Sherilynn Black Receives National Honor for Mentorship

Duke faculty member Sherilynn Black is among this year’s winners of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Honorific Award, which recognizes “exceptional scientists whose research, mentorship and leadership are shaping the future of cell biology.”

ASCB selected Black to give the Mentoring Keynote Lecture at the 2026 international Cell Biology conference. This honor is given to an individual who exemplifies mentoring through their impact on the training of scholars and also makes significant contributions to the scholarship of mentorship research and education.

Black is associate vice provost for faculty advancement and engages in social neuroscience research to better understand the motivators and underlying behaviors that impact experiences in the academy. She has long-standing expertise in creating interventions to catalyze systemic change in academia. Among her many roles and achievements, she was appointed as co-chair of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine Roundtable on Mentorship, Professional Development and Well-Being and was recently named as the national co-chair of the IvyPlus Faculty Advancement Network. She is also in leadership as a principal facilitator and intervention scientist for the national Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER). 

An alumna of UNC and Duke, she earned her Ph.D. in neurobiology.