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Advocacy

There is a severe lack of equity in most STEM climates today. You can see this all over the literature: for example, the shocking disparity of yearly physics Ph.D.’s earned by Black women relative to white men, or the fact that nearly half of transgender and gender nonconforming physicists have experienced exclusionary behavior from colleagues, or consistent discrimination and accommodation issues faced by students with disabilities. It is clear that we should make drastic changes – both structural and cultural – to make STEM a more inclusive, safe, supportive, and self-actualizing environment for underrepresented students.

Current ‘Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion’ efforts can help to create community, generate awareness of issues faced by underrepresented students, and advocate for small changes in science departments. These efforts, though minor, have personally helped me feel safer and have massively aided my own growth, both scientifically and personally. Below are a few organizations I’ve been involved in over the years. Please see my CV for more information.

While this is more of a 'DEI'-flavored page, I strongly believe that DEI organizations are not enough to wholly address equity issues in STEM – that, for example, we should be proactively supporting university worker unions (such as UChicago GSU and UCW Colorado) and organizations that challenge universities’ relationships with their community members. I'm also interested in the degree to which academic organizations can be made non-reformist.

JILA Postdoc Group

Co-creater and co-leader, 2023 –

  • Established group as an organization specifically dedicated to professional development and community events for JILA postdocs

  • Organized several events for postdocs including a faculty proposal panel, lab mentorship workshop, write-in workshop, and proposal writing panel

PXL_20230602_180717418_edited.jpg

"Building a Strong Faculty Proposal" panel, June 2023 with (left to right) co-leader Dr. Rachael Merritt, Prof. Curtis Beimborn, Prof. Margaret Murnane, Prof. Graeme Smith, me, and (top) Prof. Shuo Sun. 

Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion Committee, UChicago Dept. of Chemistry 

Member, 2020 – 2021

  • Bridged departmental and divisional resources to first year Chemistry graduate students

  • Helped write and begin implementation of five-year EDI plan in the Department of Chemistry

UChicago Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team (GRIT) 

Student-led organization spanning ~20 departments at UChicago aimed at recruitment of underrepresented students to UChicago and retention by organizing community and advocacy events for underrepresented minorities, women, LGBTQ+ students, and students with disabilities

grit.uchicago.edu

GRIT core group, 2019-2020

Co-director of Recruitment, Physical Sciences Division, 2019 – 2020

  • Planned, organized, and secured funding for student recruitment trip to national Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in Honolulu, HI. This included writing multiple grants for travel funding

  • Coordinated diversity-themed events into graduate recruitment across six PSD departments

  • Developed multiple Zoom-based undergraduate recruitment panels with student groups at Howard University, University of Illinois, and Columbia University

GRIT @ SACNAS, October 2019

Chemistry Department Representative, 2018 – 2019

  • Secured funding for recruitment and retention events from the Chemistry Department

  • Recruited undergraduate students at the national SACNAS meeting in San Antonio, TX

  • Organized retention events focused underrepresented student experiences (for example, helped organize the 'Big Gay Barbecue' in Oct. 2018 to welcome new LGBTQ+ students to campus)

Some Books and Articles

If you care about these issues but don't experience them yourself, then read about them as seriously as you do your own scholarship! Below is an extremely non-exhaustive list of books and articles related to equity in STEM and academic environments.

Books

Articles

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