Annotated HHMI Gilliam Scientific Leadership Statement
By Ya'el Courtney, PhD | Stanford Postdoc, Harvard PhD in Neuroscience
Awarded the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship, 2021
This is the Scientific Leadership statement I submitted with my successful 2021 HHMI Gilliam Fellowship application. The prompt asked me to describe my leadership approach, how it informs the science I do, and how I've led and will lead efforts to advance science for a diverse society.
The Gilliam application changed since 2021. See my intro to the annotated materials for details. The Leadership Statement prompt and approach, though, has stayed fundamentally the same.
Opening: A Concrete Leadership Story
My leadership philosophy is characterized by enthusiasm, honesty, and using any position I hold to help others. I became a manager at a Wendy's when I was 17. This placed me in charge of shifts full of people older than me, who were not initially thrilled about this, but I earned the respect and affection of my crew by learning to lead with transparency and by example. I told my crew what our goals were and why, and then I dove into meeting those goals alongside them. If our goal was to be locked up by midnight after a particularly hectic night? I put gloves on with a smile on my face, turned on some peppy music, and washed dishes in the back for an hour so that my crew member could focus on her closing tasks.
The biggest choice I made in this essay was opening with a story about managing at Wendy's, not a story about leading a lab or a science outreach program. That's deliberate. The Gilliam reviewers read hundreds of essays from scientists about their leadership in scientific settings. I wanted to stand out.
The Wendy's story also does work the lab stories wouldn't. It shows that my leadership philosophy was formed before I had any credentials, in a context where I had to earn respect from people who had no reason to give it to me. It's concrete, it's specific, and the image of me washing dishes so a crew member could finish her closing tasks is the kind of detail reviewers remember.
One thing I want to flag: I was not reaching for this story to seem scrappy or relatable. I included it because it actually shaped how I lead, and I could draw a direct line from that experience to how I operate as a scientist. If you're considering using an unconventional leadership example, the test is whether it genuinely shaped you. If it did, use it. If you're using it for effect, don't.
Extending the Philosophy
This exemplifies the approach that I use today in that I approach challenges with a vibrantly positive attitude, am willing to work just as hard as the team I'm leading, and am communicative and honest about the group's goals. This has enabled my tendency to introduce new techniques to my labs as I tackle challenges with open arms, a resilience to temporary failures, and the hard work necessary to see success. I will continue to lead by enthusiastic example accompanied by my genuine love for learning and discovery as a PhD student and teaching fellow, in my next stage as a postdoc, and ultimately as a professor and the head of my own lab.
This paragraph bridges the Wendy's story to my scientific context. It names three concrete traits ("positive attitude," "willing to work just as hard," "communicative and honest") and then explicitly connects them to my scientific work ("introduce new techniques to my labs... resilience to temporary failures").
The transition phrase "this exemplifies the approach that I use today" is doing heavy lifting. Without that bridge, the Wendy's story would feel disconnected from the rest of the essay. With it, the story becomes the foundation for everything else I'm going to say about how I operate in science.
I also named my future trajectory here: PhD student, teaching fellow, postdoc, professor. That's intentional. It gives the reviewer a clear mental picture of where this leadership philosophy is going to apply over time.
A Second Story: Modeling Great Leadership
My leadership style was also sculpted in large part by my time in the BP-ENDURE program at Washington University in St. Louis under the mentorship of Dr. Erik Herzog. Dr. Herzog showed me the transformative power of a mentor who is not only willing, but enthusiastic to connect his mentees to leaders in the field, to peers whose advice they may find useful, and to any professional experience he thinks might be useful. I was fortunate to travel with him to two annual meetings of the Society for Neuroscience, a conference that attracts over 30,000 people a year. I will never forget walking into rooms with him when he'd turn to me and say "okay, who do you want to know in this room? I will walk you up to them, introduce you as a superstar and tell them what you are interested in talking to them about." He helped me overcome my trepidation of meeting reputable scientists and talking to top-tier graduate schools. I have now adopted this empowering networking approach with my mentees (~20 right now!). I've connected mentees to research technician jobs, emboldened them to apply for graduate school, and catalyzed many faculty meetings for students who felt tentative about reaching out. I look forward to continuing this momentum throughout my career, as I hope to someday be the life-changing professor and PI to other underrepresented students that Dr. Herzog was to me.
Having established my own leadership philosophy with the Wendy's story, I used this paragraph to show that my leadership was also shaped by observing excellent mentorship in action. This creates a natural pairing: one story about leading, one story about being led.
The quote from Dr. Herzog is the most specific, memorable part of this paragraph. "Who do you want to know in this room? I will walk you up to them, introduce you as a superstar and tell them what you are interested in talking to them about." That's a real moment, a real voice, and it shows exactly what kind of mentor Dr. Herzog was. Reviewers can picture it.
Then I named what I'd done with that modeling. I didn't just admire Dr. Herzog's approach. I adopted it with my own 20 mentees. I connected them to jobs, encouraged them to apply to grad school, facilitated faculty meetings. This turns the paragraph from a gratitude note into evidence of my own leadership in action.
What Makes This Essay Work
The Leadership Statement is only about 400 words, which means every word has to earn its place. What worked in mine:
I used two concrete stories instead of a long list of activities. Two stories, told well, are more memorable than five stories crammed together.
I drew direct lines between past experiences and current practice. The Wendy's story connects to how I lead in labs. The Dr. Herzog story connects to how I mentor my own 20 mentees. The reader doesn't have to do the connecting work themselves.
I used specific details. "Put gloves on with a smile on my face, turned on some peppy music, and washed dishes in the back for an hour" is more memorable than "I helped out where I could." "Okay, who do you want to know in this room?" is more memorable than "he introduced me to people."
What I'd Do Differently Now
Some of the phrasing I used would be tighter now. "Vibrantly positive attitude" is a phrase I'd edit. "Enthusiastic example accompanied by my genuine love for learning and discovery" is a mouthful. If I were rewriting this essay today, I'd trim about 10% of the words and let the remaining ones do more work.
I'd also want to be more explicit about how my leadership style specifically serves advancing diversity in science. The essay does this implicitly (I lead by example, I mentor underrepresented students, I model the networking approach I learned from Dr. Herzog), but I could have made the connection more direct.
Working on your own Gilliam Scientific Leadership statement and want feedback? I offer one-on-one fellowship coaching. Also see my complete guide to the HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for context on the full application.
