Women in Medicine: Stephanie Perez
Stephanie Perez, PhD, Instructor/Research
Department of Pharmacology
Long School of Medicine
Dr. Stephanie Perez joined Dr. Dan Lodge’s lab as a Pharmacology graduate student in 2010 and obtained her PhD in 2015. She continued her productivity as a postdoc, receiving numerous awards and funding, including the San Antonio Life Sciences Institute Postdoctoral Scholar Research Fellowship. Dr. Perez has been recently promoted to a full-time faculty member and is developing her own research program and obtained independent funding.
Her studies have largely focused on the role of the hippocampus as a potential site of therapeutic intervention for schizophrenia. More recently, she has examined convergent neuronal circuits that regulation dopamine system function that led to the potential targeting of the orexin system for the treatment of psychosis in a range of psychiatric conditions.
In addition to her academic success, Dr. Perez is an excellent community citizen and has been recognized by a number of societies. Of note, Stephanie was the recipient of the Jennifer Torres Shining Star Award from Seaton Home (a home for homeless, pregnant teens). She was also invited by the National Institutes of Health to share her experiences as a Hispanic single mother in science, with minority students in the NIH ENDURE Program. This program aims to attract minority undergraduate students into doctoral programs in the neurosciences.