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Inclusion & Equity

Commitments

I am committed to recruiting, welcoming, training and developing talented students and researchers from a range of backgrounds, especially those from groups that have been historically and systematically disenfranchised in the scientific community and our society. I aim to provide an equitable, inclusive, and supportive environment where all people feel they belong. I do so because creating equal opportunity and access is the right thing to do for individuals and society and by promoting a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints we will be more creative in our research and more effective in solving pressing conservation problems.

I am committed to promoting equity – ensuring each research team member has the tools and support they need to achieve their goals. I recognize that there is inequity in our society and the academy, which creates taller, more persistent,  and more daunting barriers for some groups. I believe that these barriers—created by our institutions and our personal actions—are the reason for the lack of diversity in academia.

I am committed to supporting belonging – ensuring each member of the research team is able to bring their whole self into our group and that their contributions and ideas hold equal value and are welcome in all discussions.

RECOGNITIONS

I recognize that the majority of our academic research institutions in the United States were initially financed through the seizure of land from Indigenous people and by fortunes earned through the labor of enslaved Black people. Many of our institutions still honor their ‘founding’ slave-holding benefactors while they ignore the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color. Our institutions are struggling or unwilling to make amends for their origins.

I recognize that we need to do a better job listening to our colleagues and responding to their calls for action.

ACTIONS

I recognize my own implicit bias and work to correct them:

I mentor and support with compassion and an understanding that one-size-does-not-fit-all. 

I foster inclusion and equity by ensuring that our field locations are safe places for all to work and learn.

I support my colleagues by recognizing and rewarding their ‘invisible labor’ of promoting equity, inclusion, and diversity on our campuses

I amplify and recognize the contributions and knowledge of underrepresented minorities in ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation sciences.

  • DiversifyEEB – Highlighting ecologists and evolutionary biologists who are women and/or underrepresented minorities, University of Michigan (2020)

  • Hidden figures in ecology and evolution – Maria N. Miriti, Karen Bailey, Samniqueka J. Halsey, and Nyeema C. Harris, Nature Ecology & Evolution (27 July 2020)

I work to decolonize ecology and evolutionary biology by stopping racist practices in our professional conventions and honoring native lands.

 I recognize the power of words and the biases and inequities scientific terminology can perpetuate:

I continuously educate myself, and my research team, about how inequity and exclusion manifest in our personal and professional lives and how we can be allies.