Dr. Elizabeth Jolley

In today’s spotlight, we will focus on Dr. Elizabeth Jolley who defied academic norm by taking a non-traditional career path to pursue her scientific interests. Elizabeth is an Assistant Research Professor at The Pennsylvania State University. She obtained her PhD in Chemistry from Saint Louis University in 2016 in the lab of Professor Brent Znosko, where she studied nucleic acid duplex stability and the effect of intercalators and non-standard nucleotides. She continued her academic journey in the lab of Professor Philip Bevilacqua at Penn State where she, among many other things, developed and applied in vivo structure-probing techniques with a focus on RNA thermometers.

Scientifically, Elizabeth is fascinated with RNA folding. “RNA folding intrigues me. I love how the simplest things can have a big result. I am amazed at how the change of a base pair can change a structure and impact the function of an RNA. I've learned a lot of life lessons from studying RNA folding. Small changes can have a big impact!”

Elizabeth’s graduate studies started in an unconventional way after her extended career break of being a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. “Saint Louis University was a great fit for me. I hadn't been in a classroom for a while, but the program there was uniquely suited to me. Every student comes in as a Master's student. After completing your Master’s, you have the option to stay on as a PhD candidate. The stigma of “Mastering out” doesn't exist in that program and I think that's really great! I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to balance things beyond a 2-year commitment. But while I was there, I found a love for research! That carried me to a postdoc at Penn State University and my current faculty position where my love for research is growing and extending beyond myself.”

Elizabeth is enthusiastic about alternative career paths that empower scientists to follow their passions and define their own measures of success. “A research faculty position is a non-tenure track position. As a single mom with three teenagers, the offer of this faculty position came at a really great time for me! Not only that but I have been really proud of the work I have been able to do here. [At Saint Louis University], I established a good foundation for RNA thermodynamics. Being able to build on that foundation at Penn State with Dr. Phil Bevilacqua has been really rewarding and exciting as it's given me the chance to take foundational principles and apply them to RNA functions in the cell. While my current position may not be suitable for some, it could be suitable for people that are like me, for whom a great work-life balance is important, while still being able to pursue some of their scientific passions. It took me a bit of time to not care about what other people thought about my career path and just focus on what suited me and if the opportunities that were coming my way were meeting my needs as a scientist and as a person.”

“You can go far with a strong belief in yourself, but I think you get there faster by surrounding yourself with people that believe in you just as much. … I’m inspired by people that pursue their scientific passions without letting their location, their professional title, social barriers, or other barriers stop them! Thinking more specifically about Dr. Karkio's recent Nobel prize inspires me and reminds me that good science can happen anywhere! When we forget that, we miss moving science forward.”

Defining her current non-tenure track faculty position is perhaps one of Elizabeth’s biggest career challenges. “I've only had my assistant research professor position for a little over 2 years. Somehow before that I missed out on conversations where non-tenure track research faculty positions were described as glorified postdoc positions. But since taking this position I've started hearing it more and more. I think it's really unfortunate to think that way. Not only was I excited and grateful for this opportunity, but I also knew that there were ways that I could contribute, not just scientifically, that people could benefit from. So I try to overcome this by looking for as many opportunities as I can to share my story. I think the more people hear stories about how this type of position fits what they need, maybe the more people can start to change their opinions and perspectives about what roles people in this position could fill. A major contributing factor to overcoming challenges is to have people in your corner cheering you on.” Here, Elizabeth acknowledges her mentors for the important role they played in building her confidence to pursue a non-traditional scientific role: “Without Dr. Znosko’s encouragement in my ability to complete a PhD, I might not have. And without Dr. Bevilacqua sharing in my visions of success and even expanding those visions, I might not have felt as supported in and committed to my current endeavors. You can go far with a strong belief in yourself, but I think you get there faster by surrounding yourself with people that believe in you just as much.” Elizabeth comments further on the inspirations that drive her career: “I’m inspired by people that pursue their scientific passions without letting their location, their professional title, social barriers, or other barriers stop them! Thinking more specifically about Dr. Kariko's recent Nobel prize inspires me and reminds me that good science can happen anywhere! When we forget that, we miss moving science forward.”

Her current position at Penn State gives Elizabeth many opportunities for professional development. “I've had the opportunity to get involved in professional development workshops, participate in many outreach activities that cater to high school students, undergraduates, graduates, and postdocs, and co-organize a symposium on campus. Recently, I also had the opportunity to speak at an event centered around non-traditional career trajectories. I hope to expand participating in organizing meetings that not only center on science, but center on highlighting the many ways that everyone can get involved in science.”

Elizabeth’s favorite RNA journal publication is rightfully her own work on structure probing of RNA thermometers, Transcriptome-wide probing reveals RNA thermometers that regulate translation of glycerol permease genes in Bacillus subtilis. “I'm really proud of that paper! I like being able to go from really big data sets to learn about the functions of many RNAs together and continuously go one level deeper until we discovered single RNAs that are performing big functions.” However, Elizabeth could not narrow down her favorite RNA molecule. “I'm not sure if I have a favorite RNA. I think we keep learning about RNAs that we've studied for a long time, but we learn more about their intricacies and their functions. At the same time, we keep learning and discovering new RNAs and their roles and functions.”

To contact Elizabeth or to figure out what she has been up to, please visit the Bevilacqua Lab website https://sites.psu.edu/bevilacqua/elizabeth-jolley/.