January 06, 2021

Editor’s note: Cheryl Mitchell retired Dec. 31, 2020, following a 44-year career with the Medical School.

When did you join UTHealth? What brought you here?
I joined UTHealth in November 1976. I had graduated Baylor University in May 1976 and took the summer off to relax before job searching. I always had an interest in science and come from a family of women with an interest in science. My older sister had done lab research work for a while after graduation before moving on to another path in her science career. I have an identical twin sister who majored in science education. Even my mother dabbled in science as a nuclear medicine technician.

Tell me about your work history here.
我被神经生物学和解剖学系Dianna A. Redburn博士聘用，后来我发现这是德克萨斯大学医学院的创始院长Cheves McCord Smythe，医学博士聘用的少数妇女之一1974年的研究职beplay苹果手机能用吗位错误。她刚刚在1976年夏天获得了NEI的第一笔RO1赠款，需要聘请研究技术员。她的赠款专注于基础科学研究，视觉的神经可塑性，因此我开始了实验室研究生beplay苹果手机能用吗涯。在我在她的实验室工作的那段时间里，一位博士后研究员加入了她的实验室，史蒂夫·梅西（Steve Massey）博士，后来我将成为我现在在那里工作的眼科科基础科学研究主任。beplay苹果手机能用吗Redburn博士和她的实验室于1994年成为眼科系的一部分。当Redburn博士于1996年离开Uthealth博士时，我被Massey博士聘请，以管理组织文化设施，作为Nei Vision Core Core Grant的一部分。The Vision Core Grant has four modules, and the Tissue Culture facility is in the Molecular Resources Module of which Dr. John O’Brien is the director and with whom I have worked since 2002. With Dr. O’Brien, I have been allowed to work independently with other faculty members that have NEI RO1 funded research using the facility but also with his NEI RO1 funded research these past 18 years.

What are you most proud of accomplishing?
I don’t know if you describe it as what I am proud of accomplishing, but I always felt a since of pride when grants are funded and manuscripts are published with the research I helped with. I am co-author on over 35 manuscripts and first author on 10 of those manuscripts, with all manuscripts throughout the years resulting in over 690 citations.

How has the university changed since you first joined?
Physically, when I first joined the university, Dr. Redburn’s research lab was located in the Center Pavilion Hospital on the corner of Holcombe and Braeswood. The two-story John Freeman Medical School Building was built. The Medical School building on Fannin Street was partially complete. Dr. Redburn moved into her research labs on the 7^Thfloor in the Medical School Building in 1979. I paid $40 a month for parking in the Herman Professional building (now UTHealth Professional Building). I now I pay $184 a month for parking in TMC Garage 4. I joined the university after the first flood of the Medical School in 1976 and that was a topic everyone was talking about. After the first flood, storm gates were placed in the Medical School receiving, and Bertner Avenue was built up with a hump in the road to control flooding to the building. In 2001, after Tropical Storm Allison, the Medical School flooded once again and was closed for over a month. We were all thankful that after all the improvements and flood doors at the Medical School that when Hurricane Harvey came in 2017 that the anxiety level around the Medical School decreased. There are some things that never change though — I am sure we all worry about flooding at the Medical School every time a heavy rain comes through Houston.

你为什么留下来？
Actually, when Dr. Redburn left the Department of Ophthalmology to go to the University of Tennessee in Memphis, I had made a decision to leave research work and work in the administration side of research, but I found out that doing vision research using cell culture was an area that was a new interest to me because previously I had only worked with animal models. When Dr. John O’Brien joined the Department of Ophthalmology in 1998, it reminded me of working with Dr. Redburn when she was awarded her first NEI RO1 grant. Dr. O’Brien has just written his fifth NEI RO1 research project. I also enjoyed working with and training the graduate students and post-docs that have come through the lab these past 40 years. I have stayed in touch personally with several of them throughout the years, exchanging Christmas cards and emails.

When you are not at work, how do you spend your time?
First, I spend my time with my husband of 42 years, Ronald, a retired electrical engineer with whom I have cruised several times to the Caribbean and Hawaii. We also travel to different vacation spots around the country with our family reunion group. Being a mother of two sons and from a family of seven children, family activities take up a lot of my time. That is the one thing that has been the hardest thing for me during the pandemic is staying home and social distancing.

Secondly, I am active at New Faith Church. I support Ronald with his work in the Love Ministry/Food Pantry and the food give-away drive-by during the pandemic. I teach Adult Sunday School classes and am part of the Intercessory Prayer Ministry, reaching out to church members during their times of need.

Last of all, I am active in Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the Alpha Kappa Omega Chapter of Houston. I volunteer on various committees focusing on our national programs, working throughout the community with our motto “Service to all Mankind.”