Administration

Dr. Cinthia E. Sanchez joined the Purdue Institute for Integrative Neuroscience (PIIN) in June 2017. She earned her Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences from Purdue University in 2014. Borned and raised in Puerto Rico she received her B.S. degree in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla. Cinthia has extensive research experience in the areas of molecular virology and cell biology. Her doctorate thesis project “Genetic variations of dengue virus and its role in viral replication and infectivity” has been presented at various national conferences. During her tenure at Purdue, she worked as the Pre-college Outreach and Undergraduate Retention Administrator for the Minority Engineering Program (MEP). In her role with MEP, she was responsible for designing, implementing and coordinating outreach and retention programing specifically targeted to underrepresented minority pre-college and undergraduate students, parents, and educators. She also developed intervention strategies for academic improvement and success for all students in the College of Engineering. Dr. Sanchez also served as the program chair of the National Society of Multicultural Engineering Program Advocates (NAMEPA) where she researched, developed and managed national programs in outreach, recruitment and retention, as well as recruited institutional partners and corporations to support the organization. As the Lead Coordinator for the Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) at Purdue University (2011-2014) Cinthia developed, coordinated and engaged in activities that focused on outreach, recruitment and retention of undergraduate students to graduate school. She built partnerships with internal faculty, staff, and administrators, as well as other academic institutions nationwide. With more than nine years of teaching experience at Purdue University, Cinthia has taught courses such as Lab View, Exploration of Protein Structure and Macromolecules, and Anatomy, Physiology and the ENGR 180 Freshman Seminar. She helps fulfill her passion of helping others through research, teaching, personal and professional development of students, staff and faculty. She continues to mentor pre-college, college and graduate students from Purdue and Puerto Rico.