Profile
Chandler E. Puritty is a Howard University alumnus and a candidate for the Ph.D. in biology with a concentration in plant community ecology at UC San Diego. Her research focuses on how changes in precipitation influence community assembly and interactions between native and invasive plant species in Southern California chaparral. Chandler has received the UCSD Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action and Diversity Award, nominated by the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs as well as funding from the UC Office of the President’s UC-HBCU Initiative, the UCSD Competitive Edge Award, and the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSFGRFP). At Howard University, she received a Bachelor of Science in biology as a Laureate Scholar, a NSF Environmental Biology Scholar (EBS) and was a recipient of the Educational Testing Service’s (ETS) Presidential Scholarship for HBCU students. She was recently awarded Howard University’s Biology Department’s Sesquicentennial Award for alumni making advances in the biological sciences. Chandler is passionate about mentoring younger students toward graduate education and has worked as a mentor for UCSD’s Summer Training Academy for Research Success (STARS) and for the PATHways to STEM (PATHS) through Enhanced Access and Mentorship Program. In her time at UCSD, she also published a paper in Science titled “Without inclusion, diversity initiatives may not be enough.” Beyond the classroom, she has served as President of the Black Graduate and Professional Student Association (BGPSA) and helped to found the Ecological Society of America’s (ESA) first Black Ecologists Section. Ultimately, Chandler strives to continue working in the intersection of science and inclusion and empowerment of underrepresented students.
