Segarra Verónica A, Blatch Sydella, Boyce Michael, Carrero-Martinez Franklin, Aguilera Renato J, Leibowitz Michael J, Zavala MariaElena, Hammonds-Odie Latanya, Edwards Ashanti
Minorities Affairs Committee, American Society for Cell Biology, Bethesda, MD 20814.
Department of Biology, High Point University, High Point, NC 27268.
J Microbiol Biol Educ. 2020 Apr 10;21(1). doi: 10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.1941. eCollection 2020.
Promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the STEM academic workforce remains a key challenge and national priority. Scientific societies can play a significant role in this process through the creation and implementation of programs to foster STEM academic workforce diversification, and by providing mentoring and skills development training that empower scientists from under-represented minority (URM) backgrounds to succeed in their communities of practice. In this article, we provide examples of challenges met by scientific societies in these areas and present data from the American Society for Cell Biology, highlighting the benefits received by trainees through long-term engagement with its programs. The success of these initiatives illustrates the impact of discipline-specific programming by scientific societies in supporting the development of URM scientists and an increasingly diverse and inclusive academic STEM community.
促进STEM学术劳动力的多样性和包容性仍然是一项关键挑战和国家优先事项。科学协会可以在这一过程中发挥重要作用,通过创建和实施促进STEM学术劳动力多样化的项目,并提供指导和技能发展培训,使来自代表性不足的少数群体(URM)背景的科学家能够在其实践社区中取得成功。在本文中,我们提供了科学协会在这些领域所面临挑战的例子,并展示了美国细胞生物学学会的数据,突出了学员通过长期参与其项目所获得的益处。这些举措的成功说明了科学协会特定学科项目在支持URM科学家发展以及日益多样化和包容性的学术STEM社区方面的影响。