From Kari’s desk:
You know that wonderful feeling when someone just immediately gets you? Right away, this person understands your goals, your pursuits, your tone? It’s amazing! Especially when the “you” in this situation is a bold, no-holds-barred, brand-new non-profit that is taking on centuries-old norms and practices.
For our organization that person is Kaela S. Singleton—our first Campaign Manager!
Even before joining SolvingFor, Kaela was living the culture change we seek. This showed up in big initiatives, like her contributions to founding and leading Black in Neuro. But it also revealed itself in smaller gestures—like the grad student who felt empowered because Kaela brought her whole self to lab.
Kaela is making the leap out of academia with SolvingFor, and I’m honored that she is trusting us with such a big moment. She comes to us on the heels of a spectacularly successful postdoc in the Faundez lab at Emory University. Her PhD in neuroscience is from the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience at Georgetown University, and she earned her bachelor's in neuroscience & classical history from Agnes Scott College.
Her many awards and academic honors include being named Agnes Scott College's Outstanding Young Alumnae in 2020, one of Cell Mentor's 1000 Inspiring Black Scientist, and Forbes' 30 under 30 class of 2022. She’s also featured in several media outlets including National Geographic, Nature Careers, Nature Medicine, and Neuronline.
On top of her incredible achievements, I am so impressed by Kaela’s pursuit of unconventional sources for information, her commitment to channeling passion into action, and her ability to help others forge through tough work while still making it fun.
As Campaign Manager, Kaela’s primary role will be to walk our community through the process of transforming Ideas into Campaigns, including co-leading Campaigns. She will provide structure, guidance, and leadership as we harness messy, complicated, and genuinely challenging concepts; make space for and honor our community’s ideas; and work to create “pockets of greatness” that expand into the wider scientific community.
I can’t wait to work with her and learn from her, and I know our community will feel the same.
Welcome, Kaela!