{"id":1391,"date":"2025-09-03T19:12:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T23:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/?page_id=1391"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T13:33:33","slug":"trainees","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/about\/trainees\/","title":{"rendered":"Trainees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1>\n\t\tMeet our Center&#8217;s Trainees!\n\t<\/h1>\n\t<h3>WHCOHH trainees include undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. These early career scientists play a vital role in advancing our Center&#8217;s research, while developing the skills and experience needed to become future leaders in the field of Oceans and Human Health.<\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2026\/04\/mekia_photo-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"mekia_photo\" height=\"2560\" width=\"2544\" title=\"mekia_photo\" \/>\n\t\n<h2><strong>Mekia Bushell<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mekia Bushell is a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Hahn and Dr. Aluru at WHOI, where her research focuses on the developmental effects of early-life exposure to saxitoxin.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/09\/Serena-Sung-Clarke-cropped.png\" alt=\"Serena-Sung-Clarke-cropped\" height=\"2036\" width=\"1742\" title=\"Serena-Sung-Clarke-cropped\" \/>\n\t<h2><strong>Serena Sung-Clarke<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Serena Sung-Clarke is a Ph.D. candidate in Dr. Brosnahan&#8217;s lab at WHOI.\u00a0 Her dissertation is investigating the biology and ecology of the shellfish toxin-producing algae <em>Dinophysis<\/em>, which forms harmful algal blooms of increasing global concern.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/09\/Serena-Negroni.png\" alt=\"Serena-Negroni\" height=\"512\" width=\"512\" title=\"Serena-Negroni\" \/>\n\t<h2 data-swiftype-name=\"title\" data-swiftype-type=\"string\"><\/h2>\n<h2 data-swiftype-name=\"title\" data-swiftype-type=\"string\">Serena Negroni<\/h2>\nSerena Negroni is a Ph.D. student working with Dr. Ralston and Dr. McGillicuddy at WHOI, where she is investigating the influence of hydrodynamic processes on phytoplankton dynamics in the Gulf of Maine region.\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/09\/Talia-Feldscher.jpeg\" alt=\"Talia-Feldscher\" height=\"200\" width=\"200\" title=\"Talia-Feldscher\" \/>\n\t<h2>Talia Feldscher<\/h2>\n<p>Talia Feldscher earned her MPH in Dr. Heiger-Bernays&#8217; lab, where she evaluated the quality of shellfish consumption data used to model human exposure to HAB toxins. She is currently a Research Fellow at Boston University&#8217;s Center for Climate and Health and the Institute for Global Sustainability.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>\n\t\tWHCOHH Alumni\n\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2018\/06\/Jenny.jpg\" alt=\"Jenny\" height=\"3888\" width=\"2592\" title=\"Jenny\" \/>\n\t<h2><strong>Dr. Jennifer Martinez Panlilio<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Current position: DxA Analyst, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alzdiscovery.org\/about-addf\/staff\">Alzheimer&#8217;s Drug Discovery Foundation<\/a>, Washington, DC<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2019\/05\/Hidayat_photo.jpg\" alt=\"Hidayat_photo\" height=\"6000\" width=\"4000\" title=\"Hidayat_photo\" \/>\n\t<h2><strong>Dr. Alia Hidayat<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Current position: Senior Policy Analyst,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanprogress.org\/people\/alia-hidayat\/\">Center for American Progress<\/a>\u00a0, Washington, DC<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/30\/2025\/10\/Pitt_Headshot-e1611063802944-797x1024-1.jpg\" alt=\"Pitt_Headshot-e1611063802944-797x1024\" height=\"1024\" width=\"797\" title=\"Pitt_Headshot-e1611063802944-797x1024\" \/>\n\t<h2><strong>Dr. Jordan Pitt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Current position: Senior Scientist,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.exponent.com\/people\/jordan-pitt\">Exponent Inc<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<img src=\"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-content\/plugins\/bb-plugin\/img\/pixel.png\" alt=\"\" \/>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet our Center&#8217;s Trainees! WHCOHH trainees include undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. These early career scientists play a vital role in advancing our Center&#8217;s research, while developing the skills and experience needed to become future leaders in the field of Oceans and Human Health. &nbsp; Mekia Bushell Mekia Bushell is a Ph.D. student&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1391"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1442,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1391\/revisions\/1442"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.whoi.edu\/site\/whcohh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}