The fifth annual Equity in the Job Search Symposium took place virtually on Friday, May 21, 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 EJS Symposium was virtual and shortened. We are grateful to all who participated in the 2021 EJS Symposium!
Featured Speakers
Nancy Alexander
Nancy Alexander is a coach, leadership consultant, and Certified Master FacilitatorTM who helps individuals and organizations achieve their purpose with clarity and assurance. As principal of Lumenance Consulting LLC she serves higher education institutions, nonprofits, and professional organizations. Coauthor of the American Institute of Architects’ Guides for Equitable Practice, Nancy presents frequently on negotiation and on matters of equity, diversity, and inclusion, including at Yale, and is currently supporting the Yale School of Architecture in building its Belonging at Yale five-year plan.
Nancy cochairs the EDI committee of the Long Wharf Theatre board and has also chaired the Greater New Haven Community Fund for Women and Girls. Her BA (sociology) and MBA degrees are from Yale where, as an alumna supporter of the Yale Women Faculty Forum, she cofounded the Women’s History Tour of Yale. She earned her MA in women’s studies from Southern Connecticut State University, executive coaching certificate from Columbia University, and team coaching certificate from the Academy of Executive Coaching, UK.
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Meredith Mira
Meredith is the Senior Associate Director at the Yale Office of Career Strategy, which she joined in the summer of 2013. She advises students and alumni as they begin the process of articulating who they are, what they care about, their key skills, and how they want to make an impact in their communities. She has significant experience shaping post-graduate career paths and outcomes for a wide range of students, including those from first-generation and otherwise underrepresented backgrounds, helping them center their lived experiences within a broader understanding of institutional culture, relative privilege, and the world of work.
Meredith completed her doctoral degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her research focused on how high school students from a range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds become aware of social inequality and motivated to work towards social change. She is also part of the international Leading Change Network, which is a wide-ranging group of educators, researchers, and practitioners engaged in strengthening community organizing efforts throughout the world.
Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller is the Assistant Dean of the Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science. As an Assistant Dean, Sarah provides leadership to advance science and engineering strategic priorities on campus. Sarah came to Yale from the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Engineering & Applied Science where she served for six years. As an Associate Dean there, Sarah served as the college’s chief diversity officer, led enrollment management, and oversaw student programs. Sarah believes that every child deserves an excellent education. She has worked in inner-city public schools, both as a teacher and as an administrator, and at the National Science Foundation, where she served as a AAAS Fellow. She has also worked in the admissions office of Amherst College, where she earned a B.A. in Chemistry. She holds a PhD from Yale University in chemical and environmental engineering.
Photos from EJS’s 5th Annual Symposium:
2021 Recognized Mentors
This year has been particularly challenging for so many of us. We are excited to recognize and show appreciation for our mentors who have demonstrated extraordinary support for their students.
Elijah Anderson – Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale
Dr. Anderson is very understanding and incredibly helpful in conceptualizing ethnographic data. Elijah is always available for meetings and phone discussions.
Eric Anslyn – Professor of Chemistry at University of Texas, Austin
Dr. Anslyn has been extremely supportive to all of the members in his lab group during the pandemic. He paid close attention to any shifts in people’s moods and was always there when we needed someone to talk to during the difficult times. Dr. Anslyn listened to his students when they were struggling, helping them succeed by providing guidance and then taking action by finding safe activities we could do together (socially distanced) to promote a team-like environment.
Gary Brudvig – Professor of Chemistry at Yale
Dr. Brudvig was recognized for initiating conversations in the group to discuss the social crisis and encourage members to share feelings. He has also been very supportive of his students applying for jobs during this difficult time by providing guidance, reviewing applications, and talking through anxieties and confusions.
Theresa Chatman – Director of Diversity and Inclusion for Research Programs at Rice
Theresa Chatman, Director of Diversity and Inclusion for Research Programs, is recognized for being an integral aid as a mentor to the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Co-Chairs for the NanoEnabled Water Treatment Engineering Research Center (NEWT ERC). Theresa was instrumental with advertising and funding, if necessary, for the ideas and programs developed and orchestrated by the D&I Chairs. As well, she was very integral in event facilitation and organization to ensure that the D&I Chairs continued to promote the goals of the NEWT Institutional Oversight Board for the graduate, undergraduate, and post-doctoral students.
Kevin Doyle – Executive Director of the Career Development Office at Yale School of the Environment
Kevin has gone above and beyond to coordinate with students as they navigate pre-professional experiences. He is an attentive listener and asks insightful questions that have helped students understand exactly what career path they would like to pursue.
Drew Gentner – Associate Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale
Dr. Gentner was a fantastic mentor through the past year by not only focusing on his students as academics but as individuals who were affected by the pandemic, community-based violence, and community losses here at Yale and at home. As a teacher, he checked in with his students to ensure they had support during these difficult times too.
Valentina Greco – Professor of Genetics at Yale
Dr. Greco was extremely proactive in trying to mitigate stress over the past year, including checking in with her mentees more often, encouraging them to feel more comfortable with lost productivity, sharing her own hardships, thinking of creative ways to build community within the lab despite many restrictions, creating more space for essential conversations about equity in academia, etc. Dr. Greco was especially an inspiration because she showed her group how important individualized mentoring strategies are, especially during times of struggle. Her meetings left her mentees feeling more confident in themselves and excited about science.
Valerie Horsley – Associate Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Associate Professor of Dermatology at Yale
Dr. Horsley was beyond amazing during the last year! She was supportive and patient, making this year bearable for her group.
Thomas Hughes – Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry
Dr. Hughes is always full of great ideas and life advice and teaches through stories rather than telling.
Rebecca Kramer-Bottiglio – Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Yale
Dr. Kramer-Bottiglio was recognized for setting COVID-19 safety guidelines that were stricter than Yale’s COVID-19 rules in the lab after consulting with her students to create a safe working space for all and then leading by example.
Jordan Peccia – Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale
Dr. Peccia supports his student’s work in and outside the lab. He also works incredibly hard to make sure his students do not get left behind in any way by taking an active approach in driving the lab’s research forward while maintaining a positive work environment for his student researchers. Dr. Peccia has been incredibly supportive with maintaining one’s personal well being while still striving for academic excellence. In addition to facilitating crucial and timely progress with SARS-CoV-2 research within his lab, he has given his students a sense of normality in these uncertain times and recommitted himself to his students.
Jan Schroers – Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science at Yale
Dr. Schroers is very conscious of the abnormal circumstances imposed by COVID-19, and he worked to make his students feel comfortable even as research slowed down. He engages with his students as holistic humans with emotions and feelings rather than just researchers. His mentorship during these wayward times has been invaluable and has helped his students grow personally and professionally.
Min Tang-Schomer – Research Scientist at The Jackson Laboratory and UCONN Health
Dr. Tang-Schomer helped one of her students learn the intricacies of experimental planning and data analysis while working on research projects in pediatric cancers during their time at The Jackson Laboratory. When the student’s grandfather passed away in January 2021 from COVID-19, Dr. Tang-Schomer was there for them and gave them the support to continue their courses in their Master’s program at UCONN. Dr. Tang-Schomer’s dedication to research and mentoring early career research scientists inspires her students to lift up others in the field of research no matter their race, economic status, or gender.
Daniel Weinberger – Associate Professor of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases
During the spring of 2020, many of Dr. Weinberger’s group members were heavily involved in pandemic response efforts, which fully derailed the projects for which his group members had been hired. Dr. Weinberger provided encouragement, patience, and dedication. He also helped several of his group members in navigating demanding funding proposals, media attention, maintaining good relationships with governmental health agencies, and the “normal” tasks of being infectious disease epidemiologists during a once-in-a-century, deadly pandemic. Dr. Weinberger never missed a meeting or deadline, and always had time to field the enormous variety of requests for help.
John Wysolmerski – Professor of Endocrinology at Yale
Dr. Wysolmerski established a safe working and social distancing environment during the environment. Dr Wysolmerski has also been supportive and understanding of lab members’ work-life needs during the pandemic.