Annual faculty awards: Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, PhD

Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, PhD, is the recipient of the UNMC Faculty Senate’s Outstanding Faculty Mentor of Junior Faculty Award.

• Name: Rebecca Oberley-Deegan, PhD
• Title: Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UNMC College of Medicine
• Joined UNMC: 2014
• Hometown: Iowa City, Iowa

What are the greatest rewards of mentoring other faculty members?

Making new collaborations and having the science take unexpected turns because of the new relationship. Also, observing the junior faculty grow and become successful is very rewarding.

Describe a moment in your career when you realized you had picked the right occupation.

Waking up with a new idea in the middle of the night that I can’t wait to test the next morning.

What are the biggest challenges you face as a mentor?

Having enough time for everyone.

How do you know when you’ve been successful as a mentor?

When your mentees get that spark about their research, and watching them successfully mentor their peers and the next generation of scientists.