Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statement
I am a woman in science oral microbiology. I am of Native American ancestry, am a first-generation college student and from a first-generation immigrant family. My own career path was non-traditional due to a variety of barriers I encountered over the years, most notably socioeconomic barriers. It is my personal goal to assist all who are interested in research from high school students to postdoctoral trainees to avoid such barriers and by serving as a positive role model for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Many people tend to focus on race when discussing DEI, but I also include gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, religious affiliation, socioeconomic status and physical ability/disability in my interpretation.
My academic experience in DEI has fortunately been fostered at universities with strong commitments to DEI. My previous work experience, as well as graduate and postdoctoral study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), offered a rich opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals from diverse backgrounds and provided many DEI training experiences. UAB has strong international undergraduate and dentistry programs. The UAB dental school has well-established mentoring programs with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and a variety of high school/undergraduate summer training programs. Thus, I have been incredibly fortunate in my 20 years at UAB to mentor students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
As a graduate and postdoctoral scholar, I have also been engaged in the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) Women in Science network to promote equality for women in dental academia. Women comprise only about 37% of the dental research workforce and only about 22% of full professors at dental institution (Tiwari 2019 Adv Dent Res.). This disparity will likely be exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic as women were disproportionally affected. Therefore, serving as strong role model and advocate for Women in Science is important to me as I begin my independent research career. I was also a member of the Postdoctoral Association at UAB where I chaired the mental health awareness committee which championed institutional change to offer more training and resources to better support Postdocs mental well-being during training.
I actively seek opportunities to support DEI in my professional develop, my research, and in my teaching. As a postdoc at Oregon Health & Science University I was selected to participate in the 2020-21 inaugural class of the AADOCR Mind the Future program, which is a year-long training program designed to foster a diverse and equitable biomedical research workforce for the future. This program offers focused training to promote success among underrepresented groups in research. At the 2022 AADOCR General Meeting, I participated in the Diversity Matter satellite symposium to meet with and encourage undergraduates from underrepresented populations to consider careers in dental research. This program is centered on improving diversity and reducing barriers to ensure equality in dental research workforce. I will continue to participate in these groups as I move into the independent phase of my research career as well as becoming involved at the institutional and national levels of leadership for DEI initiatives.
My involvement with the AADOCR MIND the Future program included a commitment to get involved with creating institutional changes to promote DEI. My present and future contributions to honor this commitment include a successful collaboration with the Research Administration for equitable pay for K99 Postdoctoral Scholars to be comparable to the national level. Recently, I have collaborated and contributed to the DEI components for two R25 grants to promote diversity and inclusion which will provide early access training opportunities for underrepresented groups of high school and undergraduate students to dental research programs. The undergraduate R25 has received a fundable score with outstanding review comments and there is great enthuasium for the high school R25, which is currently under review.
These previous and current experiences have galvanized my commitment to continue to promote DEI in my own independent lab and research program. It is my goal to offer all my students and trainees a rich training experience to prepare them for a career in either academia or industry with their own well-established commitment to promoting DEI based on what DEI means to them. My DEI mission is to offer personalized mentored training that is equitable and inclusive to all who are interested in the pursuit of a scientific career.
My academic experience in DEI has fortunately been fostered at universities with strong commitments to DEI. My previous work experience, as well as graduate and postdoctoral study at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), offered a rich opportunity to work with a wide variety of individuals from diverse backgrounds and provided many DEI training experiences. UAB has strong international undergraduate and dentistry programs. The UAB dental school has well-established mentoring programs with historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) and a variety of high school/undergraduate summer training programs. Thus, I have been incredibly fortunate in my 20 years at UAB to mentor students from a wide variety of backgrounds.
As a graduate and postdoctoral scholar, I have also been engaged in the American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) Women in Science network to promote equality for women in dental academia. Women comprise only about 37% of the dental research workforce and only about 22% of full professors at dental institution (Tiwari 2019 Adv Dent Res.). This disparity will likely be exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic as women were disproportionally affected. Therefore, serving as strong role model and advocate for Women in Science is important to me as I begin my independent research career. I was also a member of the Postdoctoral Association at UAB where I chaired the mental health awareness committee which championed institutional change to offer more training and resources to better support Postdocs mental well-being during training.
I actively seek opportunities to support DEI in my professional develop, my research, and in my teaching. As a postdoc at Oregon Health & Science University I was selected to participate in the 2020-21 inaugural class of the AADOCR Mind the Future program, which is a year-long training program designed to foster a diverse and equitable biomedical research workforce for the future. This program offers focused training to promote success among underrepresented groups in research. At the 2022 AADOCR General Meeting, I participated in the Diversity Matter satellite symposium to meet with and encourage undergraduates from underrepresented populations to consider careers in dental research. This program is centered on improving diversity and reducing barriers to ensure equality in dental research workforce. I will continue to participate in these groups as I move into the independent phase of my research career as well as becoming involved at the institutional and national levels of leadership for DEI initiatives.
My involvement with the AADOCR MIND the Future program included a commitment to get involved with creating institutional changes to promote DEI. My present and future contributions to honor this commitment include a successful collaboration with the Research Administration for equitable pay for K99 Postdoctoral Scholars to be comparable to the national level. Recently, I have collaborated and contributed to the DEI components for two R25 grants to promote diversity and inclusion which will provide early access training opportunities for underrepresented groups of high school and undergraduate students to dental research programs. The undergraduate R25 has received a fundable score with outstanding review comments and there is great enthuasium for the high school R25, which is currently under review.
These previous and current experiences have galvanized my commitment to continue to promote DEI in my own independent lab and research program. It is my goal to offer all my students and trainees a rich training experience to prepare them for a career in either academia or industry with their own well-established commitment to promoting DEI based on what DEI means to them. My DEI mission is to offer personalized mentored training that is equitable and inclusive to all who are interested in the pursuit of a scientific career.