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CMNS Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council 2022-2023

The CMNS Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council's mission for 2022-23 focused on: 

  • Planning college events, including selecting speakers for the Dean's Voices of Inclusive Excellence Lecture Series to build community around the topics of diversity and inclusion;
  • Identifying the data needed to track the recruitment, retention and advancement of students, faculty and staff from underrepresented groups across the college;
  • Investigating effective mechanisms and best practices for the recruitment of graduate students from underrepresented groups;
  • Brainstorming ways to support faculty mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students;
  • Improving messaging on CMNS websites related to diversity and inclusion; and
  • Advising the dean and senior leaders in the college on short-term and longer-term actions and initiatives that would better embody and strategically advance our commitment to diversity and inclusion.

 

2022-23 CMNS Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council Members:

  • Janice Reutt-Robey, Chair of the CMNS Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council; Chair and Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

  • Ricardo Arevalo, Associate Professor, Geology
  • Kate Atchison, Assistant Director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing and the Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing, Computer Science
  • Courtney Butler, Program Coordinator, Health Professions Advising Office
  • Max Ehrlich, Ph.D. student, Computer Science
  • Gene Ferrick, Director of Operations, CMNS ** ex-officio
  • John Ficklin, Graduate Student, Biological Sciences
  • Cerruti Hooks, Professor, Entomology
  • Eugenia Kalnay, Distinguished University Professor, Atmospheric & Oceanic Science
  • Maia Karpovich, Graduate Student, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation (AMSC)
  • Sara Lombardi, Senior Lecturer, Biology
  • Cheri Meadows, Senior Development Officer, CMNS ** ex-officio
  • Ziqin "Grace" Ni, Ph.D. student, Geology
  • Chris Palmer, Assistant Professor, Physics
  • Errica Philpott, Coordinator, Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics
  • Mihai Pop, Professor, Computer Science & Director, University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies
  • Abby Robinson, Assistant Dean of Communications, CMNS ** ex-officio
  • Peter Shawhan, Professor, Physics
  • Katerina "Kaci" Thompson, Assistant Dean of Science Education Initiatives, CMNS ** ex-officio
  • Konstantina Trivisa, Professor, Mathematics & Director, Institute for Physical Science & Technology
  • Gerald "Jerry" Wilkinson, CMNS Diversity Officer; Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Graduate Education, CMNS; Professor, Biology ** ex-officio
  • Carl Womack, Director of Finance, Chemistry & Biochemistry

 

2022-23 CMNS Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Council Events

"Land Grab UMD: How the United States funded land-grant universities with expropriated Indigenous land" presented by Dr. Robert Lee (U. of Cambridge, UK) and Mr. Tristan Ahtone (Kiowa, Editor at Grist). They presented their research work on the expropriated land used to found land-grant institutions like the University of Maryland, revealing the links between violent colonialism and higher education in the USA. https://diversity.umd.edu/resources/land-grab-umd

"Productivity Without Privilege: Job-hacking Rules for the Marginalized" presented by Alan Henry (B.S. '02, physics; B.S. '02, astronomy), Special Projects Editor at Wired Magazine. Marginalization—essentially being excluded from opportunities, career advancement, or even the tools available to others for personal, academic, and professional success—happens to everyone, in some fashion. Whether you're a woman in a majority male workspace, a person of color in a majority white field, an LGBTQ+ person in a majority cisgender, heterosexual environment, a disabled person in virtually any space, you likely face challenges to doing your best work that your more privileged colleagues don't face. When I stepped into journalism, I learned the hard way that simply being skilled, talented, and doing the best work you can—and even excelling at that work—often just isn't enough to get ahead. I found myself subject to a world of microaggressions, gaslighting, and other behavior designed to keep me away from growth opportunities and prestige assignments, and instead I was given the day-to-day "office housework" that was required to keep our teams running but certainly not the kind of work that made the best use of my skills or could move my career forward. As that happened, I looked around and observed the same things happening to my peers and colleagues not just across media, but in my prior fields, from technology to science. So I developed a set of tools and techniques to identify marginalization when it happens, adapt to it, push back against it, and succeed in spite of it anyway. In this seminar, I'll share those experiences, those tools for career success, personal productivity, and mental health, as well as how my background in science was (and is) instrumental in how I found my path, and how you can find yours. https://science.umd.edu/events/dei-henry.html

"Imposter Thoughts and Career Development: Let’s Talk About It" presented by Ericka Boone, Director, Division of Biomedical Research Workforce, Office of Extramural Research, National Institutes of Health. During this talk, you will develop additional understanding of how imposter thoughts can impact career development and growth opportunities; discuss personal coping strategies that can be utilized to recognize and negate imposter thoughts; and discuss how institutional culture can perpetuate feelings of profession imposterism and how institutional leadership can take greater responsibility in growing and sustaining more supportive environments. https://science.umd.edu/events/dei-boone.html