Diversify EEB: new effort by two EEB professors
Professors Gina Baucom and Meghan Duffy have set in motion a rapidly growing list of female and/or underrepresented minority researchers in ecology and evolution to help balance the numbers of speakers at scientific seminars and conferences, award winners and more.
“The list is geared toward people who have already gotten their Ph.D. and are at the postdoctoral research associate stage or beyond,” Baucom wrote in a Dynamic Ecology blog post. “We are relying on a self-nomination process, because, while suggestions are helpful, we think it best as ‘opt-in’ only. Some women and/or minorities may not be comfortable being highlighted by their gender, race or minority status and we very much want to respect that.”
“Diversify EEB went live on a Thursday evening, and in less than 24 hours there were almost 200 entries. Forty-eight hours later the list had over 300 entries and it appears to be going strong.”
As of today, over 720 people have signed up for the list.* “We've heard from people saying they're using it to find seminar speakers, associate editors for journals, and reviewers for manuscripts,” said Duffy. “So, while our primary goal was diversifying the seminar series and symposia, hopefully this will help improve the diversity of reviewers and editors, too!”
A companion site has been created for graduate students, DiversifyEEB Grads, administered by EEB graduate student Katherine Crocker.
Read more about this new resource for ecology and evolutionary biology on the Dynamic Ecology blog in a guest post by Baucom, who along with Duffy, are the creators and administrators of the Diversify EEB list.
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*Update June 2016: The Diversify EEB list has grown to 812 people. The Diversify EEB Grads list is at 65.
