Science Communications
Chicago Biomedical Consortium
Mentors
Michelle Hoffmann, PhD Executive Director, Chicago Biomedical Consortium
Eleonora Gatta, PhD Senior Associate Director, Chicago Biomedical Consortium
About the CBC
The mission of the Chicago Biomedical Consortium (CBC) is to accelerate discovery and expand the Chicago-based life sciences ecosystem in order to transform life science research into biomedical applications, create inclusive Chicagoland opportunities, and improve the health of humankind. The CBC aims to:
- Work towards an inclusive and equitable Chicagoland life sciences landscape of institutions and industry that works for all citizens of Chicago
- Expand collaborations to build a “One Chicago” life sciences ecosystem that is a destination for visionary biotech companies and talent
- Provide faculty and trainees developing therapeutics the critical centralized analytics, industry validation, and networks of expertise needed for translation
- Mentor and develop a strong cadre of biomedical leaders, researchers, and entrepreneurs in ChicagoFacilitate the development of therapeutics that will, over the long term, improve the health of the citizens of Chicago and beyond.
Please note that while working with the CBC you might conduct tasks overlapping the roles highlighted below. A separate externship focused on bio-entrepreneurship is also available here.
About the Externship
The CBC has an opportunity for an extern interested in strengthening the CBC’s communication. Working with the CBC communication team, the extern would help develop communication strategies highlighting CBC programs. Activities related to this aim would include:
- Making connections to student groups and post-doc associations that support under-represented minorities
- Developing lists of potential and committed mentors that could help our Entrepreneurial Fellows succeed in the Fellowship and beyond
- Collect data from our current EFs about what is working and what is not in terms of inclusivity
- Stay abreast of the current state of research that helps us understand how to increase outreach
Dependent on the interests of the extern, the work could also contain elements of science communication, focused on translating the great scientific discoveries and biomedical applications developed by our Chicagoland institutions to relevant content that can be distributed on social media as well as other outlets such as blogs and newsletters. Activities related to communications could include:
- Finding interesting content to promote via social media the various activities of the CBC (convening CBC programs, funded projects, the Entrepreneurial Fellows)
- Creating new formats (video, podcast) which could increase engagement
- Exploring new channels and strategies to reach target audiences (students, faculty, entrepreneurs, investors)
- Developing examples of our faculty’s scientific progress into interesting and easy-to-read communications
Qualifications
The successful candidate will have:
- excellent writing and communication skills
- a good understanding of how systemic inequality has shaped our current system
- research skills
- eagerness to deploy new methods to ensure that the CBC’s programs are inclusive
Before submitting an application, please visit the Externships page for instructions regarding our new application platform: myCHOICE-Symplicity.