Service & outreach

Despite half of neuroscience graduate students identifying as women, we see progressively fewer women at the more advanced stages of the academic career path1. Shockingly, research articles by lead and senior authors that identify as women are only half as likely to be cited as those authored by men2. As a first-generation, white woman in Neuroscience, I am aware of the barriers faced by women, yet, I am also aware of my privilege: while diversity initiatives have led to an increase in the presence of white women, the existing barriers facing graduate students and postdocs in neuroscience continue to disproportionately affect people of color, LGBTQ scientists, ethnic minorities and those living with a disability3.

References:
1 Sibener, L. J., Kirchgessner, M. A., Steiner, S., Santiago, C., Cassataro, D., Rossa, M., ... & Padilla-Coreano, N. (2022). Lessons from the Stories of Women in Neuroscience. Journal of Neuroscience, 42(24), 4769-4773. Find the article here.
2. Chatterjee, P., & Werner, R. M. (2021). Gender disparity in citations in high-impact journal articles. JAMA Network Open, 4(7), e2114509-e2114509. Article here.
3. Cech, E. A. (2022). The intersectional privilege of white able-bodied heterosexual men in STEM. Science Advances, 8(24), eabo1558. Article link here.
Must read articles. Reach out to me if you cannot access these articles, I will help you out. 

NeuroWire Social Club

Equality in research means accesibility for all. Those from labs with lower funds should not to be excluded from gaining valuable experience and building their resume - independent of host institution, laboaratory financial status or geography. That's why I contributed to the organization of the first NeuroWire virtual Conference as part of the NeuroWire Social Club! 

The NeuroWire Social Club (www.neurowire.ca) was created to keep the circuits neuroscience community together during the pandemic: With now over 500 active members from 23 countries, weekly scientific seminars and a thriving Discord community, the NeuroWire Club provides access to cutting-edge systems neuroscience seminars to everyone - independent of their host institution, laboratory financial status or geography. 

McGill Peer Support Program

With peers often being the first point of contact for those seeking support, McGill's Peer Support Program aims to facilitate these supportive relationships between students who have a shared experience in common.

During my PhD training, I was part of the McGill Peer Support Program (2017-2018) with an active interest in the application of quality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles (participated in Active Listening Workshops as part of the McGill Peer Support program and Building an EDI Plan for Research Funding Applications through Healthy Brains for Healthy Lives McGill).

Check out the McGill Peer Support Organziation here.