This monthly NIH graduate student series is intended to provide NIH graduate students the opportunity to meet and converse with outstanding scientists from diverse backgrounds (e.g. NIH, academia, pharmaceuticals, biotech) as well as your fellow NIH grad student peers. Through these interactions, sponsored by the GPP, we hope NIH graduate students are able to identify career paths that match their interests/skills and become informed on how to pursue these careers following their training at the NIH.

Julia Warner is a Legislative Assistant for Congressman Vernon Ehlers of Grand Rapids, MI.  Her primary responsibilities are science and energy policy issues.  Prior her work on Capitol Hill, she served as the Science Policy Fellow at the American Chemical Society, where she managed issues resulting from science policy changes after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. During the summer of 2002 she was a AAAS research fellow at the RAND Science and Technology Policy Institute. Before commencing her graduate studies, she spent a year teaching English through the Japanese Exchange Teaching program in Nishinomiya, Japan.  Ms. Warner earned her doctorate in applied science and masters in chemistry from the College of William and Mary, where her research focused on the transport properties of polymer liquids and films.

Joye Purser is a Legislative Assistant to a moderate Democratic Member of Congress in the US House of Representatives.  Her areas of responsibility include science/technology, health, Social Security, telecommunications, and social/domestic issues.  Mrs. Purser was coordinator of Science Policy for Research!America in Alexandria, Virginia before moving to Capitol Hill in 2003.  At Research!America, she managed the grassroots advocacy initiative and increased the quality and frequency of semimonthly Congressional legislative updates for their research advocacy network.  She earned her doctorate in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Texas Health Science Center, where she conducted laboratory research on an infectious disease, along with other microbiological labwork.