Alyssa Siefert '05

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A proud Over and AA Head, Alyssa is an instructor and Engineering Director of the Yale Center for Biomedical Innovation & Technology (CBIT), where she teaches a Medical Device Design course and manages multidisciplinary teams to create medical solutions. Before earning her PhD at Yale in 2015, Alyssa double majored in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University, with a minor in Professional Writing because of Westover's epic English Department (especially Mr. Coffin!). Alyssa was thrilled to share her Westover experience (and the soccer field) with her two sisters, who were a freshman and sophomore during her senior year of high school.

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A former First Head of Overs and AA, Alyssa is currently teaching and performing medical research at Yale School of Medicine. Her official title is Engineering Director of the Yale Center for Biomedical Innovation & Technology (CBIT), where she manages multidisciplinary teams to create marketable medical solutions. She teaches a Medical Device Design course for Yale seniors and a required lab course for Biomedical Engineering juniors. Before this new role, in which she happily speaks about science most of the day and helps solve problems for doctors and nurses, she was a postdoctoral researcher in the Yale Systems Biology Institute and Immunobiology department; her research seeks to understand the full capabilities of immune cells and to fix their aberrant behavior in diseases like cancer.

Alyssa recently completed her PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Yale, where she worked in Tarek Fahmy’s laboratory that spans immunology, engineering, and materials science. Alyssa’s thesis research centered on rationally designing, formulating, and testing biologically-inspired nanomaterials to redirect immune cells to ameliorate various disease states. She has developed therapies for multi-drug-resistant cancer, HIV, parasitic infections, allergy, and infectious diseases. Her work has led to several peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, a patent currently licensed for cancer vaccines, and a clinical trial for peanut allergy.

While at Yale, Alyssa mentored over a dozen undergraduate
research projects, founded financial literacy programs for graduate students,
TA’d nine courses, and completed two years of coursework (with honors) at Yale
School of Management. Her contributions were recognized by several awards,
including The Advanced Graduate Leadership Program Fellowship and the
Harding Bliss Prize for exceptional achievement in engineering. Outside of the
lab, Alyssa enjoys Tough Mudders, bartending, triathlons, Uber driving,
nutritional biochemistry, and engaging people ages 0-100 in science by leading
interactive demonstrations and presentations.

Alyssa double majored in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and
minored in English at Carnegie Mellon, also playing varsity soccer and lacrosse. She is a voracious learner and her best self when coordinating interdisciplinary teams to complete complex and high-impact projects that will serve others.