Elizabeth Delery, PhD

What’s the most important leadership lesson you’ve learned?

Fail. Fail hard, and fail often. Fear of failure holds many of us back, and failure is merely a learning opportunity that we can grow from or discover new ideas.

What do you consider to be your most important career achievement or milestone?

To see all of my former students and mentees reach their goals and achieve their dreams. It makes me so incredibly proud to see their acceptance letters, to see them match into their top residency program, to save lives, and to be able to use and apply the knowledge I taught them.

What do you aspire to accomplish in your career and why? What obstacles will you overcome?

I want to leave the world a better place than I found it, and to make a lasting impact. I’m not sure if that means discovering a cure for something, or even making an impact through mentoring, but I want to try every day to make it better, even if just for one individual at a time.

Describe an amazing opportunity in your STEM career.

Being selected as a Public Policy Fellow for the American Association of Immunologists for 2025-2026. It taught me about navigating public policy as a scientist and how we can advocate for science for all in the spaces that matter.

How was AWIS helped you professionally and/or personally?

I joined AWIS in 2019, before re-joining in 2026. It’s been amazing to build community and camaraderie with other women in STEM, in both my local chapters and globally, and to see the impact we’ll have on the world. “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much,” Helen Keller

What is your favorite word? (only one word)

Believe.

How do you define it?

To know, deep within, that we are and can do great things and can make a difference. And that it WILL get better.

How has this word influenced or inspired your career?

Belief has inspired me to keep going despite failures and setbacks and pain.

How does AWIS impact your career journey?

AWIS has given me the opportunity to network with other women in STEM. This is great because you never know when it might lead to friendship, collaboration, or new opportunities.

What are you currently reading or listening to?

I’m reading The Art of Letting Go by Nick Trenton, and listening to Ocean Avenue by Yellowcard.

What do you consider the best professional or personal advice you’ve ever received?

Doing a PhD is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Also, you cannot pour from an empty cup, take care of yourself.

Elizabeth Delery, PhD, is a Neuropharmacology Staff Scientist at the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute in the TREAT-AD where she co-leads the assay development & high throughput screening core. Formerly an Assistant Professor of Micro/Immuno at Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine, she earned a BS in Biology & Psychology from Randolph College and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from Tulane School of Medicine, before completing a T32 postdoc fellowship at LSU Health Sciences Center.