DEI in academia is a deep journey of self-reflection, listening to trainees needs, learning and coming up with initiatives (short and long term) that we can implement to achieve systemic changes that make science more equitable. DEI is clearly a form of activism that brings me joy.
Examples of all my past and ongoing DEI efforts in a historical way for all constituencies:
Current efforts:
Launching an inclusive mentoring training series for all PIs at UNM who have students or postdocs under their supervision.
2. Incorporate DEI efforts as part of the P&T evaluation for all faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences (we currently have no dedicated space for a DEI narrative and we can only use the appendix to show our effort).
3. Improve sick leave and health insurance conditions for graduate students. Currently, students going on leave do not have health insurance covered by the university. We are starting to come up with ways to change this injustice.
All efforts:
-Jan 2023: Irene joins the UNM Faculty Mentoring Program for mentoring of minoritized graduate students around campus.
-Jan 2023: Drs. Andersen and Salinas launch the UNM Bio DEI journal club.
-November 2022: Irene mobilizes UNM Faculty and writes a letter to the administration to help the graduate students achieve better working conditions in their contracts.
-November 2022: BlackInImmunoWeek 2022 takes place (Irene is a co-organizer).
- September 2022: UNM is aawarded an NIH FIRST grant. Drs Jane Ellen Smith and Salinas are the PIs of the grant. Irene, along with Dr. Barbara Rodriguez, is the leader of the Faculty Development Core to implement and institutionalize inclusive mentoring, and inclusive promotion and retention practices across university.
-June 2022: Irene co-organizes the DEI workshop at the North American Comparative Immunology Workshop with Drs. Grayfer and Rollins-Smith.
-June 2021: Irene creates the Diversity travel fund for the North American Comparative Immunology workshop community. Thanks to this initiative, every summer, 4 students from traditionally excluded backgrounds will attend NACIW.
-June-July 2021: Irene participate in th 8 week course Faculty Development Mentor, an NIH funded award to train faculty to become better mentors.
-November 2021: BlackInImmunoWeek 2021 is a success, Irene is a co-organizer.
- 2021 Irene implements for the first time a DEI tab in the annual performance review for all Faculty in the Biology department.
-Feb 2020: Irene gets for the first time at UNM child care costs covered to bring her infant to a Keystone conference.
-Summer 2020: Irene along with the Biology Chair, Dr. Pockman, form the Biology DEI committee.
-Summer 2020: Irene joins BlackInImmuno and organizes the first BlackInImmunoWeek which took place in November 2020.
- 2019: GRE requirement lifted for UNM Biology graduate applicants.
-2018: As part of the International Society for Developmental and Comparative Immunology Congress organized by Irene in Santa Fe, NM, Janeth Peña and Irene Salinas organize a workshop titled "Women in STEM: Challenges and opportunities". Additionally, Irene organizes two other workshops on "Effective mentoring" and "Communicating science to the public". Irene, thanks to funding by NSF and NIH, offers childcare for attendants to the conference.