Grace Chen

Grace Chen is a sophomore at Cornell University and a Meinig Family Cornell National Scholar. She serves as the National Director of Outreach for Voices of Equity, where she leads national expansion efforts, maintains communication across undergraduate chapters, and works to build sustainable outreach structures that support health equity initiatives at scale.

Grace is deeply interested in the intersection of science, policy, and health equity. She conducts plant developmental biology research in the Roeder Lab, studying iron and reactive oxygen species (ROS) interactions and their role in mitochondrial dysfunction – mechanisms that parallel those implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. In addition, Grace is also a Policy and Practices Subteam Lead for Cornell iGEM, where she conducts interview-based research with policy experts to examine the ethical, regulatory, and societal implications of synthetic biology. Across her research and leadership roles, Grace is motivated by a commitment to equity-driven science and believes that advancing health equity requires both rigorous scientific inquiry and intentional community-centered leadership.