Vondolee Delgado-Nixon

“As with most Chicanas, I had to wrestle with balancing a family and a career,” wrote Professor Vondolee Delgado-Nixon, a part time faculty member in the College of Optometry. Delgado-Nixon’s story highlights a reality that many women face when deciding how to balance a career and properly care for their family. She has forged her own path that has allowed her to remain true to her love of teaching and science while also spending time with her children.

Delgado-Nixon was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico, to a family that has lived in New Mexican territory for generations. She comes from a family of scientists, and credits her Hispanic grandfather with initially sparking her interest. She claims she became a scientist by accident. Delgado-Nixon remembered, “I just kept getting good grades in science so I just kept doing more of those courses.”

Delgado-Nixon attended college in Iowa, but received little support from faculty to continue to a doctoral program, with the exception of a single mentor. Delgado-Nixon commented, ”Growing up a woman in a Chicana family—we are strong women, but you really know who wears the pants in the house. I grew up with that struggle at home and in the science field because there are lots of men and very few women. You have to make your voice heard.”

“Over the duration of my pregnancy, lots of people changed their attitudes and would make comments like, ‘It is too bad you are having children now.’ It was not at all supportive, so I quit. I went cold turkey from full-force research to a stay-at-home mom. I don’t regret it for a minute, and I made the perfect decision.”

After applying to medical school, she decided instead to pursue her doctorate in molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Ohio State. She finished her PhD and then did two years of post doctoral research, working on research related to eye disease. Delgado-Nixon said, “The cells in our body are so reliant on oxygen. If they don’t have oxygen, cells die. There are so many eye-related diseases that are due in part to the lack of oxygen. I cloned a gene that actually senses oxygen in humans.” This research relates to finding molecular causes of diseases, which can result in finding cures.

During Delgado-Nixon’s second year of her postdoctoral studies, she became pregnant and faced the question of how to continue her academic career and be a mom. She stated, “Over the duration of my pregnancy, lots of people changed their attitudes and would make comments like, ‘It is too bad you are having children now.’ It was not at all supportive, so I quit. I went cold turkey from full-force research to a stay-at-home mom. I don’t regret it for a minute, and I made the perfect decision.”

Delgado-Nixon now works as a part time faculty member in the College of Optometry. Currently, Delgado Nixon’s responsibilities include teaching physiology and participating in the diversity enhancement committee, which hopes to bring more minorities into optometry. In regards to research, Delgado Nixon continues to look at diseases at the molecular level. In addition, she works on researching how to best teach her students by quantifying their learning.

Delgado-Nixon’s message to Latin@ students is, “Follow your bliss. If you feel that something is right in your heart, follow your bliss because everything will work out.”