The Biophysical Society and the ASCB are leading an effort with the support of the National Science Foundation to create an Alliance of Scientific Societies for Broad Participation in STEM to promote participation in STEM by the next generation of scientists. The other founding partners are the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the Endocrine Society, and the Scientific Career Research and Development Group at Northwestern University. The ultimate goal is for other scientific societies to join the Alliance as these efforts move forward.
Building a diverse and inclusive STEM workforce is a goal shared by many institutions. However, the efforts to understand effective interventions leading to increased participation of underrepresented individuals in STEM remain isolated in their scientific disciplines. The Alliance aims to serve as a unified voice across disciplines to help community members establish effective ways to coordinate collective efforts to address the needs of minority scientists, thus improving the efficiency and dissemination of programs that serve underrepresented minorities.
The Alliance will achieve its goals by conducting a three-meeting conference series that will
bring together the committees for diversity, inclusion, and minorities affairs and society leadership from many professional/scientific societies and other stakeholders that advocate the diversification of our STEM workforce.
If you would like to learn more about these efforts please contact the Alliance leadership: Marina Ramirez-Alvarado (ramirezalvarado.marina@mayo.edu) or Veronica Segarra (vsegarra@highpoint.edu)
About the Author:
Verónica A. Segarra is an assistant professor of biology (@SegarraVeronica) at High Point University in High Point, North Carolina. Her lab studies membrane trafficking under stress and starvation conditions. She has a strong interest in outreach that provides talented and creative high school students an opportunity to experience scientific experiments to help shape their future goals.
