Outreach, education, mentorship & DEIA

Brief statement on the issues

Community outreach, the education of our scientific workforce, mentorship, and diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) efforts should be a priority mission area for the scientific community. All of these efforts are intertwined, and take dedicated effort from those within the community to tackle. It is my proudest professional achievement to be a part of these efforts.

Unfortunately, at the time I am writing this, the scientific community does not prioritize these areas, and in failing to do so, we mortgage our future. Instead, the publishing of manuscripts and securing of grant money stand alone as, by far, the most important priorities of the academic. Teaching is seen as secondary for most professors, and opportunities to do useful work in outreach, education and DEIA are opt-in in most professional organizations (including mine). This leads to our unfortunate reality: functionally, these efforts are optional. As long as I am a part of this community, I will fight to change this.

In summary, my thoughts and commitment:

Outreach- Including new communities broadens the scientific pipeline: we'll get a lot more talent, which raises the standard for everyone.
Education- One day, we will be citing our students' work. To treat their education as secondary to our own research is an unfortunate reversal of priorities.
Mentorship- A fundamental responsibility of the scientist. Science from the outside is a closed community. The only way it continues to be effective is by prioritizing our younger members and making sure that one day they can take up the mantle [1].
Diversity- We must prioritize including communities that we have historically systemically excluded from our community. Not only is it the right thing to do, a diverse workforce is more productive [2, 3, 4].
Equity- Everyone deserves an equal opportunity, and efforts/education proportional to their needs.
Inclusion- We have a responsibility to make everyone feel welcome so they can execute on their tasks to their full potential. Instead of being blind to identity, we must strive to be educated and proactively inclusive of peoples' differences.
Accessibility- Everyone should be accommodated: facilities, communication technologies, services, etc. should be easy to use such that all people can use them, including those with disabilities.

Activities

Since 2013 (my sophomore year in college), I have been committed to furthering efforts to level the playing field for those who didn't have the same advantages I did. I have also spent significant time working in the educational pipeline. I note some of my major efforts here (as always, see my CV for greater detail):

at Brookhaven National Laboratory (2021-present)

Won a Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce (RENEW) grant through the United States Department of Energy Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) in 2023. The WDTS RENEW program aims to diversify the scientific pipeline through hands-on opportunities at national labs for students from all over the world. I ran 6 days of artificial intelligence and machine learning programming at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL; 37/40 responding students rated me at 4.97/5).
Deputy chair of the Computational Science Initiative's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council at BNL since February 2022.
Practicum coordinator for the United States Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship since January 2022. I serve as the liaison between BNL and the fellowship.
Mentor to 2 students through Stony Brook University's Diversity Professional Leadership Network starting in 2023.
Mentor to 5 high school students at 3 different high schools through the BNL Student Partnerships for Advanced Research and Knowledge program since 2022.
Mentor to 4 undergraduate students through the BNL Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internship program since 2022.
Mentor to 2 postdoctoral fellows through the BNL Postdoc Mentoring Program since 2022.
Host and mentor to a visiting faculty at BNL in 2023.
Organizer, mentor and presenter at HillsHacks, a series of hackathons hosted at Watchung Hills Regional High School (in Warren, NJ), the high school I attended from 2008-2012. The purpose of these hackathons is to educate, and get more students, especially young women, involved in software. We've produced 6 so far, the last of which was March 2023.

at Columbia University (2016-2021)

Advanced Certification in Teaching from the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, 2021.
Mentor to undergraduate women at Columbia interested in pursuing careers in science through the Women in Science at Columbia program, from 2020-2021.
Vice president of USolar Outreach Education, a nonprofit dedicated to educating middle school students in Manhattan (New York City) about the importance of clean energy and civic engagement, from 2018-2021.
Teaching assistant for Intensive General Chemistry (Fall of 2016 and 2017), and General Chemistry II (Spring of 2017).

at the University of Rochester (2013-2016)

Workshop leader and tutor at the David T. Kearns Center, which "strives to expand the educational pipeline through the doctoral degree for low-income, first-generation college, and underrepresented minority students," from 2014-2016.
Teaching assistant for 9 unique classes, from 2013-2016. This included Organic Chemistry I and II (each 4 times, counting summers; I was the head TA from 2014 onwards), and two graduate level classes (in 2014 and 2016). See my CV for details.