Small Towns Grow Big Ideas: A Scientist’s Journey from Chattooga to Duke

As a gangly teenager attending Menlo School in the early 2000s, I spent formative summers helping with hay baling, collecting cicada shells, and getting sun-tanned in the beautiful farmland of Chattooga County. At the same time, I was equally drawn to books, storytelling, and logic puzzles. In 2004, CHS offered great courses in nursing, welding, and other trades, but no pre-college AP classes. My senior year, we finally got four AP classes, so I took them all! Dr. Perry and my mom, Dr. Widincamp, showed me how history still shapes our lives. Believe it or not, I actually use the math I learned in Ms. Koonce’s AP Calculus class. Most of all, nothing in my journey toward becoming a scientist makes sense except in light of Ms. Culbert’s AP Biology course. How do you build something as fascinating as a human body? I was hooked. Shaped by my Chattooga education, both in the classroom and on the farm, I’ve been fortunate to pursue a career as a research scientist. While I’ve earned credentials from places like Emory, Stanford, and now Duke, what matters most is that I’ve gotten to discover new things about the world around us that can make a real difference in people’s lives. I’ve studied a virus that causes bronchitis in poultry and found a natural plant extract that helps prevent infection. I’ve learned how cells destined to become sperm can be eliminated by their neighbors, causing infertility. Right now, I’m studying how cells in early embryos know where they are and which genes to turn on to become neurons. I want you to know that someone working in these elite institutions on important scientific discoveries is there because of communities like Chattooga County and schools like Chattooga High School. And I’m not the only one. There are thousands of scientists from small towns across America doing work to serve our communities. We’re helping farmers protect their flocks, helping families have children, and finding new ways to heal the sick. We are your neighbors, your kids, and your Sunday school students. This work, helping farmers and families, has been made possible by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In particular, the diversity initiatives of these funding agencies give folks whose parents didn’t go to college or students from low-income families the opportunity to pursue their dreams. For me personally, federal grants have funded the tubes, chemicals, and microscopes in my lab, and they’ve supported my (small) salary through my PhD and postdoctoral research. For decades, America has led the world in scientific discovery thanks to bipartisan support for the NIH and NSF. But that legacy is in danger. Proposed budget cuts to the NIH threaten to end America’s leadership in medical research within a few short years. These cuts hurt everyone. They slow the development of cancer treatments, livestock vaccines, and tools rural hospitals need to survive. If you believe in discovery and in the small-town kids like me who grow up to make it happen, please speak up. Call your representatives. Ask them to protect NIH and NSF funding. Let them know that small towns grow big ideas, and we need their help to keep discovering.