ORLANDO, Fla. – For Dr. Karen Corbin, walking into a research lab isn’t unusual at all because she always knew she was meant to be in one.
“I remember having dreams about wearing a white coat and discovering things and I’m not exactly sure what that meant for a little girl, but it was always in my vision and in my mind,” Corbin said.
Corbin was 9 years old when she came to Central Florida from Puerto Rico and already had love for science.
And at the Translation Research Institute at AdventHealth, she gets to wear a white lab coat and study human metabolism.
“So in this building, it’s actually quite interesting, we have a lot of women scientists, and we have them from all over the world including Colombia, including Brazil, so in this building it’s sort of like a Utopia,” she explained.
According to a 2021 study from the Pew Research Center, only 8% of Hispanics are in STEM fields and 3% are women.
“That’s why I’m so passionate about speaking about this topic and letting people say hey someone that looks like me, who you would immediately picture as ‘this is what a scientist looks like’ they did it. They came from humble backgrounds, they went to the schools that were accessible to them and they can do it and so can I,” Corbin said.
Corbin also describes herself as a science communications expert and founded her own company called “Geeks That Speak” with the goal to educate girls and women who want to take a chance on science.
“I really think it’s about getting that story out there that we need all of us because not only do we need all of us because we need representation of people doing the science, but the science is not the same in every body,” she said.
Corbin said science is a long journey but if you have the right variables, you could change someone’s life.
“In your mind, whoever you are, you feel like you’ve been called to address cancer, or to address heart disease, or obesity, climate change, do it. We need you. There’s a reason you’re here,” Corbin said.
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