Grace Huang, M.D
Boston University Medical Center
3rd Year Endocrinology Fellow
08/26/2012
Dear Junior Mentoring Award Committee,
I am privileged to have the opportunity to write an enthusiastic recommendation
supporting Dr. Andrea Coviello's nomination for this mentoring award.
I have worked with Dr. Coviello for the last 3 years in my endocrinology
fellowship in both the clinical setting and in my research endeavors. Given that
my interests involve androgen-related metabolic disease in women, Dr. Coviello
has served as a key mentor in my research career with her clinical and research
expertise in this area. When I was struggling trying to define my research area
early on in fellowship, she really took the time over several weekly meetings to
help me develop my research ideas and help me plan and timeline my long-term
goals in achieving a career in academic medicine. She has helped me develop
my short and long-term career plans in terms of appropriate timeline for research
projects, publications and career-development award applications for academic
progression to junior faculty. She continuously provides me career advice and I
have gained a lot of knowledge through her insight and experiences.
Under her mentorship, I have written an invited review paper with her on the
diagnosis and management of metabolic disorders in women with PCOS, which
is currently in press for the journal, Current Opinion in Endocrinology and
Diabetes. Additionally, I am preparing a clinical research protocol on examining
clinical practice patterns for screening and diagnosing metabolic disorders in
women with PCOS at BMC. With her expertise in female androgen physiology,
she is currently on my mentoring committee team along with Dr. Shalender
Bhasin and Dr. Shehzad Basaria (male androgen experts) for my T32 award on
one of my major projects examining testosterone dose-response relationships in
surgically menopausal women, which has led to a successful abstract oral
presentation at this year’s Endocrine Society Meeting.
Aside from being an extremely resourceful and knowledgable mentor, I think the
most important attribute that I admire of Dr. Coviello, is that she is extremely
supportive, patient and genuinely cares about my career path. She instills
confidence and motivation in me through both the successes and frustrations of
conducting research. She keeps a positive and realistic view in our meetings that
motivates me to keep pushing forward. I think Dr. Coviello exhibits qualities of a
truly great mentor for which I have benefited tremendously from her guidance. I
strongly recommend Dr. Coviello for the Junior Faculty Mentoring Award and fully
believe that she has the qualities to help benefit future fellows desiring academic
research careers like myself.
Best Regards, Grace Huang