Kelley Roark, RMA

“Epilepsy is an interdisciplinary disease,” explains Kelley Roark (Certificate in Neuroscience '23). Kelley experienced epileptic seizures at 7 years old; as an adult with years of medical assisting experience returning to college, she felt driven to understand the molecular basis for neurological disorders like epilepsy, and ultimately pursue research opportunities in that field. “I wanted to get an undergraduate education in public health and biostats as a foundation, with a lot of neuroscience and some expertise in biology and chemistry entwined for a more diverse curriculum,” says Kelley. As a bachelor’s student at the University of Maryland (UMD), Kelley found her advisors to be supportive of her interest in neuroscience translational research—yet, as a nontraditional student, she encountered some logistical barriers to the advanced scientific education she sought. “I had to spend so much more time and money on prerequisite courses after the move to Maryland, and I was distraught that I would not be able to do all the things I wanted to do in the time frame I needed to do them in for my family and budgetary needs,” she recalls. “The Certificate in Neuroscience leveled the playing field and made things equitable.”

Kelley began her Penn LPS Online studies at a transitional moment in her life and education: she had just transferred from Georgia State University Fall 2019 to complete her bachelor’s degree at College Park due to a job relocation for her husband’s career, when the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown disrupted her undergraduate thesis plans with Dr. Sushant Ranadive’s Human Integrative Physiology lab. Yet the shift to remote learning opened up new possibilities: when Kelley heard about the online Certificate in Neuroscience, she realized that she could complete the Penn LPS Online courses alongside her final degree requirements at UMD—and that the coursework at Penn would align more with her interests in molecular biology. “The minute I was in Introduction to Neuroscience and looking at the weekly problem sets, I had an a-ha moment: Okay, this is definitely what I need to do,” says Kelley. “They are presenting the information in a manner that is quantitative and qualitative, detailed, and molecular. This is exactly what I was hoping for. I’m in the right place, I’m doing the right thing.”

After the introductory courses, Kelley took courses in pharmacology as well as hormone and behavioral neuroscience. The course content for the latter of which surprised her, “I didn’t know we were going to get into cAMP and mitochondrial protein expression in the behavioral courses,” she laughs. Although she typically prefers in-person courses, Kelley found the online courses efficient and accessible. “I can tell that Penn is well-practiced at delivering online education. You get the most information within the shortest timeframe possible, so it’s condensed but incredibly detailed,” she says. “And the professors are amazing. I can’t get over how cool it is that I am able to take online courses in molecular neuroscience with actual Penn instructors who care about the education their students are getting.”

While balancing neuroscience courses with her undergraduate coursework—including Ethics and Society, a Penn LPS Online course she was able to apply toward a final degree requirement that was difficult to schedule—Kelley continued building her network in the field of neuroscience research that interests her most. “There’s always a way to find help and mentorship if you talk to people,” she remarks. “At the end of the day, we only succeed with the help of others.” At the encouragement of one of her outside mentors, she published an article at Neuro Central reviewing the inflammatory model of epilepsy and articulating potential pathways for future research. She also reached out to Dr. Phil Iffland, whose lab researches the molecular mechanisms associated with malformations in cortical development and epilepsy. She coordinated a 12-week internship with Dr. Iffland, funded by the American Epilepsy Society’s Broadening Representation Inclusion and Diversity by Growing Equity (BRIDGE) grant program. “The lab does translational medicine, which is taking basic research and applying that to the development of solutions that can potentially be translated to humans,” Kelley explains. “This is really important for rare diseases, where you have an N=1 and can’t do a controlled human population study for research.” Immersed in her internship, Kelley has found multiple ways in which her coursework at Penn prepared her for the conceptual understanding of the lab work she is performing, and the symposiums she's attending through UMB's UM Mind initiative: a collaborative effort to facilitate interactions between researchers and clinicians on some of the most pressing issues in clinical neurology and neuroscience research.

Currently she plans to apply to the PhD program at the University of Maryland Baltimore, and says that she is open to different career options in the future but likes the idea of becoming a PI someday. “I could see myself going either into academia as a PI or to industry. I could also see myself doing science writing,” she says. “But I’m extremely passionate about this rare disease research right now. I care about these patients finding solutions to improve their daily lives because everybody has something to give to the world no matter their medical status. We need to facilitate their ability to exist in a world not built for them, because we have an obligation to care about everyone, and translational science, rather than policy, is the best way to go about that for these patients.”

Read more about Kelley's journey to Penn and beyond at Omnia's website.