Ten simple rules for supporting historically underrepresented students in science

Ten recommendations for hosting a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journal club

Despite advances and social progress, the exclusion of diverse groups in academia, especially science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, across the US and Europe persists, resulting in the underrepresentation of diverse people in higher education. There is extensive literature about theory, observation, and evidence-based practices that can help create a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse learning environment. In this article, we propose the implementation of a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) journal club as a strategic initiative to foster education and promote action towards making academia a more equitable institution. By creating a space for people to engage with DEIJ theories* and strategize ways to improve their learning environment, we hope to normalize the practice and importance of analyzing academia through an equity lens. Guided by restorative justice principles, we offer 10 recommendations for fostering community cohesion through education and mutual understanding. This approach underscores the importance of appropriate action and self-education in the journey toward a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and just academic environment. *Authors' note: We understand that "DEIJ" is a multidisciplinary organizational framework that relies on numerous fields of study, including history, sociology, philosophy, and more. We use this term to refer to these different fields of study for brevity purposes.

Exploration of support for Black, Indigenous, and people of color students in genetic counseling programs

Students in higher education who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) experience racism, discrimination, and microaggressions through tokenization, hypervisibility, invisibility, and marginalization. The experiences of BIPOC genetic counseling students with curriculum, clinical training, and sense of belonging also differ. Therefore, there is a large need for understanding how support is defined by BIPOC genetic counseling students, and then how to integrate specific aspects of training into a practical framework for programs to address racism and the resulting emotional implications. This study aimed to define current practices of support and identify gaps in genetic counseling programs as described by BIPOC students. BIPOC genetic counseling students (N = 40) were recruited through Listserv, social media, and Slack channels to complete an online survey eliciting demographic data, perspectives on support, and available support resources. The online survey consisted of 22 open- and closed-ended questions. Data were collected over a 5-week period. Open-ended responses were coded by thematic analysis and audited. The top three supports were as follows: (1) presence of other BIPOC students; (2) presence of BIPOC faculty; and (3) financial funding. Participants' individual definitions of support indicated that each student defined support in a unique way. Most participants defined understanding and empathy stemming from peers, supervisors, and faculty within the program setting as important aspects of overall support. The majority of participants felt somewhat or strongly supported in areas of training. The area with the least support was within rotation/fieldwork experiences. Programs should consider social- and program-level support combined with emotional support. Individualized support for every student is needed while avoiding assumptions about their identity and support needs. Training programs may consider a balance of efforts to prioritize recruiting more BIPOC faculty and students and providing the outlined support and funding resources for their students.

COVID-19 as a chronic stressor and the importance of individual identity: A data-driven look at academic productivity during the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted personal and professional life. For academics, research, teaching, and service tasks were upended and we all had to navigate the altered landscape. However, some individuals faced a disproportionate burden, particularly academics with minoritized identities or those who were early career, were caregivers, or had intersecting identities. As comparative endocrinologists, we determine how aspects of individual and species-level variation influence response to, recovery from, and resilience in the face of stressors. Here, we flip that framework and apply an integrative biological lens to the impact of the COVID-19 chronic stressor on our endocrine community. We address how the pandemic altered impact factors of academia (e.g., scholarly products) and relatedly, how factors of impact (e.g., sex, gender, race, career stage, caregiver status, etc.) altered the way in which individuals could respond. We predict the pandemic will have long-term impacts on the population dynamics, composition, and landscape of our academic ecosystem. Impact factors of research, namely journal submissions, were altered by COVID-19, and women authors saw a big dip. We discuss this broadly and then report General and Comparative Endocrinology (GCE) manuscript submission and acceptance status by gender and geographic region from 2019 to 2023. We also summarize how the pandemic impacted individuals with different axes of identity, how academic institutions have responded, compile proposed solutions, and conclude with a discussion on what we can all do to (re)build the academy in an equitable way. At GCE, the first author positions had gender parity, but men outnumbered women at the corresponding author position. Region of manuscript origin mattered for submission and acceptance rates, and women authors from Asia and the Middle East were the most heavily impacted by the pandemic. The number of manuscripts submitted dropped after year 1 of the pandemic and has not yet recovered. Thus, COVID-19 was a chronic stressor for the GCE community.

Utilization of a "Diversity Index" to Assess Racial Diversity of US School of Pharmacy Graduates

OBJECTIVE

Diversity in the training environment for health professionals is associated with improved abilities for graduates to care for diverse populations. Thus, a goal for health professional training programs, including pharmacy schools, should be to pursue representation among graduates that mirrors that of their communities.

METHODS

We evaluate racial and ethnic diversity among graduates of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) programs across the United States (US) over time. Using a "Diversity Index", we quantify the relative racial and ethnic representation of each program's graduates compared with that of college-age graduates nationally and within the geographic region of the respective pharmacy school.

RESULTS

Over the past decade, the number of US PharmD graduates increased by 24%. During this time, the number of Black and Hispanic PharmD graduates significantly increased. Still, representation of minoritized populations among graduates continues to be significantly lower compared with US benchmark populations. Only 16% of PharmD programs had a Diversity Index that matched or exceeded their benchmark comparator Black or Hispanic populations.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the significant opportunity that exists to increase the diversity of graduates of US PharmD programs to better reflect the diversity of the US population.

Four guiding principles for effective trainee-led STEM community engagement through high school outreach

To address ongoing academic achievement gap, there is a need for more school-university partnerships promoting early access to STEM education. During summer 2020, members of our institute initiated QBio-EDGE (Quantitative Biology-Empowering Diversity and Growth in Education), an outreach program for high schools in Los Angeles. In the hope of contributing to increasing diversity in academia, QBio-EDGE aims to make STEM education more accessible for students from historically excluded communities by exposing them to scientific research and diverse scientist role models. This program is led by early career researchers (ECRs), i.e., undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers. In our first year, the outreach activities took place during virtual learning, presenting challenges and opportunities within the program development. Here, we provide a practical guide outlining our outreach efforts, key factors we considered in the program development, and hurdles we overcame. Specifically, we describe how we assembled our diverse team, how we established trusting partnerships with participating schools, and how we designed engaging student-centered, problem-based classroom modules on quantitative biology and computational methods applications to understand living systems. We also discuss the importance of increased institutional support. We hope that this may inspire researchers at all career stages to engage with local schools by participating in science outreach, specifically in quantitative and computational fields. We challenge institutions to actively strengthen these efforts.

Immersive In‐Person Field Courses during the Pandemic: Minimizing Risk while Maximizing Efficacy

Field courses can provide formative experiences that also reduce disparities in STEM education. Impacts of the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic on‐field programs have been particularly severe, as many institutions shifted to online instruction. Some courses retained in‐person field experiences during the pandemic, and achieved high student learning outcomes. Here, I describe an approach to mitigating risk of COVID‐19 and other hazards during expedition‐based field courses, and student learning outcomes achieved using that approach. I applied comprehensive risk management to in‐person field expeditions that treated COVID‐19 as a hazard, requiring mitigation to maintain an acceptable low level of risk. Prior to broad availability of COVID‐19 vaccines, we applied a coronavirus‐free “bubble” strategy in which all participants passed a COVID‐19 PCR test immediately before departure and then avoided contact with people outside our bubble. In the future, vaccination can reduce risk further. We implemented additional safety factors to reduce risk of incidents that could require evacuation into medical facilities overloaded with COVID‐19 patients. The courses were successful: we had no infections or other serious incidents and student learning outcomes were transformative. The approach provides a model for conducting immersive field courses during the pandemic and beyond. Several field course networks are implementing similar approaches to restore valuable field education opportunities that have declined during the pandemic.

Restitution Through Equity-Focused Mentoring: A Solution to Diversify the Physician Workforce

Minoritized and marginalized physicians who identify as Black, Latino/a/x and Native American (BLNA) remain unacceptably underrepresented in medicine. Multiple studies provide a compelling argument for prioritizing racial/ethnic diversification of the physician workforce to improve racial/ethnic physician-patient concordance and assist in achieving more equitable health outcomes. Despite a growing awareness for the tangible benefits of a diversified physician workforce, the number of physicians from minoritized and marginalized groups remains relatively stagnant or worsening in certain demographics. The 5:1 ratio of Black students and trainees to Black faculty exemplifies and exacerbates the increased risk for harmful isolation particularly experienced by many BLNA mentees. They too need and deserve the benefits produced by concordant racial/ethnic faculty mentoring and support. However, these demands on time, resources and bandwidth can lead to negative consequences for BLNA faculty engaged in these efforts by contributing to their emotional, mental and physical exhaustion. Given the perpetual paucity of BLNA physicians in academic medicine, immediate interventions to prevent attrition of BLNA faculty, trainees and students journeying along the physician career pathway are urgently needed. Requiring the implementation of mentoring programs explicitly focused on increasing the number of physicians from groups underrepresented in medicine must happen at every point of the education and training process.

AJEDI in Science: Leveraging Instructor Communities to Create Antiracist Curricula

Gateway college science courses continue to exclude students from science, disproportionately discriminating against students of color. As the higher education system strives to reduce discrimination, we need a deliberate, iterative process to modify, supplement, or replace current modalities. By incorporating antiracist, just, equitable, diverse, and inclusive (AJEDI) principles throughout course design, instructors create learning environments that provide an antidote to historically oppressive systems. In this paper, we describe how a community of microbiology instructors who all teach Tiny Earth, a course-based undergraduate research experience, created and rapidly integrated antiracist content and pivoted to an online format in response to the social unrest and pandemic of 2020. The effort strengthened an existing teaching community of practice and produced collective change in classrooms across the nation. We provide a perspective on how instructor communities of practice can be leveraged to design and disseminate AJEDI curriculum.

Overcoming racism in the twin spheres of conservation science and practice

It is time to acknowledge and overcome conservation's deep-seated systemic racism, which has historically marginalized Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC) communities and continues to do so. We describe how the mutually reinforcing ‘twin spheres’ of conservation science and conservation practice perpetuate this systemic racism. We trace how institutional structures in conservation science (e.g. degree programmes, support and advancement opportunities, course syllabuses) can systematically produce conservation graduates with partial and problematic conceptions of conservation's history and contemporary purposes. Many of these graduates go on to work in conservation practice, reproducing conservation's colonial history by contributing to programmes based on outmoded conservation models that disproportionately harm rural BIPOC communities and further restrict access and inclusion for BIPOC conservationists. We provide practical, actionable proposals for breaking vicious cycles of racism in the system of conservation we have with virtuous cycles of inclusion, equality, equity and participation in the system of conservation we want.