Her Story
About Rochelle
Rochelle Merwe is a scientist specializing in neuroscience and biopharma at MapLight Therapeutics in California. She has seven years of experience in the field, including two years as a student, one year as a research assistant, and four years in the biopharma industry. Merwe earned her undergraduate degree in neuroscience from Oberlin College in Ohio. At MapLight, she conducts experiments at the bench, with a focus on stereotactic surgery involving implantation of electrodes and fiber optics in mouse brains. She has built out platforms for preclinical target validation, including CRISPR-based gene expression reduction and analysis pipelines for tracking GPCRs on neurons. Merwe also serves as VP of Fundraising for the Junior League of Palo Alto Mid-Peninsula, a women's development organization, where she has taken on leadership roles to expand her network.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Rochelle
01What do you attribute your success to?
I think that I have created conditions for me to get lucky by getting as much exposure to different things as I can. In school, I was always going into office hours, always going to the extra seminar, always trying to develop personal relationships with my professors, and just really lean into relationship building. Having that sort of personal, mutual investment has opened up doors for me that I wouldn't have been able to conceive of myself.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
To go where your people are. Rather than looking for the most impressive opportunities, look for the people that you want to work with and who keep you inspired to show up every day. That has not steered me wrong. I've had great supervisors and great colleagues that have kept me really excited and well-balanced and inspired.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
As much as you can do to keep doors open for yourself in terms of making connections and putting yourself out there and connecting with other women in the industry. The bigger your network, the more you can diversify beyond feeling like you have to figure everything out for yourself. I've only had good experiences reaching out to other women and building more of a community and leading with making personal connections rather than trying to leverage professional transactional relationships.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Opportunities include having a startup mentality that allows taking initiative to explore other functions within the company and getting exposure to clinical, regulatory, and other sides. Challenges include funding in science and tech, and as a woman without a graduate degree, feeling imposter syndrome and the burden of proof to demonstrate I deserve to be in the room.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Bravery and integrity. Bravery in that I grew up as a perfectionist and was pretty risk-averse, and started to realize how that fear was preventing me from expanding and exploring. I value continuing to be brave and putting myself out there. Integrity is important especially in science, the real world stakes remain very real to me, and I really value scientific integrity and integrity of character.
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