Who Says Science Is Not a Woman's World?

By Eve Jacobs

Carol Newlon, PhD, began her graduate studies at MIT before it was a popular stomping ground for women. Did she ever consider that her life there and in the academic scientific community thereafter might be fraught with hurdles? Not for a moment. Did she encounter any resistance in her steady advance through the ranks of academia to become chair of the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School? Very little.

Newlon came from a family with generations of physicians and ministers on her mother's side, and academicians on her father's side, so being a professional woman was just not an issue. She liked biology, was good at science and never considered another field. She grew up in Florida, attended the University of Florida in Gainesville, and when senior year rolled around, decided that she would rather earn a doctorate in biology than practice medicine, so that is what she did.

She applied to programs at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Michigan and California Institute of Technology; and was accepted at the first four. But the then-chair at Cal Tech when she asked for application materials wrote saying he had had bad luck with female students in the program, but if she thought she was tough enough to make it, she should write back. She was tough enough, but also smart enough not to tango with a shortsighted partner. Newlon chose MIT, where she specialized in cell biology and finished her PhD in five and a half years. "The environment was good," she says. "Actually my class was half women, but before that, there were few women. It was the Vietnam War time and a lot of men were being drafted. After the experience with the women in my class, MIT never looked back." Newlon met her husband in graduate school. They were in the same department and shared a love of bird watching, and still do. They moved on to do post-graduate work in the Department of Genetics at the University of Washington , where Newlon was mentored by Walt Fangman, a well-known researcher in the field of yeast biology. (Newlon has focused her investigations on DNA replication in yeast and has also made her mark in this field.) After two years there, she went looking for work. She was hired by the University of Iowa , and it was during her initial year there in 1974 that she received her first NIH grant. It was also where she learned to be a "master educator" of sorts. "I was assigned to teach the intro to biology course for someone on sabbatical," she says. "There were 625 students and 25 lab sections." She presented three lectures a week and it took her a day and half to write each lecture. "At the end of the semester, I left for a vacation on Lake Michigan and slept 20 hours a day for three days straight," she remembers. Having survived that, she says "nothing has ever been that bad. But it taught me that I could do it."

During her 10 years in Iowa, she realized that she loved teaching. "It's very gratifying to communicate information and your love for a field to students. For me and most teachers the most intellectually satisfying aspect of teaching is being able to develop a course based on your own philosophy. You mold a subject into a series of lectures that make sense to you." How was she perceived by her students? "Tough but fair," she says. "My standards are high, but I realized that students appreciate the challenge involved in doing something well that is demanding." Her research progressed as well, and her grant was renewed twice during her time there. But in 1984, "it was clear we needed to get to a place with more opportunities," she says. And opportunity came knocking. After giving a seminar at NJMS, she was invited to apply for a faculty position. "I knew that coming here would put me in a department with several people working on yeast and DNA metabolism a better intellectual situation," she explains. She also points out that "there was not a single female faculty member in basic sciences in the medical school in Iowa and only one other woman on the faculty of my department."

Her husband Mike, too, was looking for a new venue, and found it at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where "he directs two courses and teaches in several other courses in my sister department there," she states. NJMS turned out to be "very different from Iowa . The teaching load is lighter," she says and the environment allows for real growth. "We have developed a culture of teaching here," she continues. When the department was preparing to launch a new course, "everyone worked together, attending each other's lectures, picking up threads from topics that the others discussed in class and weaving them into the lectures, as well as referring to concepts that would be presented in upcoming classes. It's better for the students."

Newlon is proud of her role on the steering committee for the Jubilee Curriculum at NJMS, launched just last year. "This is a major undertaking aimed at integrating courses and placing much more of an emphasis on small group activities," she says. She explains that first year medical students take The Physician Core, which includes medical ethics, communications, cultural competency, and learning to take histories and perform physicals, and sends them into physicians' offices to spend a half day each week. "They will understand the clinical relevance of what they're studying in the basic science curriculum, which was not there before," she explains. "There is also a significant decrease in lecture hours and an increase in small group interactive teaching in the first two years ."

The third year will be introduced next fall. "We'll integrate times for the students to return to the basic sciences during the clinical years," she explains. "For instance, during the infectious disease rotation, students will return to microbiology and immunology, during surgery, they'll return to anatomy." Since Newlon is not an MD, she says "getting my head around clinical issues and clinical rotations is a challenge." Why does she think she was nominated to be a member of UMDNJ's Master Educators Guild? "I think it's on the basis of my mentoring," she answers. She says that opportunities for mentoring are frequent in her role as chair of the department. "It's why I threw my hat in the ring for the position," she continues. "Recruiting and mentoring new faculty give me the opportunity to build a legacy beyond my science. That's the challenging part of the job."

What keeps her motivated after all these years? "The research we're still doing some pretty interesting stuff," she says. "And with the new Cancer Center going up, and the first on campus housing and other buildings, it's an exciting time to be on this campus." Newlon also wants to build up her department. After recruiting two faculty members last year, she has set her sights on recruiting five more and "getting them well on their way to making careers," she says. And then, when "other people come along and assume leadership positions, bringing in new blood and new ideas," she would like to step back from the fray and have more time to devote to travel, reading and watching birds.

But this is no retiring person, so five years down the road, no one who knows her will be surprised to hear that Carol Newlon, researcher, Master Educator, mentor, chair, and certainly a role model for women in science and academia, still has her hand on the mast and is ever-so-steadily setting sail for a new adventure.