility of genetic screening, and contributing publicly to science. About halfway through my PhD, I identified that I no longer wanted to pursue a career in academia. I did a lot of networking and informational interviews. I concluded that I was motivated by biomedical data and would not be happy working on non-health related problems. I eventually decided to pursue a “data science” career. In 2018, I attended a large genetics conference and came into contact with Invitae. I originally applied 7 months prior for a different role. So I was surprised, but thrilled, when I was contacted about my current position. It’s been a great fit and I am really proud of the work I get to do. Invitae has built a strong organizational structure to support a highly-distributed workforce and, as a result, I am able to work remotely. Remote work is not for everyone. However it does allow for more freedom and for me, an ideal personal to professional life balance. In 2008, my grandma was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Seeing the decline in my grandma and recognizing the true importance of being closer to my family, it’s been important to have the ability to visit as often as possible. Having a career that is location independent affords me the flexibility to spend a lot of time with loved ones.Why did you decide to transition out of academia? I did not feel I would do my best work and make a significant impact if I remained in academia after learning that the academic lifestyle conflicted  with some of my core-values. Academic research solves a lot of complex problems and eventually helps a lot of people, and I value supporting equitable work. However, I personally observed too many ego-driven labs, where research practices did not lead to equitable work. By equitable work, I mean contributing to projects and systems that intentionally aim to affect all people across a variety of social, biological, and economic demographics.Obtaining an academic career is also expensive! While most PhD programs provide a stipend  and tuition support, they often do not provide access to retirement accounts and leave little left to save. As I approached 30, still in graduate school, I realized I had only about $5,000 saved for retirement from a previous job and a large student loan balance that barely decreased despite my monthly payments. Even as a postdoc, with a PhD in hand, I made less than friends and family without a college degree. Simply, it was demotivating to study for decades and obtain the highest possible degree, only to struggle financially. It can be uncomfortable to talk about money but it will be life changing if you do! I took WIS negotiation bootcamp several years ago. I learned a lot from that workshop and even implemented some of the coach's advice within my own life. What future goals do you have for your career?In the near future, I plan to publish a couple manuscripts and also support our oncology products. In the later future, I would like to become involved in genetic screening and information education and advocacy. Perhaps earn a board position within a health-based organization, in hopes of offering insightful perspective about the role of genetic screening in human health. Simply, I strive to increase accessibility of genetic screening and improve how genetic information is used to inform human disease and health.Do you have any advice for women who are pursuing careers in science?The only person who can truly limit your goals and potential is yourself. There are always many pathways to reach the same outcome. While your path certainly molds you, it doesn’t define you. Many times down my path, others attempt to impose limits upon me, and if I had listened, I doubt I would be where I am today. Additionally, it is essential to one’s emotional well-being to identify your core-values and to stick to them. I find that I am happiest when my personal and professional pursuits are in line with my core-values. What are some challenges you faced along the way as a scientist? Have you ever experienced discrimination at work?Unfortunately yes. Being a Black woman in science and a Black person in Portland, I am often the “only one” on my team, in my department, and even in my building. Many times, my personal life experience was assumed to represent the experience of all other Black people. During both of my graduate school experiences, I received comments from students and faculty that my presence in a program or grant award was solely due to my race and gender. I constantly felt I had to validate that my merits earned my position or my funding. It’s a continuous challenge I still face, albeit at a much lesser extent. However, having a mother who survived daily discrimination as a Black woman in construction, motivated me to keep on my path and continue towards my goals.What made you get involved in WIS and why is it important to you?I’ve been involved in Women in Science as a community member throughout the years. My undergrad was a women’s college, and most of my support in life and science have come from women. A sense of community is crucial to feeling like you belong and you are seen, especially when you lack that sense of belonging at your school or job. WIS provides that community for so many people, including me.What is a fun fact about you that not many people know?I love to cook! It’s my second passion after science. During my first-year of graduate school, my friends convinced me to audition for Master Chef. I actually made it through several rounds of interviews but was ultimately not selected to audition on the show. Now that graduate school is long-gone, I may have to revisit my - almost - reality TV career! Author BioKylia Ahuna is originally from Colorado and moved to Portland in 2019. She studied neuroscience in undergrad at the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently a research assistant at a pediatric neurology lab at Oregon Health and Sciences University. Kylia is also passionate about making research more accessible to the public and, as such, she is pursuing a graduate degree in Science Writing. She is excited to be a part of the Women in Science organization and looks forward to sharing stories of women in STEM fields through this blog series![/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]