What are you doing to/how can we add diversity to the field?
Ask A Biologist Monday 11/1/21
I have worked with other biologists to create a free Guide to Becoming a Wildlife Biologist, mentor early career biologists, do Ask a Biologist Monday, am clear about being a Hispanic woman, and am open about my struggles with anxiety, depression, and chronic migraines.
Answers from Biologists:
Mentor folks new to the field.
Listen to Indigenous people with Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK).
Labs/research groups need to start offering paid work instead of volunteer positions.
Paid internships that offer an actual livable wage.
Remove “that’s how it’s always been” from your vocabulary.
I’m openly gay. I hope it inspires LGBTQ+ people to get into Biology.
Pay interns.
Create apprenticeships.
Be open about your disabilities and how you can still perform your job despite them.
More brown Biologists in the mainstream.
Include high school students and younger students in field work/trips.
Phase out unpaid experience.
Mentor young women/POC/LGBTQ+. Support women peers.
Push back on sexism.
Making efforts to make it less than the traditional “hook and bullet” (fishing and hunting) entry into the field.
Educational outreach, especially in underserved communities.
Develop stem content and role models for kids at an early age, especially underserved communities.
Managing alumni pages to make sure as many people as possible see the posting.
