CURE Spotlights 2021

  • Markia Eubanks is a CURE Scholar and rising 12th grader attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute.

    Q: What are you most looking forward to going into your senior year of high school?

    "I am looking forward to continuing to keep my grades at their best so I can end my senior year with a 4.0 GPA or above."

    Read more about Markia

     

Proud Baltimore native Gia Grier McGinnis, MS, is the new executive director of the UMB CURE Scholars Program.
A MESSAGE FROM DR. GIA GRIER MCGINNIS, UMB CURE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

As we come to the end of another year of academic programming, we reflect on the past year with a sense of pride about the many things we’ve accomplished. We achieved much this academic year despite the rapidly changing health and safety conditions of this past fall and winter.

CURE Spotlights

Markia Eubanks
UMB CURE SCHOLAR SPOTLIGHT: MARKIA EUBANKS

"I am very interested in being in the medical field for my career, so I knew it was vital for me to take advantage of this opportunity."

Titus Rooks
UMB CURE SCHOLAR SPOTLIGHT: TITUS ROOKS

"My favorite thing about CURE is doing the big projects like researching lung cancer and doing experiments."

Logan Lineburg thumbnail
UMB CURE MENTOR SPOTLIGHT: LOGAN LINEBURG

"Working with Baltimore’s students is great. It is encouraging to find so many scholars who love to do math and keep asking for more problems."

Chris Mfume thumbnail
UMB CURE DONOR SPOTLIGHT: CHRIS MFUME

"When I was approached about CURE, it was right in line with the mission that I had already been thinking about."

Featured Stories

Why Ellin & Tucker’s Ed Brake Believes in Baltimore and UMB’s CURE Scholars

Why Ellin & Tucker’s Ed Brake Believes in Baltimore and UMB’s CURE Scholars

November 2021

Edwin “Ed” Brake, who has been with the firm since 1982, echoes the company’s dedication to Baltimore, consistently pledging his time to revitalize the city and the downtown community in particular through lasting volunteer efforts and advocacy.


CURE Scholars Inspired by Summer Internship at BD

CURE Scholars Inspired by Summer Internship at BD

September 24, 2021

While most high school students spent their summers relaxing by the pool or hanging out with friends, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) CURE Scholars in Cohort 1 were hard at work preparing for their senior year.


Planet Smilez Drills Home Value of Oral Health

Planet Smilez Drills Home Value of Oral Health

August 30, 2021

“Kevin has a headache,” 13-year-old Kennard Harvey joked as he proudly held up an anatomically correct model skull he put together during Planet Smilez Discovering Dentistry Camp, a weeklong interactive dentistry program held in July for Baltimore City middle schoolers to learn about oral cancer and prevention as well as the oral health professions.


Red-Letter Days: CURE Scholars Accepted to College

Red-Letter Days: CURE Scholars Accepted to College

January 26, 2022

This time of year, high school seniors are eagerly waiting to hear from colleges hoping for a letter of acceptance. It is an exciting time for the students and their families. For the 20 seniors in the University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) CURE Scholars Program, it is particularly special. Each acceptance letter represents the culmination of nearly seven years of mentorship, academic enrichment, and dedication to their futures. 


Six Years into Program, UMB CURE Scholars Prepare for College and Workplace Success

Six Years into Program, UMB CURE Scholars Prepare for College and Workplace Success

October 2021

The University of Maryland, Baltimore’s (UMB) CURE Scholars Program, now well into its sixth year, continues to hold true to its mission of creating sustainable and competitive mentorship, education, and work opportunities for West Baltimore youth in the fields of health care and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).


UMB CURE Scholars Family Honors

Congratulations to:

Greg Carey, Core Team and Sustainability Committee member, for his new role as assistant dean for student research education, Office of Student Research, School of Medicine and for being awarded the highest University System of Maryland Honor, the USM Regents’ Faculty Award for Excellence in Mentoring!

Susan Cargill-Collura, CURE Advisory Board member, for rejoining Cisco after five years at Dell. She will serve as a client executive supporting U.S. public sector higher education, K-12, and local government customers in Maryland.

Ernesto Chanona, CURE Advisory Board member, for joining CSSI Life Sciences as director of business development as well as being elected to the Board of Directors of the American Red Cross of Central Maryland. Dr. Chanona also was named a member of the Baltimore Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 Class of 2021.

Al Essien, Core Team and Sustainability Committee member, for his promotion to director of corporate and foundation relations, UMB Office of Philanthropy.

Ann Marie Felauer, CURE instructor and mentor, for being awarded a UMB Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Recognition Award for her work with the scholars. The award was presented to Dr. Felauer during UMB’s virtual MLK and Black History Month Celebration on Feb. 8.

Quincy Goldsmith, CURE Advisory Board member, who will host the grand opening of STEM and Vine, a new plant shop and event space on North Charles Street, in early 2022. Quincy envisions the shop as a “scientific celebration of global culture viewed through a green lens.” Plants in STEM and Vine will be arranged by their regions of origin: Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. He wants to give people a chance to connect with their culture through the plants they bring into their homes and provide an education to those who are not from these cultures to show that these plants are more than just pretty leaves.

Crystal Harden, CURE Advisory Board member, for being elected chairperson of the Maryland Alliance of Public Charter Schools. 

Bret Hassel, Core Team and Sustainability Committee member , for co-authoring an article that was published in the Journal of Cancer Education titled “Robust Institutional Support and Collaboration Between Summer Training Programs in Cancer and Biomedicine Drive the Pivot to a Virtual Format in Response to the Covid Pandemic,” along with UMB CURE colleagues Drs. Greg Carey, Laundette Jones, and Elizabeth Parker. Dr. Hassel also received a Leadership Award from the American Association for Cancer Education for his work in planning and implementing the International Conference on Cancer Education in 2020-2022. 

Damien Myers and Chris Mfume, CURE Advisory Board members, and Rodney Taylor, Core Team member, for taking a leadership role in raising funds for CURE’s Eddie and Sylvia Brown Challenge.

John Palinski, Core Team member and CURE philanthropy lead, for being elected vice chair of the Governor's Commission on Service and Volunteerism.

Clintonette Robinson, CURE Advisory Board member, on completing the Leadership Greenville, McKinsey Academy Management Accelerator program, and on receiving her second master’s degree in jurisprudence from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law. 

Elsie Stines, Core Team member, who has been working closely with Chancellor Jay Perman on the University System of Maryland’s engagement efforts in Maryland’s Pre-K-to-12 schools to ensure children are ready for college and are successful in completing college. Dr. Stines also is co-leading with Dr. Cynthia Baur, director of the Horwitz Center for Health Literacy, a University of Maryland, College Park/UMB faculty health literacy group that focuses on improving health literacy across all disciplines. Dr. Stines also will be presenting at the American Pediatric Surgical Nurses Association’s annual conference on “Racism as a Social Determinant of Health.”