News & Events 2022

Collaboration Yields First Skill Standards and Curriculum for Cell-based and Gene Therapies
Forsyth Tech’s National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) is one of 16 teams Funded by BioMade to Accelerate Bioindustrial Manufacturing Forsyth Tech, along with partners at UNC Greensboro, Genome Insights, and the Veteran’s Farm of NC and NC Farmer Veteran Community are part of a nationwide collaboration funded by BioMade to accelerate bioindustrial manufacturing in the United States by training the next generation of skilled biomanufacturing workers.
Read More About Forsyth Tech's Role Here
View of Download Skill Standards/Curriculum Here

November 2022

NSF ATE Grants NCBW $115,989 for Novel BETA Skills Fellowship Program
The National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) has been selected as a recipient of just under $116,000 from the National Science Foundation to continue work to train and upskill bioscience community college instructors. The NCBW will host up to six community college instructors, or “fellows,” for a minimum of eight weeks. Each fellow will be paired with a company or other institution, to gain experience in a corporate environment and further learn required skills and traits required in a biotech workforce setting, in order to better prepare their students for their entry into the workforce.

This in-depth fellowship is a continuation of over three years of work by the NCBW to develop and expand the Biomedical Emerging Technology Application Skills (BETA Skills) Standards. BETA Skills aims to bridge the divide between bioscience instructors’ technical skills and knowledge and their ability to teach what are typically thought of as “soft skills” to their students. For example, a session at the June 2022 professional development program titled “People Skills in Communication and Ideation,” taught instructors how to communicate clearly and effectively, both written and verbally, with students, coworkers and industry partners.

“We are honored to receive this grant supplement in order to continue our important work preparing instructors and students to meet the growing demands for biotechnology professionals who are workforce-ready,” said Russ Read, Executive Director for the NCBW at Forsyth Tech. “It is essential that we address skills gaps through hands-on experiences, and this generous grant from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education(ATE) division will help us continue to do just that.”
Learn more about projects here

October 2022

Community College STEM Students Discus their College and Careers at 2022 ATE PI Conference
Hosted by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). This year’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Principal Investigators’ Conference took place in in Washington, D.C, from October 26-28 brought together 42 students, several hundred educators and industry partners of ATE grant-funded initiatives attended the conference to share information about their innovations. A special panel of four community college students – ranging from a Connecticut high school sophomore to a 27 year old Ohio Navy veteran and stretching across the country from North Carolina to California – shared their insights, challenges and opportunities with conference attendees.
Read more in this in Community College Daily article

August 2022

Forsyth Tech STEM Students Gain Mass Spectrometer Expertise
Eighteen Forsyth Tech students advanced their bioscience technician qualifications using Forsyth Tech’s new NSF-funded Agilent 6546 QTOF high-resolution mass spectrometer, working alongside industry partners in the Analytical & Molecular Skills Development Lab (AMSDL) at Forsyth Tech’s Innovation Quarter location.
Learn more about projects here

July 2022

BioMADE Mobilizes Workforce Development Site Tour
The BioMADE Education and Workforce Development team recently hosted a site visit tour to assess industry workforce needs. Nine leaders from universities, community colleges, and the U.S. government toured government and industry sites around the country to learn about pathways to industry, best practices for internships, needed resources, and more. Participants included ABPDU, the Air Force Research Lab, Amyris, DEVCOM Soldier Center, Harford Community College, Laney Community College, the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce at Forsyth Tech, North Carolina State University’s Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, Pow.bio, Solano Community College, and UES.
Learn more here

April 2022

NCBW & Partners Receives $100k from NSF/ATE for BETA Skills Micro-credentials
April 8, 2022 - Forsyth Tech Community College has received more than $100,000 in funding from the National Science Foundation Advanced Technical Education (NSF/ATE) to support micro-credentials.
Micro-credentials, often described and issued as digital badges, are a recent development for workforce training and skills building. According to Forbes Magazine, however, they are important to effectively recruit, retain and upskill workers. Forsyth Tech’s National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW), based at the Innovation Quarter, will use the funds to implement a 2023 in-person workshop for instructors, to introduce and pilot new BETA Skills micro-credentials in collaboration with the Bioscience Core Skills Institute of Kansas (BCSI) (www.coreskillsinstitute.com).
Read More Here

February 2022

Forsyth Tech/NCBW and Partners Among 16 teams Funded by BioMade to Accelerate Bioindustrial Manufacturing
Forsyth Tech, along with partners at UNC Greensboro, Genome Insights, and the Veteran’s Farm of NC and NC Farmer Veteran Community are one of sixteen member teams to receive funding to accelerate bioindustrial manufacturing in the United States. Forsyth Tech’s member team will focus on nanobiotechnology to inspire the next generation of the skilled biomanufacturing workforce. The program will inspire students to learn about leveraging microbes in bioindustrial manufacturing by putting cutting-edge nanobiotechnologies like hand-held DNA sequencers and scanning electron microscopes into classrooms.
Read More Here

January 2022

Forsyth Tech’s National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) is part of a six-institution national collaboration that, working closely with their regional industry partners, has developed the first Skill Standards and Curriculum for Cell-based and Gene Therapies. Partners include Solano Community College (Vacaville, CA), MiraCosta College (Oceanside, CA), Shoreline Community College (Seattle, WA), Montgomery County Community College (Blue Bell, PA), Quincy College (Quincy, MA)
Funded by the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL) this Workforce Expansion in Biomanufacturing Emerging Technologies (WE-BET) initiative addressed the challenge of expanding the workforce that will produce cell-based and gene therapies.
View or Download Here

Now available on YouTube, Developing the Regenerative Medicine Workforce addresses the crucial importance of a skilled technical workforce for the rapidly growing fields of regenerative medicine research, clinical translation, and scaled manufacturing. Sponsored by the RegenMed Development Organization and STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, presenters and panelists discuss the skill needs and gaps in regenerative medicine and their implications for practice and policy.

Presenters and panelists include: Dr. Anthony Atala, Dr. Ann Murphy, Dr. Gary Green, Dr. Linnea Fletcher, Dr. James DeKloe, Russ H. Read, Andrew Breite, Dr. V. Celeste Carter, Bernie Siegel, Janet Marchibroda.

View it Here
Speaker Bios Here

Professional Development for Instructors & Teachers


June 2022



New Professional Development Programs for Community College and K-12 Bioscience Instructors
The National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce (NCBW) launched the first in person BETA Skills (Biomedical Emerging Technology Applications) Professional Development Program on June 19th. Eleven community college and K-12 instructors representing nine states completed the five-day industry-vetted program at Forsyth Tech in Winston–Salem, NC, June 19-24, 2022.
Learn more about projects here




NCBW Hosts Inaugural InnovATEBIO Leadership Institute
Twenty-five community college and K-12 bioscience instructors completed the inaugural year-long Bioscience Leadership Institute (BLI) on June 21-24, 2022, at the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce in Winston-Salem. Fellows also participated in a virtual lecture series (access the 21-lecture series here), team-based industry casework, and site visits. Each Fellow completed an assessment of their leadership profile designed to prepare them for their role in the next generation of biotech workforce development leaders. Senior industry, workforce, and academic experts worked closely with Fellows to develop and enhance their workplace leadership “repertoire” in order to prepare students for current and future biotech industry and research workforce needs, with an emphasis on strategizing, problem-solving, communication, leadership, and team-building skills
Learn more about projects here

SciTech Lecture Series

• SciTech Interview with Kathy Proctor

  December 2022

  Kathy Proctor, 2010 Forsyth Tech biotechnology program graduate on her life-changing “Career Transition – Furniture Industry to BioPharma”
  Youtube Link

• SciTech Interview with Yosauri Fernandez-Figuereo

  November 2022

  International Forsyth Tech graduate Yosauri Fernandez-Figuereo is interviewed by Dr. Gary Green, Russ Read, and Sean Killebrew about her FT experience and WFIRM internship, and she looks ahead to her PhD studies at Wake Forest University and career.
  Youtube Link

• Quantitative Time of Flight (QTOF)

  October 2022

  Dr. Jason Gagliano, Kara Libby, and Michaela Romero discuss the QTOF
  Youtube Link

• Developing a Globally-Educated Workforce Through Cultural Exchange

  August 2022

  Dr. Gretel Mara Hunzicker, Fulbright Scholar and Professor at the Institute of Basic and Applied Sciences
  Universidad Nacional de Villa Maria (UNVM) Argentina
  Youtube Link

• Virtue Labs: How Teamwork Grows Career and Company Success

  April 2022

  Dr. Erin Falco, Principal Investigator, Virtue Labs
  Bill Jacobsen, Head of Operations. Virtue Labs
  Youtube Link

• Careers on the Cutting Edge: Medical Imaging Meets Artificial Intelligence

  March 2022

  Selena McHone, 2014 MRI Program Graduate and Senior Clinical Specialist at VIZ.ai
  Melissa Smith, Forsyth Tech MRI Program Coordinator and 2022 NC Faculty Member of the Year
  Youtube Link

• Nanobiotechnology and Veteran Farmers: Changing Lives and the Future of Farming

  February 2022

  Robert Elliot, Founder of The Veteran's Farm of NC
  Youtube Link

• Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine: What is It, How Does it Work, and What's New?

  January 2022

  Tracy Criswell PhD, Associate Professor, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM)
  Youtube Link

• From Forsyth Tech Biotech Grad to Navy Submarine Electrician

  January 2022

  Amber Dewitt
  Youtube Link