RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Scientific societies advancing STEM workforce diversity: Lessons and Outcomes from the Minorities Affairs Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 794818
DO 10.1101/794818
A1 Verónica A. Segarra
A1 Sydella Blatch
A1 Michael Boyce
A1 Franklin Carrero-Martinez
A1 Renato J. Aguilera
A1 Michael J. Leibowitz
A1 MariaElena Zavala
A1 Latanya Hammonds-Odie
A1 Ashanti Edwards
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/10/15/794818.abstract
AB 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.