ZDMS DEI committee
Who are we
Chair
Sylvia Brugman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Wageningen University, Netherlands
Sylvia.brugman@wur.nl
Ben Shih-Lei Lai, Ph.D.
Assistant Research Fellow
The Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan
ben.s.lai@ibms.sinica.edu.tw
Rachelle Saint-Fort, MS
PhD Candidate in Anatomy
Pennsylvania State University, USA
ras778@psu.edu
Juan Francisco
Rodriguez Vidal
PhD Candidate in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
University of Murcia, Spain
juanfrancisco.rodriguez3@um.es
The DEI Committee was initiated by Hui Feng, Myron Ignatius
and Sofia de Oliveira following the Strategic review.
Vision and goals
Our mission
Promote diversity, Equity, and inclusion within ZDMS through:
a. Raising awareness
b. increasing member, conference, and leadership representation of gender, race, ethnicity, and geographic area
c. encouraging academic growth and participation of trainees, especially those from the underrepresented in science and social-economical disadvantaged geographic regions.
Ongoing Efforts
What we have been doing
1. Formed the committee
2. Held multiple meetings to identify the problems and solutions
3. Submitted the initial DEI goals to the ZDMS executive committee
4. Design and analyze the DEI surveys
5. Work with IZFS-DEI committee
6. Work with the location conference organizers to host DEI sessions
7. Make recommendations for actionable items to the executive committee
ZDMS-DEI working with IZFS-DEI
One community
Meetings and discussion with Kirsten Sadler, Ph.D., Chair of the IZFS-DEI
Sharing our ZDMS-DEI survey results with IZFS-DEI
Working together to improve DEI among the zebrafish community