Biomedical engineering graduate student Kristin Poole is one of 85 doctoral students nationwide selected to receive a $15,000 Scholar Award from the P.E.O. Sisterhood, a philanthropic organization that supports educational opportunities for women. Poole was sponsored by Chapter N of Nashville, Tenn.
Poole’s research focus is optical imaging methods for evaluating the arteries response to ischemia – a partial or complete blockage of arteries – and the effect of novel therapies in a preclinical model of peripheral arterial disease, a condition where plaque builds up and causes blockages in the arteries that carry blood to legs and arms, and it also can affect organs and the head.
Poole works with assistant professor Craig Duvall in the Advanced Therapeutics Lab and with assistant professor Melissa Skala in the Optical Imaging Lab in the Biomedical Engineering Department.
Poole graduated summa cum laude in 2010 from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, where she was a University Scholar and member of Phi Beta Kappa. She completed her master’s degree at Vanderbilt in 2012 and is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. She is the daughter of Shane and Cheryl Poole of Austin, Texas.
The P.E.O. Scholar Award was established in 1991 to provide substantial merit-based awards for women of the United States and Canada who are pursuing a doctoral level degree at an accredited college or university.