Welcome to the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science!


          We focus on one central mission- to increase visible diversity within the Graduate Studies programs at Oregon Health and Science University by recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, supporting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds. NEW: A video summarizing AVDS's accomplishments can be found below.

January Newsletter


Refer to Calendar for details

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AVDS Announcements and Events
Happy New Year! We have lots of events planned for this year. Be sure to add a4vdis@ohsu.edu to your contact list to ensure you receive the monthly newsletter. Also, all of our previous newsletters can be found on our website!

2020 AVDS Invited Speaker: Dr. Tirin Moore
AVDS is pleased to announce our 2020 invited speaker, Dr. Tirin Moore! Dr. Moore will be visiting OHSU in early April. If you are interested in meeting Dr. Moore, please contact Kathleen Beeson at beeson at ohsu.edu and stay tuned for a finalized seminar date.

Moore Lab webpage
Moore HHMI Profile

AVDS Book Club
New Year, New Book, New Book Club Time! The AVDS Book Club will be starting How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. We will be meeting every other Wednesday from 4-5 pm beginning on January 15th. CDI will be helping us to facilitate the discussion, purchase books and will be providing snacks. Thanks CDI! For the first book club please read through Chapter 2.

Everyone is welcome at book club, including students from any of the schools or programs, staff, faculty, and post-docs. We don't require any previous reading to join, we only ask you have read the chapters that are posted for that date. Although no previous reading is required, reading our first book, White Fragility, will help to give attendees a context and framework for our discussions. If you missed out on our first book but would like to read it, there will be copies of White Fragility available in the AVDS lounge, room 1445 in the Vollum, in early January, and there are still copies available at the library and through the inter-library loan process.
How to access a copy of the book

Thanks to CDI there are 4 copies of How to be an Anti-Racist in the AVDS lounge on Vollum 1M! The copies are on the bookshelf next to the white board. Because there are more people who want to read the books than books available we're going to try a check out system.

You'll see a sign out sheet when you walk in along with some guidelines for checking books out. These are the guidelines:

1. During the day the books live in the Vollum (or if your lab isn't in the Vollum you  can also take them to your lab). If you take a book during the day please plan on reading it and then putting it back when you're done so someone else can read it. (don't take it for the whole day if you only plan on reading it for 30 minutes at lunch).

2. If you take a book out of the lounge check it out on the sign out sheet.

3. If you want to take the book home at night, sign it out when you're leaving and then return it the following day. If you want to take it for a weekend, return it the following Monday. Please do not take a book home for multiple days at a time unless it is the weekend.

4. The books are numbered (check the back cover), so when you sign out a book please write which number you signed out.

CDI has generously bought these books for us and has allowed us to put them in our lounge so we want to take care of them. We also want to make sure everyone who wants to read them has an opportunity to. Happy reading!

AVDS MLK Event
Please join AVDS for our celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 21st! We will be watching "Local Color," the PBS documentary about the history of race relations in Portland, from 4:30 - 6 PM in the Student Center Media Room. Snacks provided, all are welcome! To honor MLK’s commitment to service, at the event we will be collecting donations of feminine hygiene products to support people in need via our collaborator, The Congo Peace Project. Please consider donating. (event flyer)

About The Congo Peace Project
 
What:  "Local Color"  PBS documentary  &
donation collection

When:  January 21st, 4:30 - 6:00 PM

Where: Student Center Media Room

AVDS Game Night
AVDS is hosting another board game night on Friday, January 17th at 6 PM in Vollum 4M. Games will be supplied but feel free to bring your own! Snacks provided. (event flyer)
When: January 17th, 6:00 PM

Where: Vollum 4M (take elevators)

AVDS Happy Hour
AVDS happy hour is the only campus happy hour open to ALL students, faculty, and staff . (event flyer)
When: January 31st, 5:00 PM

Where: RJH Atrium

Call for Program Liaisons
Want your program to be more involved in diversity and inclusion? Join AVDS and become a program liaison! Program Liaisons act as a bridge between AVDS and the graduate programs by bringing peers to AVDS events and using AVDS resources to address the specific needs of their program.

Time commitment: 3-5 hours/month.

Open positions for: DMICE, BME, NGP, Clinical Psychology, and CSEE.
If interested, contact Itallia Pacentine (pacentin  at ohsu.edu) for more information.
External Events

Mindfulness, Trauma, and Interpersonal Healing
image of Dr Sara King
Sará King, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Neurological Disorders at OHSU and current recipient of the OHSU Fellowship for Diversity in Research, will join a panel of national researchers for a conversation on mindfulness and healing. 
More information on OHSU Now
Event Registration

AVDS at WO:KE PDX Culture Event
AVDS members had a great time at the WO:KE PDX CULTURE event. Check out the stories on the WO:KE PDX Instagram for clips from the event.
What is WO:KE PDX?
"WO:KE” Working to Overcome Kultural Education. WO:KE is a community organization focused on developing cultural competency through compassion, curiosity and dialogue to foster a global WO:KE collective."

WO:KE PDX was founded by Faith Wilson, an administrative coordinator of the Summer Equity Research program through the Center for Diversity & Inclusion at OHSU.

More info
Upcoming Application Deadlines

OHSU Neuroscience Postbac Initiative - Open Jan 1st
The OHSU Neuroscience Postbaccalaureate Initiative is a collaborative effort between the Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, Vollum Institute, and OHSU Research & Innovation, and is aimed at providing sustained research experience and skills development for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. Scholars accepted as part of this competitive training opportunity will receive a mentored research experience as well as tailored support around academic and professional development.

Apply through the OHSU job portal beginning Jan. 1, 2020. The deadline for all application materials is at 11:59 PST on March 1st. We aim to notify all finalists by mid-march and select the incoming cohort by April 1st. Please send all questions to neuropb at ohsu.edu (program flyer).

Neuroscience Scholars Program - Open Jan 15
The Neuroscience Scholars Program (NSP) is an extensive two-year training program open to underrepresented neuroscience graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. NSP offers live events and webinars, a library of educational resources, and an online community for career connections and scientific and professional development guidance.

All eligible applicants will be invited to become NSP Associates and gain access to exclusive live and recorded content on Neuronline. Eighteen candidates will be selected as NSP Fellows and gain additional benefits, including a travel award to attend Neuroscience 2020 and Neuroscience 2021, financial support towards professional development activities, and a mentoring team.

Eligible candidates must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, enrolled in a graduate degree-granting program or postdoctoral fellowship by the start of the Program, and from a group recognized as underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences. 

To learn more and apply visit SfN.org/NSP or contact nsp at sfn.org (program flyer).
Things to keep in mind


​A snapshot of why active racial inclusion in the sciences is important:

What I have learned from these experiences about surviving as an underrepresented minority in the sciences is that many such students do not take proactive steps to reach out, seek help, and get answers to concerns they have. They wait for someone to come to them. But they must learn how to reach out in order to survive. For institutions, creating a culture of inclusion and a space for these students to air their thoughts is a great help."

​​– Erich Jarvis, Department of Neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center