History of AVDS

Founding Members

About how AVDS was founded. The Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science (AVDS) focuses on one central mission - to increase visible diversity within the graduate programs at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) by recruiting, retaining, and most importantly, supporting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, staff, and faculty members from underrepresented backgrounds.

We recognize and reflect the important notion that in order to increase diversity on our campus, we must make targeted, deliberate, and measurable efforts to create an environment that not only welcomes, but encourages a diverse population of people.

Antoinette Foster

Antoinette is an HHMI Gilliam Scholar, PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU, and a founding member of the Alliance for Visible Diversity in Science. Her research utilizes cell-specific genome-wide expression profiling to identify mechanisms of neuronal influence on oligodendrocytes. Antoinette believes that although increasing racial diversity within STEM is important, establishing a community invested in an inclusive and equitable environment remains the most pressing diversity-related challenge within academia. Antoinette works with OHSU administration and faculty to build policies that increase and support racial diversity within OHSU PhD programs. In addition to this, she provides mentorship and support to many students and postdoctoral scholars on and off campus. Antoinette

Janet Miller

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Kathleen Beeson

Teresa Stackhouse

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Eileen R Torres, Secretary

Letisha R Wyatt, PhD, Historian
Letisha R. Wyatt, PhD is the Director of Diversity in Research in the OHSU Office of the Senior Vice President for Research and is responsible for developing and implementing academic/professional programs for research trainees from underrepresented and underserved backgrounds. She is a former bench neuropharmacologist with a strong record of mentorship in the laboratory and classroom. As a faculty member in the Department of Neurology and the Center for Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research (CEDAR), she works together with Scientists and Staff to plan for current and future information and data management needs. View her work on ORCID: 0000-0003-1026-5232.

Teresa Stackhouse, Treasurer & Interim Operations Chair

Tavita Garrett, Communications Chair

Gabriel Romero,
OHSU Communications Coordinator

Itallia Pacentine, PhD, Events Chair & Recruitment Coordinator
Dr. Pacentine believes that America and the world are facing discrimination that is ingrained in the fabric of our cities, institutions, and social networks. This institutional racism creates glass ceilings and walls for certain groups, and in science is perhaps most pronounced in the lack of racial and ethnic minorities from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. Dr. Pacentine joined AVDS to help create cultural change at OHSU so that all members of society can feel that they belong and are taken care of in our scientific community.

Allison Schaser, PhD,
Women in Science (WIS) Liaison
Allison is a post-doctoral fellow in the Neurology department at OHSU and President of Women in Science in Portland. In her research she uses in vivo cranial window imaging to study the progression of protein aggregation in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease. Her ultimate goal is to use her knowledge of clinical issues, animal behavior, and the cranial sensorimotor system to further characterize the synuclein-based transgenic animal models of Parkinson’s disease currently studied in her lab. She is excited to bring her previous experience volunteering for the American Parkinson Disease Association to WIS and AVDS.

Kathleen Beeson, Education Chair
Kathleen Beeson is a PhD candidate in the Neuroscience Graduate Program at OHSU and co-founder of AVDS. Her scientific interest is to understand how neural circuits form and how synaptic molecules contribute to circuit function. She uses electrophysiology and fluorescent microscopy to study this question in the cerebellar cortex. Kathleen is also passionate about making science accessible and inclusive, and works as the AVDS Education Chair to organize campus-wide learning events structured on the topic of racial issues in science and society. Kathleen hopes that by bringing awareness to inequity problems, we can work together to improve our scientific community.

Lucille A Moore, PhD, Data Coordinator
Lucille recently joined the Department of Neurology at OHSU as a Postdoctoral Scholar and ORCCAMIND Fellow. Her research will explore the potential for mindfulness-based intervention to alter developing fetal brain systems via reduced stress and inflammation in the mother. Outside of research, Lucille is passionate about creating a more equitable scientific and global community and deconstructing power dynamics created by ownership of information. To this end, Lucille helped found AVDS to address racial inequity at the level of graduate education.

Marc Meadows,
Graduate Student Union Liaison

Sunil Joshi, Medical School Liaison

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