I want to help organizations be more inclusive, and I spent 2.5 years co-chairing the UW’s University Marketing and Communications Equity and Inclusion committee. This role included planning and overseeing the committee’s activities and collaborating with UMAC leadership on projects.

I also care about increasing diversity in STEM fields and about helping students achieve their career dreams. As a postdoc at University of Colorado Boulder, I was a member of the Chancellor’s Committee on Race and Ethnicity (CCORE). This group advises CU’s chancellor on race and ethnicity related issues at the university and propose solutions. As part of CCORE, I moderated and advertised “town hall” meetings to discuss the current racial environment on campus, and I wrote CCORE’s plan for helping to make CU a more inclusive campus.

Discussing “tolerance vs. acceptance” with CU faculty.

While at CU, I co-founded the CU Café seminar series, a group of graduate students and postdocs who want to increase the representation of scientists from diverse backgrounds on the university’s campus. This group invites diverse STEM faculty from around the world to speak on campus to provide faculty and students with novel networking opportunities. As the manager of CU Café, I scheduled and ran meetings, recorded minutes, organized events and managed social media. I also spoke about the difference between tolerance and acceptance on a panel sponsored by CU Café at CU’s annual Diversity and Inclusion summit and advertised CU Café on the local public radio (KGNU).

Finally, I mentored underrepresented undergraduate students in the University of Colorado Boulder’s SMART program throughout graduate school (2009-2015). I also attended the SACNAS national conference three years in a row to recruit underrepresented minority students for University of Colorado STEM graduate programs or the SMART program.