Tracy Langkilde: Uplifting underrepresented voices in STEM

By Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willaman Dean

Editor’s note:?This space is dedicated to college updates and perspectives on higher education trends from Tracy Langkilde, Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Penn State Eberly College of Science. Langkilde was named dean in October 2020, after joining the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology in 2007 and becoming head of the department in 2016.

Last fall, I was honored to be included among?15 women?from across the commonwealth who were featured by the?Pennsylvania Commission for Women?as part of their National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Day event to highlight women in various STEM careers and encourage girls to consider a future in STEM. It is critically important to be mindful of representation in our line of work, and it was humbling for me to be considered among this strong group of leaders within Pennsylvania.

Along those lines, I want to recognize the work that many in our college are also doing to uplift the expertise, experiences, voices, and faces of individuals from groups typically underrepresented in the sciences. In addition to college-wide contributions to wider celebrations — such as?community events and faculty, student, and alumni spotlights for Black History Month?— there are leaders among us who are proactively pursuing programs, initiatives, curriculum development, and even personal projects to make our college environment more equitable and welcoming.?

While these are just two of many efforts, I think it’s important to highlight these individuals whenever we can. I also want to encourage our college community to attend events for and support these projects wherever they can.

Mónica Medina — Diversify Ocean Sciences

Penn State Professor of Biology Monica Medina’s lab members write public Wikipedia pages detailing the lives and accomplishments of underrepresented marine scientists. After learning more about the algorithms of Wikipedia, the team started publishing interviews with many of those individuals to create additional source material and give more voice to these scientists, letting people hear them discuss their research and experiences in their own words. These efforts lend a face and a personality to what would otherwise be a relatively neutral page.

According to the?Diversify Ocean Sciences initiative website: “Wikipedia is a great open-access source for information, and they are often the first search engine result when looking for key words. Too often students and faculty feel they are the only person of their minority group in their field, and this can lead to feelings of isolation and disinterest in continuing in science. We hope this will make it easier for anyone looking for community or a role model to find the rich diversity existing in marine science.”

You can find the interviews on?YouTube?as well as the?Diversity Ocean Sciences “Interviews” web page.

Claire Thomas and Lauren McCarthy — You Belong in Science?

I was so excited to learn about a new poster campaign at Penn State, called You Belong in Science, which we launched with an event Thursday, Feb. 23, in Mueller Lab (home to our department of biology).

The goal of the initiative is to have an?ongoing display of posters highlighting the diversity of scientists and their stories, at Penn State and beyond.?Each semester, the group will also invite a prominent scientist who is active in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) space to visit and talk about their journey and experiences as a scientist.?

This new initiative is being spearheaded?by Claire Thomas, associate professor of biology and biochemistry and molecular biology, Lauren McCarthy, assistant teaching professor of biology, and the TaMIS (Toward a More Inclusive Science) Biology student group. This project was funded in part by the Eberly College of Science Climate and Diversity Seed Grant program. Aiming to promote diversity and inclusion activities within the college, inspire departmental climate and diversity committees to take positive action, and encourage collaboration across units, the seed grants fund events or projects with a specific goal of enhancing the climate and diversity in the unit. I encourage others to?share their ideas and apply in the future.

Again — this is just a snapshot of the important contributions our college community is making, and I’d love to hear about other efforts. Don’t be shy: please comment below or reach out to me directly so I can elevate and celebrate your initiatives!