The recipient of the Roy and Diana Vagelos Leadership Award is a role model for their peers and possesses the ability to inspire others to be better and do better by encouraging creativity, and cooperation, promoting respect for others, emphasizing collaboration, demonstrating initiative, and adapting to new and changing needs and circumstances. This outstanding leader has a keen sense of organization and embodies leadership in all that they endeavor, combining clarity in thought with humility of character. Scholars in the NIH Oxford-Cambridge/Wellcome Trust Scholars Program who demonstrate exceptional leadership are nominated by their peers making this award a particularly special honor to receive. Dr. Sonja Best presented this award to NIH-Oxford Ph.D. Scholar Taylor Farley.
Taylor Farley is an NIH-Oxford DPhil Scholar in the Class of 2018. Her mentors are Dr. Yasmine Belkaid at the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease and Professor Fiona Powrie at the University of Oxford. Taylor’s peers shared that she epitomizes what it means to be a ‘leader.’ Taylor has the unique ability to command a room and inspire those around her with a rare combination of empathy and strength.
Taylor’s leadership transformed the Student Leadership Board from a more of a conduit of information into the remarkable advocate for student affairs that it currently is today. She is both admired and appreciated by her peers and the greater NIH OxCam community for her dedication to leadership. We cannot wait to see how Taylor shines as a leader throughout her career.
“It is an honor to receive this award, I am thankful to the Alliance, and to my peers for the nomination. I also wish to highlight that this award is accepted in solidarity with all the members of the Student Leadership Board who advocated for and drove change within the program over my tenure. It was and will continue to be a team effort, and I am endlessly thankful to my peers for their shared dedication and bright ideas that have laid the groundwork for future Boards to build from. Next up for me, I will spend a bit more time at the NIH for a short post-doc to finish up my project and am currently investigating where I can best apply my penchant for advocacy and passion for science moving forward.”
Congratulations Taylor!