Additionally, the Neuroscience Program, and specifically the Graduates in Neuroscience (GIN), provides student points of contact to discuss a variety of program-related needs. If you're a prospective, incoming, or current student, here are a few you might want to know.

The Neuroscience Program provides various resources that, while they are available to all students, they are particularly aimed at supporting students from historically excluded and institutionally oppressed backgrounds. Although these resources exist to support the student body, they should not be considered replacements for the work that we, especially those of us in privileged positions, must undertake to: engage in dialogue surrounding DEI; actively seek information to enhance our own competency about these topics; be committed advocates and allies for our peers; and hold the program and university accountable for implementing direct change and prioritizing inclusion, accessibility, equity, and justice.

In 2019, the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NGP) created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee, composed of both student and faculty representatives, who work to (1) integrate the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice into the NGP curriculum, policies, and culture, and (2) promote an environment that will support the success and wellbeing of our students and faculty throughout their academic careers.

The DEI Committee is composed of two co-chairs and ten members of the Neuroscience graduate program, in addition to two faculty representatives. The current co-chairs are Alicia Lane and Yasmine Bassil. A list of all members can be found on the Neuroscience Program website. The committee is student-run and made up of working groups which aim to address DEI-related concerns identified through student feedback to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice at the level of our program and more broadly within the Emory community. 

Since forming in 2019, the committee has achieved the following: 

• prepared a detailed survey and summary statement of DEI-related concerns of NGP students,

• hosted speakers to discuss the neuroscience of racial bias and ways to reduce implicit bias in science for the program,

• provided recommendations for more inclusive language and policies for the NS website, course syllabi, and GDBBS admissions evaluations, and

• ensured that students can nominate and vote for NGP DGS and electable executive committee positions.

In addition, the program has created a dedicated online page that will be continually updated with resources, initiatives, and communications regarding the program’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice. This page is currently being expanded, but plans to include links to statistics regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion at the program-level, in GDBBS as a department, and in Laney Graduate School as a whole.