FASEB Fellows for the Future

Vik Meadows, PhD

Vik Meadows is a postdoctoral scholar in the Organ Pathobiology and Therapeutics Insitute at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her overarching research goal is to demystify the complex communication between the gut and liver in health and disease, focusing on the signaling mechanism between the microbiome and the rare cells in these organs, including Paneth cells in the intestine and cholangiocytes in the liver. Meadows is dedicated to social responsibility and has served her communities since graduate school. Her ambition in service work is to create and sustain an environment that promotes and celebrates individual members’ strengths for creative problem solving, reflecting the merits of diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

She served as the graduate student representative in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force at Indiana University. This created an institution-wide standard operating manual on DEI training enforcement and a separate implicit bias training program for faculty and staff. 

Outside of academia, Meadows volunteered as a mentor for first-generation undergraduate students at the Indiana Latino Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana, and established a yearly scientific demonstration event at Christamore House, a non-profit community center serving the local community of Haughville and the Near-Westside of Indianapolis. She continues to serve as a trainee-committee member of the Committee for Equal Representation and Opportunity at the American Society for Investigative Pathology (ASIP), where she works with a diverse team of ASIP members aiming to change the code of conduct promoting equity and accessibility to awards and opportunities within the society. Meadows co-founded and co-moderated the BioChem Diversity Chat Series at Indiana University to facilitate networking and candid discussion of the doctorate to postdoctoral trainee transition with graduate students nationwide until 2021. Her service efforts led to her being honored as a William M. Plater Civic Engagement Medallion recipient and Sherry Queener Graduate Student Excellence awardee in 2022. 

As a postdoctoral research fellow, Meadows has co-founded and co-led the Rutgers University Postdoctoral Latinx/Hispanic Affinity Group to enhance the Latinx/Hispanic postdoctoral and early faculty experience and embrace the culture and community of its members at Rutgers. Meadows serves as the Liver Pathobiology Special Interest Group co-chair at ASIP and programming chair of the Rutgers Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) chapter. Variety is the spice of life, and Meadows’ accomplishments have promoted and championed diversity, equity, and accessibility to science and research in her communities while celebrating the power of teamwork. 

Meadows earned her doctorate in biochemistry and molecular biology from Indiana University School of Medicine, master's in biochemistry and molecular biology from Oregon Health & Science University, and bachelor's in cell biology and Spanish from the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

FASEB Member Society: American Society for Investigative Pathology