By: Kendra J. Royston
Mary Ellen Stoykov, PhD
“I am up at 6:15 because of my daughter. The first thing I did this morning was speak to a senior researcher that I’ve been working with for many years. Then I started working on a poster that I am presenting next week. I am on an award committee for our national foundation for research, so I had to prepare for a phone call with the chair of the committee. I often have to run the TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) experiment which we use for evaluation of changes in cortical excitabity of our research participants at three time points during the study .. I treat inpatients six hours a week.”
The quote above is just another day in the life of actress, parent, occupational therapist, and movement scientist Dr. Mary Ellen Stoykov. You read that correctly, Dr. Stoykov is not only a woman of science, but a thespian and connoisseur of the arts.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Mary Ellen Stoykov last month, and I must say she is an incredible woman with a unique pathway into STEM.
Mary Ellen has a passion for the fine arts, as evidenced by her undergraduate degree in theater. When asked what prompted her shift in careers, she shared that her contact with a disabled student piqued her interest in drama therapy. She decided to enroll back in school to pursue a career in occupational or physical therapy, but quickly realized that she had a passion for clinical research. Because of this passion, she’d be required to embark on her PhD journey.
Never one to shy away from difficult tasks, Dr. Stoykov found her passion in solving complex problems that affected her patients. She gains fulfillment from her efforts in unraveling the answers to rehabilitating arms affected by paralysis as a result of stroke. She is fascinated by bimanual conflict, a syndrome that causes one hand to interfere with the other, preventing an individual from performing tasks with two hands. Thus far, she has successfully aided in the rehabilitation of patients.
Dr. Stoykov approaches research questions differently than some of her colleagues. Her practical experience gives her an edge when it comes to demonstrating positive results in patient recovery. She enjoys also collaborating with other researchers and learning from them.
Ever the renaissance woman, Mary Ellen has tackled the challenge of being a mother in STEM. Raising her daughter and being present for the important milestones is important to her. She’s expressed that remaining competitive in her career while being a full time mom was difficult at times but she embraced the challenge gracefully.
As many women in a variety of careers, both inside and outside of STEM, Dr. Stoykov shared with me that she and other female colleagues feel they have to be 3 times better than the average male researcher in the same field in order to garner funding and publish manuscripts, but in the words of Mary Ellen herself, “Persistence is a good quality to have.”
Outside of the lab and clinic Stoykov has an active spiritual life and still surrounds herself with the talented men and women of the arts in Chicago.
For more on Mary Ellen, have a listen to our candid conversation with her this past quarter.