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Projects and Publications
Grant Funded Project
Grant Funded Project
Grant Funded Project
National Science Foundation Award:
Leveraging, Enhancing, and Developing Biology (LED-BIO) Research Coordination Network
Co-PI
Leveraging, Enhancing and Developing Biology (LED-BIO) Scientific Societies Shedding Light on Persistent Cultural Challenges”, this project will identify and promote evidence-based inclusion strategies to: (1) collect consistent demographic data of society members, (2) better integrate scientists in transitional career stages into scientific society activities, and (3) diversify the ranks of scientific society leaders. By fulfilling these goals, this project aims to address persistent challenges that frequently undermine diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts within communities of scientists and to broadly share this information for the benefit of all scientific communities.
Grant Funded Project
Grant Funded Project
Grant Funded Project
National Science Foundation Award:
RCN-UBE: Deepening and Expanding the Mission and Outcomes of the Re-Envisioning Culture Network
Co-PI
Book Editing
Grant Funded Project
Book Editing
Book: Building Inclusive Scientific Communities and Leadership- Case Studies from Professional Societies
Verónica A. Segarra , Mercy Mugo , Simone B. Soso, Editors
This volume focuses on organizations that nurture diversity and inclusivity, as well as their intentional efforts toward fostering inclusive environments and creating lasting cultural change. Each chapter features a case study spearheaded by a team of authors chronicling one aspect of a scientific community in their efforts to become a more inclusive and diverse collective. These case studies facilitate discussion and reflection, as well as provide powerful tools to reveal process and implementation details that can help societies take action towards more inclusive STEM communities.
Workshops
Peer-Reviewed Article
Book Editing
Jackson State University
STEM EQUITY Workshop
Reimagining STEM Pedagogy Session:
This workshop explores how to rethink STEM teaching and research through an equity lens, highlighting culturally responsive and problem-based learning approaches connected to real-world challenges such as climate change, healthcare access, and educational inequality. Participants learn equitable classroom strategies that close opportunity gaps and enhance student engagement.
The Power of BI
This workshop introduces faculty to the fundamentals of data analytics using Power BI, a powerful business intelligence tool for visualizing and interpreting data. Participants learn how to collect, organize, and analyze institutional or research data through interactive dashboards and dynamic visualizations. The session emphasizes hands-on practice, showing how data-driven insights can inform decision-making, improve program outcomes, and support grant reporting and research productivity.
Institute for Social Justice and Race Relations Workshop
Funding Social Justice
This workshop equips participants with tools to build cooperative programs that advance social justice and race relations through community partnerships and inclusive teaching methods. It includes a one-hour presentation on funding mechanisms—federal, private, and public—that support faculty research and program development, featuring examples of social justice projects, partnership models, and culturally responsive pedagogy in computer science.
Peer-Reviewed Article
Peer-Reviewed Article
Peer-Reviewed Article
Article:
Leveraging Collective Impact to Characterize and Identify Solutions to Cultural Challenges Within Scientific Societies
Taylor Lightner, Simone B. Soso, Candice M Etson, Robin McC Greenler, Mercy Mugo, Verónica A Segarra
A consortium of scientific societies recently identified challenges to inclusivity within the biology communities they represent. Specifically, societies encounter difficulties collecting member demographic data effectively, integrating scientists at transitional career stages, and diversifying their leadership. In response, the Leveraging, Enhancing, and Developing Biology (LED-BIO) research coordination network (NSF 2134725) organized two meetings at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA to gather stakeholders and employ top-down and bottom-up organizational approaches to address these challenges. These meetings included Town Hall and Think Tank events to facilitate open dialogue and gather feedback on policies and programs from national organizations in attendance. These discussions provided valuable insights into the barriers societies face and the available resources and interventions societies use to promote inclusivity. This article uses the LED-BIO research coordination network as a case study to discuss the Town Hall-Think Tank-Consensus Building (TTC) methodology for advancing inclusive excellence in scientific communities.
Peer-Reviewed Article
Peer-Reviewed Article
Peer-Reviewed Article
Article:
The adoption of the braided river model toward an inclusive STEM workforce for all
Aixa Alemán-Díaz, Sakib Hussen, Abdul Siam, Candice M Etson, Robin McC Greenler, Taylor Lightner, Semarhy Quiñones-Soto, Simone B Soso, Verónica A Segarra
Despite decades of interventions aiming to transform the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce to be more inclusive and diverse, little progress has been made in creating long-lasting, sustainable change. For a long period of time, the STEM workforce has been described as a leaky pipeline. While there has been some utility to thinking about the STEM workforce in this way, in this article, we discuss how characterizing the STEM workforce as a leaky pipeline can impede the design of innovative interventions that contribute to sustainable change toward a more inclusive scientific enterprise. As an alternative, we join others in proposing the braided river ecosystem model, related social sciences and career development theories as more inclusive ways to think about the STEM workforce and how a target group or an individual navigates their career choices and development as a scientist. New models and paradigms to understand the STEM workforce and individuals' careers in science may open the door to finding novel strategies to make careers in STEM accessible to all. We present case studies demonstrating the practical applications of these inclusive models.