ECS Weekly: Recognizing real DEI committments; New York Times writing workshop for PhDs; conflict management for postdocs from the NPA

This week’s newsletter provides strategies for checking a workplace’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was written by Lesley MacNeil of the Equity and Inclusion Committee.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion on the job market: How to tell who’s walking the walk, not just talking the talk

In recent years, universities have recognized the need to diversify their workforces and commit to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but the degree of commitment can vary between institutions. When on the job market, how does one distinguish institutions that are walking the walk—being truly committed to DEI—from those just talking the talk?

Lack of diversity in leadership positions, poor recruitment and retention of individuals from equity-seeking groups, and large salary gaps can be indicators of an inequitable environment. To better understand an institution’s DEI culture, consider how an institution addresses these inequities. Are they instituting evidence-based solutions, or are they focusing on optics? Do they have long-term plans to address inequities in opportunity? Are they improving institutional culture by requiring DEI training and implementing policies that prevent inappropriate influence in university decisions? Are they regularly collecting metrics related to salary, teaching load, service, and resource allocation to track their progress?

Start conversations about how key decisions are made, how committee membership is determined, how leadership positions are filled, and what career-building opportunities exist. In general, structured, formal processes are more likely to promote equity than informal ones that rely on individual adherence to suggested guidelines. For example, weak language around service—“everyone does their part, everyone does what they feel”—can indicate a laissez-faire attitude to service where contributions are not tracked and, as a result, some individuals are overburdened with service. Structured mentoring programs are preferable to casual ones because the onus is not on the mentee to ask for help but on the mentor or mentoring committee to provide input regularly.

Last, ask how success is measured in a department. What is required for tenure and promotion should be clearly laid out; vague and indeterminate language can suggest the absence of clear policies, leaving the process open to bias. Departments that rank faculty by their performance encourage competition between faculty that can create toxic environments for individuals from equity-seeking groups. This type of evaluation often relies on a few biased metrics and disregards non-traditional types of work.

Navigating the job market is challenging, but asking about the experiences of others in the department will allow you to find the information you need to make the best choice for your career.

GSA Early Career Leadership Program Resources

Community and Membership Engagement Subcommittee co-chair Kaushal Kumar Bhati discusses his research on plant autophagy, his commitment to creating an equitable scientific community, and his ambitions at GSA. Read more on Genes to Genomes.

Career Development Subcommittee co-chair Jadson C. Santos, J. Humberto Cunha, and Danielle F. Mello discuss organizing last year’s Portuguese Multilingual Seminar in the latest Multilingual Seminar blog post. Read more on Genes to Genomes.

The GSA team welcomes Vincent Price, PhD, as the new Early Career Leadership Program Editor! Vincent is a talented editor with years of experience under his belt as a consultant and published author, alongside a number of years teaching English and French at secondary and post-secondary levels. Read more on Genes to Genomes.

Want to improve your communications skills? Communication and Outreach Subcommittee members Carla Bautista, Narjes Alfuraiji, Anna Drangowska-Way, Karishma Gangwani, and Alida de Flamingh published “Ten simple rules for improving communication among scientists” in PLOS Computational Biology. Read their article here!

GSA’s newest Presidential Membership Initiative members have been announced! Read more about these incredible early career scientists in our two Genes to Genomes blog posts, found here and here.

Multimedia subcommittee member Holly Kleinschmidt discusses her research, the important role of mentorship, and her experience producing the Genetics in your world podcast. Read more on Genes to Genomes.

Communication and Outreach Subcommittee advisor Stephanie Mohr published “Summer nights are no longer 'a chaos of sound.' Where have all the insects gone?” in Cognoscenti. Read the piece here.

The Multimedia Subcommittee has published three episodes of the Genetics in your world podcast. In the newest episode, Dr. Ishikawa talks about how he and his colleagues adapted CRISPR interference for fission yeast, allowing controllable reversible and efficient transcriptional repression. Check out all the episodes here or via your podcast app of choice!

Postdoctoral Fellowship | National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health | Frederick, MD, United States

Pediatric Geneticist | Kentucky Children’s Hospital, University of Kentucky | Lexington, KY, United States

Assistant Professor | Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability, University of Oklahoma | Norman, OK, United States

Postdoctoral Fellowship | University of Michigan | Ann Arbor, MI, United States

Senior Scientist | Breen Lab, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | New York, NY, United States

Senior Research Technician | Weihl Lab, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine | St. Louis, MO, United States

Staff Scientist | Egle Therapeutics, Cochin Hospital |Paris, France

Bioimage Analysis and AI Research Software Scientist | Jug Lab, Human Technopole | Milan, Italy

Temporary Research Assistant | Child Health Institute, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Rutgers University | New Brunswick, NJ, United States

Postdoctoral Fellowship | Hunt Lab, University of California, Irvine | Irvine, CA, United States

Postdoctoral Researcher | Liu Lab, Microbial Sciences Institute, Yale University | New Haven, CT, United States

Postdoctoral Researcher | Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics | Nijmegen, Netherlands

Postdoctoral Research Fellow | University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center | Dallas, TX, United States

Postdoctoral Position | Lu Digital Pharmaceutics Lab, University of Utah | Salt Lake City, UT, United States

Postdoctoral Position | Integrated Biomedical Sensing and Imaging Laboratory, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University | College Station, TX, United States

Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Fellow | Garris Lab, Center for Systems Biology, Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital | Boston, MA, United States

Is your lab hiring? GSA members qualify for a discounted rate to post job openings and can post student and postdoc positions at no cost on the GSA Job Board!

NEW! Applications are open for the National Postdoctoral Association IMPACT Fellowship Program. This year-long, interactive program includes speaker series, mentorship, individual projects, and networking opportunities. Applications are due by August 1, 2022.

Would you like to learn more about personal branding and how it can help you in your career development and succeed in your career? Register for this August 9, 2022 discussion on the topic of "Why a personal brand matters if you want a non-academic career", with Gertrude Nonterah, PhD, a Scientific Content Writer for Thermo Fisher Scientific and creator of TheBoldPhD.com.

NEW! The New York Times Writing Workshop has an upcoming writing workshop this fall in their Behind the Ivory Tower series. This workshop will be November 11 and 12, 2022. Applicants must have defended and/or received a terminal doctorate by the time of the workshop. Learn more and apply here by August 15, 2022.

NEW! Registration is now open for the Industry Career Transition Training (iCTT) Program. This weekly training program begins August 27 and will cover steps for career planning, job searching and applications, and the interviewing and negotiation process. Applications are due August 16, 2022.

NCBiotech’s Flash Grant program aims to identify and energize the most creative ideas that exhibit early indications of commercial potential. Apply for the current funding cycle. The deadline for Cycle 1 is September 14, 2022.

Enter your scientific images and videos into the FASEB BioArt competition. Submission deadline is September 27, 2022.

The Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program is a new program supporting outstanding early career faculty who are committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in science. Applications are due September 28, 2022.

Apply for the Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists—an annual prize awarded to early career scientists. Four winners will be published in Science, receive up to 30,000 USD, and be invited to Sweden where you receive your award and have the chance to present your research and meet with leading scientists in your field!

Current professional development and training opportunities

NEW! The National Postdoctoral Association is hosting a session on conflict management for postdocs as part of their SmartSkills series. Dr. Lori Conlan from the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education will lead this session on July 26, 2022. Register here for the event!

Were you a postdoc or recent PhD graduate on the faculty job market from May 2020 to April 2021 or from May 2021 to April 2022? Are you a new assistant professor who landed your position in the past two years? Fill out this survey with the Faculty Job Market Collaboration about your experience on the faculty job market.

Beginning in September, the NIH Office of Intramural Training and Education is pleased to offer a series of webinars and small group discussions to help you develop the confidence and resilience you need to navigate challenging situations in school, work, and life. The series will consist of five webinars, each linked to a drop-in small-group discussion the following week. Learn more and register for this series here.

Sign up to be an NPR Science Communicator! NPR Scicommers is a community of scientists and engineers that includes undergrads, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty interested in improving their science communication skills. There are more than 1,600 NPR Scicommers across the United States.

Looking for an opportunity to support young scientists? Letters to a Pre Scientist has opened their STEM pen pal program for the 2022–2023 school year. This yearlong volunteer opportunity involves exchanging four rounds of letters with a young science student. Learn more and register today!

Join a conference for biology teachers who wish to bring Drosophila genetics and inquiry-based lesson plans to their classroom on July 30, 2022. This one-day, online conference is intended to help instructors teach Drosophila research approaches to their students. Register here.

The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) DataWorks! Annual prize challenge showcases the benefits of research data management while recognizing and rewarding teams whose research demonstrates the power of data sharing or reuse practices to advance scientific discovery and human health. Read more about this year’s challenge and participate in the competition here.

The 2022 AISES National Conference will be held in Palm Springs, CA this year from October 6–8, 2022. This conference is a unique, three-day event focusing on educational, professional, and workforce development for Indigenous peoples of North America and the Pacific Islands in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) studies and careers. Register today!