Dr. Jada Suber ’15 has come a long way from growing up and graduating from college in the same town.

Dr. Jada Suber ’15

This spring, the Presbyterian College alumna successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on inhibitory mechanisms of effector cells in peanut allergy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and earned her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology.

Now, she works in a laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., where her postdoctoral research evaluates the impact of activation signals on differential expression of inflammatory and inhibitory receptor gene expression across mast cell subsets.

If Suber’s work sounds complicated, it is. But the origin of her interest in immunology is not. Her career, you see, began with an allergy.

“When I was seven, I had an allergic reaction to something I ate,” Suber said. “Back then, allergies weren’t as popular a field of study, but it scared me. I ended up going to the doctor and they said I had an allergy and to just stay away from that particular food.”

She did. But what Suber did not – or could not – steer clear of was a powerful desire to comfort others as she had been comforted and then some.

“I had always thought that I would go into the medical field,” she said. “I wanted to be an M.D., specifically a pediatrician, I think. After the allergy thing, at some stage I started thinking about becoming an allergist.”

That was the plan for most of her time at PC – to earn a degree in chemistry and go on to medical school and become a doctor. But what Suber ultimately discovered in the full embrace of a liberal arts education is that a well-rounded human being who is curious about everything is ready for almost anything. Suber tackled creative writing. She did a lot of research – and liked it.

A summer undergraduate research opportunity at the Medical University of South Carolina meant to look good on a medical school application inspired an emotional conversation with her mentor that changed the course of her future forever.

“He asked me if I was sure I didn’t want to be a Ph.D. instead of an M.D.,” Suber said. “And I got mad. I was like, ‘Are you crazy? Why would you say that? What are you thinking?’ And he said, ‘I’m just saying I think you will be good.’”

Suber spent two summers conducting research with that mentor. Those two summers of research were a game-changer. After graduating from PC, Suber decided to pursue research instead of medicine, completing a one-year post baccalaureate research program at MUSC. She then applied to and was accepted at UNC-Chapel Hill because they were doing food allergy research there. Yes, it was a change of plans, but the underlying purpose – to find a solution for others who suffer from the same allergies – remains.

“I rotated through other labs during my first year even though I knew where I was going,” she said. “All the different labs I went through were pretty cool and they were doing some interesting research. But my heart was set with the food allergy research.”

Now, Dr. Suber is in an entirely different laboratory in another state – this one taking her to live outside the Southeast for the first time. She admits living in Boston and conducting research at what is arguably the most prestigious university in the world sounds crazy – especially for a black woman growing up in a single-parent home in a small South Carolina town.

“According to the statistics I saw when I was coming up, I wasn’t supposed to make it out of high school,” she said. “That’s why I walk around here kind of in disbelief. Sometimes I have moments where I say to myself, ‘How did you do that? How did you get here?’”

However, Suber got where she is by being talented, curious, intelligent, and hard-working. They are traits she believes she shares with others in her hometown – others she hopes to inspire.

“More than anything, I hope my story inspires someone else,” she said. “I don’t think people from Clinton believe they can do much and it’s hard to see differently when you’re from a small town. But there is a lot of talent in a lot of different fields in that town and I hope they’ll use it and run with it. Even when the world tells them ‘no,’ to keep going. I was crazy enough to believe that if I just kept trying, it would work out, and it did.”

As she has throughout her life, Suber maintains a contagious enthusiasm for cultivating new talents by trying new things. She recently picked up roller skating and bought a guitar. She still likes to draw, paint, and design shirts, and she promises she still has a novel tucked away somewhere in her soul.

“I have a lot of hobbies,” she said. “And they keep growing, but I feel like they make life exciting for me.”

Suber said she is grateful that her liberal arts education at PC allowed her to explore a wide array of interests and pursue her scientific and creative goals. She is also thankful for professors from multiple departments who made her feel at home at PC.

“Those moments meant a lot,” Suber said. “It was very much like a family there and I miss that a lot.”

As Suber looks back on the relationships she built throughout her undergraduate years, she jokingly refers to a demand from PC that her alma mater can’t help but deliver.

“They better not forget me,” she said.

As if anyone who knows her ever could.