About Our Speaker

Dr. Corey Welch is the Director of the STEM Scholars Program at Iowa State University. His love of nature took a first generation, low income, Northern Cheyenne/White kid from a trailer park in Montana toward a career as a biologist. He has a biology degree from Lewis & Clark College, a M.S. in the department of Systematics & Ecology from the University of Kansas, and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Washington. He has done extensive field work in the Kansas, the Pacific Northwest, and Eastern Australia. Prior to his Ph.D., he taught introductory biology & ecology at Haskell Indian Nations University, one of the largest tribal colleges.

After his postdoc, he transitioned to full time student development as a program coordinator of the Biology Scholars Program at UC Berkeley, an innovative nationally recognized program for minorities and low income students. In 2016, he established the STEM Scholars, modeled after this program. The mission of the STEM Scholars is to diversify who succeeds in the sciences with a current 208 membership that is comprised of 62% Minoritized, 60% low income, 71% first generation, and 71% female. Corey uses the latest STEM Education research and his own experience as a first generation, low income, Northern Cheyenne Tribal member to train the next generation of scientists.

Corey frequently gives talks around the country on diversifying the Sciences from the undergraduate to the professoriate, serves on NIH/NSF/HHMI Grant Review Panels, and occasionally publishes papers on ways to improve the biology education and faculty hiring, retention, promotion, and tenure practices. He spoke in Washington D.C. at the March For Science, and from 2016-2021, he served on the National Board of Directors of SACNAS (Society for the Advancement of Chicano/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science) and remains active on several committees. He is a facilitator for two SACNAS annual leadership institutes for STEM PhDs., and co-advises the ISU SACNAS Chapter. As possibly the first and only Northern Cheyenne to earn a Biology Ph.D., he gives back to his tribal community through an annual Northern Cheyenne scholarship honoring his late mother.

Lastly, Dr. Welch claims to have been good at basketball once and is a big comedy and podcast nerd. He lives in Ames, Iowa with his spouse, Dr. Tracy Heath (EEOB ISU) and a golden retriever who is a very good dog.

Sponsorship 

Graduate School Offices of Inclusion and Student Engagement, and Future Faculty and Academic Careers, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Office of Diversity and Inclusion.