The inaugural winners of the BSD Diversity Committee (BDC) Trainee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Legacy Awards have been announced. The Legacy Awardees for 2021 Trainee Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Awards are graduate students Cody Hernandez, Elaine Kouame, Mat Perez-Neut, Christina Roman, Dequantarius Speed and Juan Manuel Vazquez as well as postdoctoral researcher Tamica Collins. These trainees have been outstanding leaders in the diversity, equity and inclusion space over their tenure at the University of Chicago.
The BDC works to enhance diversity in UChicago Biosciences by providing a central office and administration that coordinates and promotes social, cultural, and scientific interactions, awareness of issues facing underrepresented students, and recruitment from and networking with established regional and national marginalized-serving organizations. The BDC established the DEI Legacy Awards, to recognize sustained efforts by trainees in the DEI space over several years
These awards highlight the wide breadth of DEI work done across campus and in the greater Chicago community, including community outreach, recruitment efforts, internal initiatives, and other diversity, equity and inclusion endeavors. A BDC Diversity and Inclusion Committee, led by graduate student Grace Schulz (Development, Regeneration and Stem Cell Biology), BDC Co-Chairs Dr. Eileen Dolan (GGSB, Cancerbio) and Dr. Adam Hammond (Biophysical Sciences), Dr. Jill Mateo (Evolutionary Biology) and postdoctoral researcher, Dr. Megan Rowton (Moskowitz Lab), sought nominations of deserving awardees from students, postdocs and faculty, with a brief description of that person’s DEI efforts.
The impact of this diversity and inclusion work on the University of Chicago, the greater Chicago community, and the larger field of biology is highly significant.
Awardees will be honored at a congratulatory ceremony and lunch to be held later this summer.