WOMEN & MINORITIES IN SCIENCE

 

Ensuring and supporting the participation of Women and Minorities in Science is a theme that is dear to my heart.

 I co-founded the West Texas Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (WT-AWIS) in 2008 and have served as President since its inception.  I  co-created an Environmental Toxicology Curriculum for the Texas Tech University “Science: It’s a Girl Thing” (SIGT) in 2007 and have instructed a science camp every summer since then. I am also involved with the TTU Mentor Tech and  NIH Bridges to the Baccalaureate and Doctorate programs.

 

          The West Texas Chapter of the Association for Women in Science (WT-AWIS) was created in 2008 in collaboration with Dr. Jaclyn Cañas (TIEHH), Dr. Kendra Rumbaugh (TTU-HSC) and Julie Isom (CISER).  I have been a member of AWIS since 2005 and decided to lead the efforts in creating an official Chapter at TTU when I discovered there was no currently active Chapter in Texas at the time.  Since its creation, WT-AWIS has organized over 15 meetings and socials, with attendance from 25 to 75 participants and with varied themes such as “Alternative Careers in Science” and “Getting into and Surviving Graduate School”.  WT-AWIS’s mission is to support and encourage women of all ages and career choices and the Chapter has adopted the vision of National AWIS of “a day when women will participate fully in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as manifested through equal opportunity, pay equity, and recognition commensurate with their accomplishments”.  WT-AWIS is serving students, staff and faculty at TTU and in the greater West-Texas region. WT-AWIS is also very active in outreach by providing laboratory tours, lectures and visits to high schools and middle school to highlight the importance of science and the participation of women in scientific and engineering fields. In 2009, WT-AWIS organized eight outreach events and close to 300 students participated.

 

Learn more about the WT-AWIS Chapter

 

          The SIGT program seeks to encourage young girls to pursue science and to teach them how certain fields of study can lead to exciting careers. In 2007, I was contacted by SIGT regarding creating a new curriculum for their summer camps. I collaborated with Dr. Jaclyn Cañas to create a curriculum in Environmental Toxicology for 6th, 7th and 8th graders.  The curriculum covers the basic principles of environmental toxicology through fun hands-on research activities and is a great success with the girls.  In addition, I encourage TIEHH female graduate students to participate as assistants in these summer camps in order to provide additional role models to the camp participants and to provide graduate students with teaching, mentoring and service activities.

 

Learn more about Science: It’s a Girl Thing

 

        The Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate (PBB) Program  started in August 2008 and I have been involved as a Mentor ever since.  The PBB Program is a partnership between South Plains College (SPC) and Texas Tech University (TTU) funded by the National Institutes of Health. PBB is a multi-faceted program for underrepresented minority students interested in science and who plan to start their college career at South Plains College. The program aims to help these students succeed in higher education and to help them make a smooth, successful transition to a four-year institution, such as Texas Tech University. The PPB Program provides activities and services to help SPC students succeed in college, transfer to a four-year university, and continue their education in the biological/biomedical sciences. Examples of activities include workshops focused on time management, study strategies and careers in science, undergraduate research, and travel to a national scientific conference.

 

 Learn more about Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate

 

        I am extremely enthusiastic about the NIH Bridges program and our own Plains Bridges to the Baccalaureate (PBB) Program at Texas Tech University and I, along with colleagues, submitted a grant proposal to NIH for a Southwest Bridge to the Doctorate Program in 2009.  We received helpful comments on our proposal and plan to submit again in the Fall of 2010. The Southwest Bridge to the Doctorate Program we propose seeks to establish a long-lasting inter-institutional partnership between Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) and Texas Tech University (TTU) designed to prepare minority research scientists for social, academic and professional success through well-integrated developmental activities rooted in research education.  The U.S. minority population is increasing rapidly, yet, minorities continue to be underrepresented in the sciences both as doctorate recipients and in the workforce. Moreover, these same populations experience serious health disparities compared to their white counterpart. There is a critical need to close these gaps in education, profession and health in order to secure the nation’s strength and economy.  The long-term goal of the Southwest Bridge to the Doctorate (SBD) Program is to address this critical need by increasing the number of minority scientists educated in the Southwest U.S. (New Mexico and Texas) who successfully complete a Masters degree in the biomedical/behavioral field and subsequently enroll and graduate with a doctorate degree before pursuing this field professionally.

 

 

 

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