Camplain awarded CUR Health Sciences Innovative Mentor Award
The Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), Health Sciences Division, recently selected Ricky Camplain for their Health Sciences Innovative Mentor Award, Early Career Category.
Camplain is an assistant professor in Northern Arizona University’s Center for Health Equity Research and Department of Health Sciences.
“Mentoring students is my favorite part of the job,” Camplain said. “I am committed to ensuring opportunities for safe, fulfilling research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students. I get to help students as they conduct their own research and learn the research process. They get to make decisions on their own, ask questions, and gain confidence all while they take intellectual ownership during the process.”
The CUR Health Sciences Innovative Mentor Award honors mentors in higher education who are leaders and role models for undergraduate research, scholarship, creative activities, or innovative projects in health, wellness, disease, health care, or health management, according to their website.
In her selection email, CUR’s award committee wrote that they were impressed by Camplain’s portfolio and applaud her “leadership in mentoring undergraduate research.”
“I have amazing mentors that I look up to and have made me a better scientist and want to pay that forward,” Camplain said.
Founded in 1978, CUR is an organization of individual, institutional, and affiliate members from around the world. CUR members share a focus on providing high-quality and collaborative undergraduate research, scholarly, and creative activity opportunities for faculty and student, according to their website.
Bethany Robinson, a senior biology undergraduate student in the Northern Arizona University Honors College, nominated Camplain for the award.
“Dr. Camplain’s mentorship has meant the absolute world to me. Since I first began working under Dr. Camplain in 2019, I have gained invaluable research experience and been offered many incredible opportunities thanks to her mentorship,” Robinson said.
Robinson said that at the beginning of the pandemic, Camplain offered her a position on the COVID-19 Epidemiology Team with the Coconino County Health and Human Services Department. When interviewing at graduate schools, Robinson said professors were impressed with many accomplishments in research as an undergraduate student from her work with Camplain.
“The knowledge Dr. Camplain has shared with me these past three years will be invaluable in medical school,” Robinson said. “I can’t thank Dr. Camplain enough for the impact she has had on my undergraduate career at Northern Arizona University.”