Projects

April 2023-March 2024: Ongoing Meetings with Director of ODEI Education and Learning Initiatives Chip McNeal and CTL Program Director Marty Samuels to provide feedback on the state of DEIJ in the Division of Science, develop improved interventions for handling DEIJ conflict within the division, and developing improved TA training. 

January 2023-March 2024: Ongoing work with the Chief Diversity Officer,  LeManuel Bitsóí and Dean Wendy Cadge to maintain open dialogue between administration and students. Relaying complaints, ongoing struggles, and needs of students in the division. 

January 2023: Conducted a survey regarding student priorities surrounding DEIJ, and student experiences engaging (or failing to engage) with university systems to resolve conflicts or incidents of discrimination, harassment, abuse, or retaliation. 

November 2022: Hosted Dr Paris Adkins-Jackson (Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University) as part of our Bias in Science seminar series. Dr AJ gave her talk: Looking B(l)ack: A Story About Trauma, (Hi)Story, and Science, sharing her ground-breaking research on healthcare disparities in Black and Latinx/a/o communities, particularly regarding Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias.  (Cohosted with the Neuro-Bio Colloquium)

October 2022: Hosted Dr Colleen Hitchcock (Associate Professor of Ecology, Brandeis University) as part of our Bias in Science seminar series. Dr Hitchcock gave her talk: Connecting to Science and Community with Citizen Science, on the role of public participation in science research and how it can be integrated into the university classroom as a tool for teaching, learning, and building community connections. (Cohosted with the Psychology Brown Bag Lunch Series)

May 2022:  Hosted our first speaker, Dr. Fanuel Muindi (CEO of Stem Advocacy Institute) who gave his talk: The Logic Model: An Instrument to Drive Sustainable Change in STEM. Check out his work at the SAI. 

May 2022: We published an open letter to the top administration at Brandeis in the Justice, imploring them to dedicate substantial, concrete resources to anti-racist and equity work specific to STEM. 

December 2021: ARAS was included in a series of interviews in the Justice with student groups working to push forward anti-racist and equity efforts at Brandeis. 

October 2021: Provided summary of multiple-choice responses and written responses (edited for anonymity) to the May 2021 survey to Dean Hodgson, Provost Fierke, Prof. Chakraborty, Mr. David Fryson (Interim CDO), and Dr. Aretina Hamilton (Director of DEI Programming, Training, Education & Development). Summaries were later shared with Senior Associate Dean Elaine Wong.

Provided broad-ranging feedback on university-wide and departmental anti-racist plans to ODEI, Provost Fierke, Dean Hodgson and others.

Met and discussed state of work with Pre-Health Advising Staff.

September 2021: 

Met with the Science Council and subsequently Dr. Carol Fierke (Provost), Dr. Dorothy Hodgson (Dean of School of Arts and Sciences) and Dr. Bulbul Chakraborty to build a plan for a seminar series on bias and racism in STEM to be piloted in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Met with Dr. Bulbul Chakraborty (Head of Science Division) and the Dr. Kate Slater (Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Affairs) to discuss potential projects.

May 2021: Distributed survey to Science Division undergraduate and graduate student bodies (declared majors, e-mail lists that include them).

March 2021: Provided feedback to OPIR about the proposed diversity dashboard.

December 2020: Generated feedback on the university's Draft Anti-Racism Plan, and submitted to ODEI.

Last updated March 30th, 2024