Diversity

Too often, we treat diversity issues as only relevant to the group being affected. However, realizing equity doesn’t just benefit the marginalized; having a more inclusive culture has far-reaching benefits for everyone in an organization.  

Through my diversity efforts, I strive to include everyone in the conversation. Inclusion isn’t a zero-sum game, and I want to change the perception that many people have that this is so. I strongly believe in the power of allies to change the conversation and realize true equity.

Society of Women Engineers

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When I started graduate school at Yale, a fledgling SWE group existed on campus. I spent the spring of my first year advising the undergrad e-board and helping them develop a stronger presence on campus. After conversations with other graduate students, that summer I founded a graduate student SWE group. Over the next two years, I orchestrated Yale SWE’s efforts to become a recognized SWE section—something we succeeded at in February 2016. I served as the president of our new SWE section for two years, while still continuing to run the gradSWE group. In the summer of 2017, I transitioned from these roles to a position on the society-wide gradSWE Leadership Team (Diversity and Inclusion Liaison). As the initial gradSWE Diversity and Inclusion Liaison, I helped establish contacts between SWEs many diversity affinity groups and graduate students. You can read more about my efforts on the GradSWE Leadership Team blog.

While I was president of Yale GradSWE, our outreach efforts expanded from a single event reaching 20 New Haven students to over 5 events per year reaching over 300 students from across Connecticut. Through using “real” engineering tools (like soldering irons) at our events, we help students become more comfortable with the tools that engineers use. Further, our activities bring together art and engineering to help attract students who might not typically think of themselves as engineers. In an effort to inspire even more students, beyond just those we can reach at our own outreach events, we launched the SpinWheel on Kickstarter in March 2020. This educational kit brings together art and engineering to empower the next generation engineers. You can read more about it on my outreach page.

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Equity in the Job Search Symposium

At some point, every graduate student worries about the job search. However, those who don’t belong to a marginalized group or who have never experienced gender bias first hand, may never consider how issues of gender equity influence the job search.

In 2016, Amanda Lounsbury and I developed the Equity in the Job Search Symposium to expand the conversation of gender equity in STEM beyond those who have faced the hurdles of gender bias directly. We had two goals with the symposium:

  1. To increase awareness among the attendees about implicit bias;

  2. To provide resources and support for those initiating the job search.

Going into its fourth year, I have seen this symposium succeed at both of these goals and have passed on the leadership of the Yale event to new leaders. While more work remains to be done, by offering tangible career advice alongside discussions of gender bias, we have exposed a broader segment of the graduate school population to these issues. We believe, and the feedback from the event indicates, this integration of practical career advice with a data-driven discussion of gender bias has increased the impact of our event.

“I have already seen positive impacts from the symposium, and you should be proud for creating positive change in our departments!"

"I most liked how the keynote was an evidence-based talk.  The audience (being people in academia) were strongly impacted by the refined and polished keynote."

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The Equity in the Job Search Symposium continues to expand its reach:

Desiree Plata, a professor at MIT, and I hosted a half-day version at the Association for Environmental Engineers and Scientists Conference at Arizona State University in May 2019. This condensed version presented an overview of the field of gender bias research, as well as provided guidance on mentoring and navigating the academic job search. A mix of graduate students, postdocs, and faculty all attended the workshop, finding it full of useful strategies that they could use as they apply for jobs and to bring back to their campuses.

To help others start similar events, I co-hosted a talk at the 2019 Society of Women Engineers annual conference in Anaheim, CA entitled “Developing the Equity in the Job Search Symposium.” This talk walks through the initial planning and execution of the symposium and discusses strategies for starting a similar event at your university or company.

While the fourth annual Equity in the Job Search Symposium (May 2020) was smaller because of covid forcing it to be virtual, it has continued to flourish in the years since; and the organizers are excited to have it be in person again in 2022-2023. Additionally, Desiree and I will be hosting a half-day workshop at the 2022 AEESP conference again.

UM CEE Department DEI Committee

I have realized that when I become aware of an inequity, others around me also likely noticed it; by tapping into this shared feeling, I can galvanize community change. For this reason, I spearheaded a virtual roundtable for students and postdocs in June 2020 to discuss how we could motivate our department to do more to support BIPOC members of our community. From the concerns raised at this and subsequent meetings, we wrote an open letter to our department chair and galvanized our department’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

One immediate change sparked by our letter was the inclusion of postdocs, students, and even alumni on our department’s DEI committee. My involvement in writing the letter and commitment to DEI as a graduate student resulted in my appointment to this committee. In this role, I have been helping with drafting a department DEI roadmap to transition our department past dialogue and supportive words to action-based solutions. A necessity of success for this roadmap will be realizing committee buy-in. To that end, I have helped present the roadmap at faculty and staff meetings, as well as for the alumni board and at a student town hall. Specifically, I am working on the roadmap goal of DEI skill building. Our efforts seek to realize a culture that values DEI skill building, through better advertising university-wide events and hosting specific events for our community. Although realizing real change will be slow, I am inspired by the hard work and commitment of this committee which brings together seven professors, two alumni, one postdoc, three undergrads, and seven graduate students.

Two years after we wrote the letter, our informal group of students and postdocs has become a recognized UMich organization (the CEE DEI Collaborative). Additionally, our DEI committee has begun to make progress on our roadmap, including implementing a new mentoring program and developing a department-wide DEI certificate (I spear-headed the later). While progress may feel (and be) slow at times, our efforts show the importance of sustained input from across a department for progress.