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This episode is sponsored by Promega.
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At Promega, we believe discovery starts from within.
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When employees uncover strengths they didn't know they had, or scientists realize their authentic curiosity can shape their path, great things happen.
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We build a culture rooted in genuine conversations, emotional intelligence, and creative thinking because the people who fuel breakthrough science are the ones who have first discovered themselves.
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Permega, where curiosity meets discovery.
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Learn more at Permega.com/slash careerpath.
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Welcome to Chain Reaction, a podcast from the American Chemical Society, where we link chemistry's past to its future.
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I'm your host, Margo Wall.
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And I'm Shane Hanlon.
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We're coming to the end of this miniseries, Shane.
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We are, but we saved some really special interviews for today.
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A lucky last, as they say in the British Bake Off.
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Yeah, I mean, I I hope so.
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Uh yeah, I mean, I'll be curious to hear what you think.
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So ACS's fourth and final core value is inclusion and belonging.
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So for this episode, ACS's former VP of Inclusion and Belonging, Raj Mukopatai, chatted with representatives from three of ACS's sister societies.
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SOCNIS, Noboshe, and ACIS.
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Hmm, I think we're gonna need to break that down for everyone.
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What do those all mean?
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Yeah, sure.
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So for the audience, for those who don't know, SOCNIS stands for the Society for Advancement of Chicanos, Hispanics, and Native Americans in Science.
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Noboshe is the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers.
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And ACIS is the Advancing Indigenous Science and Engineering Society.
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So three societies that are doing a lot to make sure that science includes many diverse voices.
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Yeah, that's awesome that Raj was able to chat with people from all three organizations.
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Um, so tell me who we're gonna be hearing from first.
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First is Bridget Shannon.
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Bridget is a researcher at 3M and past president of Nobashey.
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Their conversation ranged from the importance of diverse perspectives to some of Bridget's proudest accomplishments with so much in between.
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All right, let's hear the interview.
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Did the enormity of that hit you at the time, or was it after the fact, or were you aware of what the expectations were during that time?
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Yeah, so okay, there's a story behind that.
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So when I started, uh when it my first year, there were, I think, about five, five blacks in the program.
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And halfway through the year, they all left.
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And then it was just me.
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And I remember trying to make it through.
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I ended up failing one of my tests.
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And one of the professors came up to me and said, was everything okay?
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You failed the test.
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I was like, Yeah, I know.
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I didn't really study because I didn't know how to prepare myself for it.
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And then he went to tell me the story that we've had several people come through the program.
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And each year, when blacks come through the program, they don't make it past the first year.
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And so when he said that to me, I was like, oh, like this is serious.
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So after that, that's when I started to feel it.
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Like, okay, I really gotta, you know, at least get past the first year.
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I really gotta do this.
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Then what he offered me, though, was a support system within the program.
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And he said, I'm willing to help you.
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And there were several other professors that were there to help me.
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And along the way, they would make sure I had everything, give me, you know, the extra time I needed, or we'd have extra study hall sessions.
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So I felt like I had the support then, although I also felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders because it's like, okay, this is something that I need to accomplish.
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And no one has done this before.
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So it's scary when you are in that role.
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So then I met one of my mentors, Dr.
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Clarity Hughes.
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She really helped to get me to that next level in terms of like graduating.
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When I was ready to graduate, well, she coached me throughout, but when I was ready to graduate, she was like, I think you have everything.
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And I was doubting myself, well, I think I need this or I need that, because no one had done it before that looked like me.
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So I didn't know.
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And then she was like, you
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just need to be yourself.
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That's what you need to do.
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She was like, you're not doing any of us any favors by trying to be like someone else.
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She gave me an example of if I go to a restaurant and I order steak and they bring me chicken, I'm gonna be very upset.
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She was like, be who you are.
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And that just really stuck with me and helped me.
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And from then on, I gained the confidence to kind of see it through.
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You've worked in industry, you you serve in no bouche, you've you've done so many different things to contribute to science.
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What makes you most proud of when you think about the communities in which you move?
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I think there are different moments that make me proud and different moments that I've encountered along the way.
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I'd say now, like I have experience under my belt, right?
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And I've done a lot of things, being the president of Nobich, being in the lab, being in leadership roles.
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That has really helped me in terms of my growth, both personally and professionally.
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So I think what I'm most proud of is like how I show up when I enter the room and how I contribute.
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I feel that when I do say things that my voice is heard, but I also feel like I am contributing and I'm confident in the things that I am trying to put out.
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Yeah.
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Finding career pathways, there are a lot of barriers to certain communities and groups of people that are hard to overcome or struggle to overcome.
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Can you talk about some of those?
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And in your view, what are some of the ways in which you think we could reduce those barriers or just mitigate them?
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Oh, that's a good question because I wish I had the answer to or the solution to how we could mitigate those.
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I do understand that there are challenges.
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It's really hard trying to find a job.
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Yeah.
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When you, you know, you're like, I've I've been to school, I have the degree, and then it's still hard.
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And it should not be so hard to find it.
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When I'm mentoring people, I say, you know, there's a it's a lot of work.
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It can be a lot of work because you have to make a lot of changes, you have to meet a lot of people, network, you have to be in the right place at the right time.
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There has to be a need from whatever place you're trying to apply for.
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So connecting the need to the skill set, right?
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How do you put the two in the room?
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And that's part of the problem because the people with the need, they're only going into certain spaces that they're comfortable with.
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And you have a lot of good talent out here in other spaces, like a no bishop conference, for example.
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And we're just not getting people to look for talent in these places.
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And that's just unfortunate.
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And science, are there places in which we can do better to get everybody's perspectives in?
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Are there are there places you think where sometimes the rigidity in which we do science doesn't serve us?
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Yeah, I think we we are so passionate about science, right?
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And we all have our own beliefs about science.
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And we want to share those beliefs.
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And you you have some people that want to share them more than others, and those that kind of dominate the room.
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And then you have other people that are quiet that have those diverse thoughts, but will not contribute early in my career when I started.
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I had thoughts, but I wouldn't say anything because everybody was talking.
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So I just like, oh I I thought I had a great idea, but didn't say anything.
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But then I realized that you have to get it out there at some point.
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So I think just taking the pause to kind of read the room.
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And you don't have to be a leader to do this.
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You can be a team, a teammate to do this.
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Just read the room.
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And if someone's not speaking up or not talking, ask them, do they agree?
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Ask them, you know, do they have any thoughts?
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Do they have anything to add, or do they see any risk in there?
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I mean, there are other ways to kind of pull people in.
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And I think we just really have to look at it as a whole when we're in these meetings and we're talking about science, understanding that everyone does have this passion and just making sure that we're sharing the love.
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I like how Bridget talked about inviting each other into the conversation so that you know you make sure that it's not just the loudest or most confident voices that are heard.
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Oh, absolutely.
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Yeah.
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Um, so who are we gonna hear from next?
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Next, Raj chatted with Mary Jo Onderkin, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University in Boston.
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Mary Jo is also a former chair of the board of ACES and was recently given the Ely S.
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Parker Award, which is the organization's highest honor.
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Oh wow, that's amazing.
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I know.
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So Mary Jo's conversation with Raj began with her talking about what it meant to attend her first ACES conference with folks like herself, which was a new and really impressionable experience.
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Hmm.
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ACES is an amazing organization.
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I first went to an ACES National Conference in 1994, and I was blown away just seeing science and native culture coming together.
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It was a beautiful thing.
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When you think about that gathering and the work of bringing together different groups so they can do their best science, what are some of the things that you have seen or experienced or have worked on to make sure that people who come from groups that feel that they don't belong to mainstream science, what are some of the things you've observed and what do you think are some of the solutions?
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Well, I think that when you're in an environment that doesn't understand your culture, when you're in an environment with people who are different from you, it can give you a feeling of not belonging, of not uh even not being good enough, or poster
syndrome.
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And ACES lives to promote science among natives, indigenous people, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiian, Amerindians, First Nations.
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Our ancestors were excellent observers of nature.
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They made observations, they made hypotheses based on these observations, and used that knowledge, which is passed down from generation to generation, to make life better for the people.
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And essentially, that's what science is.
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I mean, our our native students have science in their DNA, and we emphasize that in ACES.
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Our young natives have a lot to give to science to solve the world's problems.
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What do you tell people in your lab when they first join?
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What kind of culture do you like to uphold in your lab?
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What kind of environment do you like to create in your in your work?
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Oh, that the group is a is a community.
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It's it's like a family.
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We help each other, we support each other, uh, we honor the people who achieve.
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Somebody gives a paper or publishes a paper or gets an award.
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You know, everybody's happy for them.
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You know, the pandemic kind of broke up the esprit de core of the group because we were meeting remotely and it just wasn't the same.
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So after we were able to meet in person again, I said, okay, everybody, I want you to come to group meeting in person, unless you're sick.
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See, we usually have a party when somebody gets their PhD, but there were a couple people who graduated in the middle of the pandemic and we couldn't have a party for them.
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They defended online and say, Well, congratulations, but we couldn't have their party.
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So the next person that graduated after we were able to come together, I got tickets for everybody on a Boston Harbor cruise, and we celebrated the PhD on Boston Harbor, and it was a beautiful day.
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We were on the boat, and I think that that did a lot to reignite that group cohesiveness that is so important in a research group.
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In in my past, I've known of research groups where there's kind of a cutthroat mentality where people try to outdo the other person.
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That's no good.
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That's that just gets in the way of progress and innovation.
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That just holds people back.
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You want to have a supportive and friendly and collegial community.
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Have you ever felt
like an outsider?
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And what happened to make that change?
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Oh gosh.
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Yeah.
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I felt like an outsider for most of my life.
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My PhD class in my first year of graduate school, there was one other woman, she quit at the end of the first year.
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And there were professors who were pretty open about not wanting to take women in their group.
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I mean, I I was fortunate that Mark Ratner was doing interesting stuff, but he didn't seem to mind to have a woman in the group.
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I you know, I I can remember my first ACS meeting, there were not many women and not many minorities.
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Well, what kept you going?
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Or who kept you going?
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What kept me going?
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One thing was from the time I was very little, my mom kept telling me you can do anything you want if you try, if you work.
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And she told me that so many times that I believed her.
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So even when that was a struggle, I still carried on because I believed that I could do it.
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So can you think of a time when Yeah, you talked about how sometimes you were the only.
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Was there a time when your perspective or presence in a setting changed the trajectory of a project or or or thinking or something like that?
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I mean, I can remember many decades ago serving on search committees, back in the search committees, for example, there were reluctance on the part of some to interview a woman or a minority person or to hire, say, a married woman.
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Oh, she's married, she's not serious about science.
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Yeah.
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There was some of that.
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And uh I would have to say, no, we don't consider that.
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Or gee, how about this file?
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This is a really strong candidate.
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So, oh gee, wow, you're right.
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That is a strong candidate.
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But they see a name that doesn't signify white male, and they just kind of overlook.
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Yeah.
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Doesn't happen anymore, thankfully.
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Thankfully.
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What advice do you now give students who are coming in and are going to be the next generation of people to carry the work of science forward?
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What do you tell them?
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Do something you love, do something that excites you.
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You know, life is short.
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I mean, to our native students, I tell them that you have something to contribute to science to solve the world's problems.
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I love that we're circling back to what we started the series with, which is really having a love and a passion for science.
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Oh, definitely.
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And it all ties together, too.
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That's why I was curious about doing a series on our core values.
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Being a scientist and wanting to do science isn't just one thing.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So who's the last person we're gonna hear from?
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Ingrid Montez.
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Ingrid is a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piatris campus.
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She's also on the ACS board and on the board of SOCNAS.
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What makes SACNAS really, really unique is that you really find a community.
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As you say, also is is part of the mentorship, but it's also uh to have a community when you look around, and for me, I am Latina, so uh it's important to really identify with all the people that are there that are really like you.
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Sometimes that is not completely usual in other meetings when you have everyone in the same place, but with Sagnas, because it's more oriented to the community Hispanic, Chicanos, and then Native America.
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Well, we really find everyone that is just like you.
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I think that mentorship is sacred because it's built on trust, generosity, and mushroom roles.
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A mentor believes in you even before you believe in yourself.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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So you've served both on the ACS board as well as on the SACNAS board, and so those are very important roles that you've contributed to the scientific community.
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Talk a little bit, if you can, about what is it like leading change so that you foster inclusion and you foster bringing everybody along.
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I think that leading change is mean moving beyond words to an action.
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It requires some courage that you stand and just you know say we should do this, even when people are not following the same thought or maybe have different opinions, and also is humility and accountability.
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I think that something that I have learned through all this experience is that when you are in a table discussing in a board or in a classroom, whatever, you have to listen deeply to the experience of people that are often overlooked, and you can see that they are shy, that they are afraid of maybe saying something that is not
accepted.
00:20:17.839 --> 00:20:29.759
So for me, it's very important to be very, very aware of everyone because everyone is unique and everyone could bring to the table a different perspective.
00:20:30.000 --> 00:20:45.599
And I always say that you should lead by example, you have to model in inclusive behavior every day, making sure that every voice is heard in a meeting.
00:20:45.839 --> 00:21:04.000
Give credit to everyone where is doing something important or making a difference, and I have been going through this, and my point of view as a Latina is completely different, not only because I am Latina, because I grew up and I stay in Puerto Rico.
00:21:04.319 --> 00:21:08.000
And Puerto Rico, we have a different culture from US.
00:21:08.079 --> 00:21:11.759
Yeah, and that's something that I want to bring to the to this discussion.
00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:17.200
We need to create safe spaces for people to read their whole self.
00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:25.920
If I have to say something, maybe they don't have to accept during the vote or you know, the final decision.
00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:27.680
But it's important to listen.
00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:33.599
It's important that you know uh everyone, every voice has to be heard.
00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:56.160
So it's is the responsibility that you take to open the doors for others, is leaders that are really committed with inclusion recognize that their legacy will not be only their scientific contribution, but also the opportunities they create for the next generation.
00:21:56.880 --> 00:21:59.759
And for me, inclusion in science means.
00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.279
More than opening the door to others.
00:22:03.440 --> 00:22:09.039
It means making sure that people strive once they are inside.
00:22:09.519 --> 00:22:15.119
So it's an ongoing process, and every day we should learn more about that.
00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:21.279
So I'd like to pull on those threads a bit more because you've touched on two very important things.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:28.559
We're talking about psychological safety and feeling safe enough to have a different opinion or a different perspective.
00:22:28.799 --> 00:22:45.200
And we've been talking a lot about the need for psychological safety in science because, first of all, just from a safety standpoint, lab safety, chemical safety, you need to have psychological safety to speak up and say, I don't think that's a safe reaction to do, or I don't think that's a safe way to do something.
00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:53.440
Let's start by talking about maybe an experience you had where you had to push for that psychological safety to do the better science.
00:22:53.519 --> 00:23:05.759
You had to push for that environment, or you yourself have created that environment in your own research space to create room for different ways of doing science, so the best science happens.
00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:14.319
Yeah, well, in my case, I am professor at a Hispanic institution, 100% Hispanic institution.
00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:21.200
Here in Puerto Rico, maybe nowadays it's not the same, but in the past was really the machismo.
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:23.920
The male are the best.
00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:37.200
And I can say that when I started my career many years ago, I was the only one female doing committees or doing some proposals or whatever.
00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:45.599
And especially in some thesis committee from graduate students, you know, I was the only female in the room.
00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:52.880
And something that I want to share in this conversation is that for me it was something very intimidating.
00:23:53.119 --> 00:24:01.920
When I started, I I feel like, oh my God, I I have to prove that I belong here, you know, I have to make my way.
00:24:02.559 --> 00:24:05.039
And that was not my personality.
00:24:05.200 --> 00:24:07.519
It was something really hard for me.
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:14.160
And sometimes I lead the question for for the oral exams of some student.
00:24:14.319 --> 00:24:24.640
And when I received the letter that was sent to the student, all my my questions were just acknowledged to other person.
00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:26.400
Oh my myself.
00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:28.559
Can you imagine how I feel?
00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:30.559
How I feel in that moment?
00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:34.880
I I was thinking that I cannot continue in this.
00:24:39.359 --> 00:24:46.559
And something that is also important is that I have always been Puerto Rico, so I have an accent.
00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:50.640
I am completely Spanglish in some sense, you know.
00:24:50.960 --> 00:24:53.680
And people really don't like that, also.
00:24:54.079 --> 00:25:01.839
And for the accents, they just maybe underestimate my contribution to the science or or to the discussion.
00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:09.759
Something that I have to really think about and take the courage to continue.
00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:29.039
And I take all the hardship as an experience and something that made me stronger and make me aware that I need to help other people to strive and not to pass the same that I have to pass in those days.
00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:52.640
I have to say that on my lab, for example, and on my classroom, I always say that it's important the content, it's important the research, it's important, but it is more important that we feel that we belong to a family, that the ownership of your project is not the ownership for only for you.
00:25:52.880 --> 00:26:00.880
It's the ownership of everyone that helps you to strive and create the environment that you can flourish.
00:26:01.200 --> 00:26:11.519
Many of our students come from low incomes or are the first generation of students, and they are maybe insecure about themselves.
00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:16.960
So psychological safety is something important, especially in science.
00:26:17.680 --> 00:26:36.319
The science is better when you have the team to work together, and the team is very diverse, is the best thing that you can get for your organization, for your science, for your classroom, for everything, because diversity is richness.
00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:53.839
I really feel like it's yeah, richness of thought, richness of culture, richness of science.
00:26:54.400 --> 00:26:55.039
Right?
00:26:55.440 --> 00:26:58.720
And to hear her talking about ownership and family.
00:26:58.960 --> 00:27:05.359
I will admit that I sometimes cringe when I hear family being thrown around in professional contexts.
00:27:05.599 --> 00:27:06.240
Yeah.
00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:12.400
But I do love this idea of ownership and feeling like you belong to something bigger.
00:27:12.720 --> 00:27:13.279
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:13.359 --> 00:27:15.759
And Mary Jo used the word family as well.
00:27:16.000 --> 00:27:20.720
It's clear that so much of inclusion and belonging comes down to support.
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:25.759
You know, support from your community and others, and really rooting for each other.
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:28.480
And I think that's the perfect note to end on.
00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:31.680
But of course, the miniseries isn't totally wrapped.
00:27:31.920 --> 00:27:43.759
We will be back in two weeks for a bonus episode where we each researched one really fascinating National Historical Chemical Landmark, and we're gonna do a swap and share.
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:45.920
Ooh, just like show and tell.
00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:49.039
Yes, taking me back to second grade.
00:27:49.359 --> 00:27:52.160
That's next time on Chain Reaction.
00:28:02.000 --> 00:28:06.720
This was Chain Reaction, a podcast by the American Chemical Society.
00:28:06.880 --> 00:28:09.440
Our executive producer is Sam Jones.
00:28:09.599 --> 00:28:11.839
Our producer is me, Margo Wall.
00:28:12.079 --> 00:28:17.359
This miniseries was also produced by Shane Hanlin in a partnership with ACS Brand Lab.
00:28:17.759 --> 00:28:19.359
Editing by Jeremy Barr.
00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:22.319
Production help from Michael David and Matt Radcliffe.
00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:24.640
Theme song by Dee Peterschmidt.
00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:26.000
Do you have any questions?
00:28:26.160 --> 00:28:30.000
Send them to chainreaction at acs.org.
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:41.599
At Premega, we believe discovery starts from within.
00:28:41.759 --> 00:28:49.759
When employees uncover strengths they didn't know they had, or scientists realize their authentic curiosity can shape their path, great things happen.
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:59.839
We build a culture rooted in genuine conversations, emotional intelligence, and creative thinking because the people who fuel breakthrough science are the ones who have first discovered themselves.
00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:02.960
Permega, where curiosity meets discovery.
00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:06.480
Learn more at permega.comslash careerpath.