By: Samantha Avina
In a recent article published by the New York Times, author Patricia Cohen described the bleak outlook on job prospects for women during the COVID-19 pandemic. As unemployment rates continue to rise, it has become clear that women, more so minority women, are predominantly affected. “The burdens of the pandemic-induced recession have fallen most heavily on low-income and minority women and single mothers […] members of these overlapping groups often have the most unpredictable schedules, and the fewest benefits, and are least able to afford childcare”, Patricia explains. As we continue drudging on through this pandemic, I began to question how these disparities affect minority women in the biomedical sciences. However, upon further research and some self-reflecting, I realized that there aren’t many of us in the biomedical field to begin with. According to a study published in The Lancet, although the share of women in biomedical academia is currently 22% in America, that number shrinks drastically to 0.5% when accounting for minority women. Furthermore, the article notes that regardless of COVID-19 pandemic conditions, the environment for women in biomedical academia is already complicated with a variety of obstacles which can hinder their success and pursuit for leadership positions. These obstacles, the writers proclaim, include “male-dominated institutional cultures, lack of female mentors, competing family responsibilities due to gendered domestic labor, and implicit and subconscious biases in recruitment, research allocation, outcome of peer review, and number of citations.” With this in mind, I decided to ask female minorities within our own Rutgers biomedical research community their thoughts on minority women in academia, what we have accomplished so far, and where we have yet to go. From the start, my number of potential interviewees were already fairly limited as far as female minority faculty was concerned. Thankfully, I was able to have a chat with two outstanding women in academia: my mentor, Dr. Amariliz Rivera, and colleague Alicia Codrington.
Recently tenure-appointed faculty, Dr. Amariliz Rivera has been part of the Rutgers community for 10+ years now. She is an alumnus of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School where she earned her doctorate degree. She is also a member of the Hispanic Center of Excellence here at Rutgers, which is focused on recruiting and facilitating minority faculty success in academic STEM careers.
Dr. Amariliz Rivera is a tenured Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at Rutgers Center for Inflammation and Immunity (CII) based in the Rutgers University Hospital Cancer Research Center. Her work focuses on characterizing the host response to pulmonary fungal pathogens Aspergillus fumigatus and Cryptococcus neoformans. Her contributions to the field of immunology have led to novel discoveries about how our immune system coordinates cross-cellular interactions necessary for proper anti-fungal responses during infection. She is also currently working on developing a cryptococcal vaccine in collaboration with Dr. Chaoyang Xue at the Rutgers University Public Health Research Institute. Her journey is one of perseverance and determination. Originally from the small town of Lares, Puerto Rico, Dr. Rivera showed interest in science at a young age and delved into biomedical research when she had the opportunity to truly explore during her time as an undergraduate. At the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, she became involved in the Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC) program, which helped her set the foundation for her scientific success. The MARC program is aimed at bringing underrepresented minorities into biomedical research fields and encouraging their pursuance of PhDs in STEM related fields.The MARC program is still ongoing, and Dr. Rivera commends this outreach program as a critical steppingstone of her academic career. “You have to be willing to take on opportunities even if it is not what you would’ve envisioned,” Dr. Rivera said upon reflection of her previous research endeavors. She described the path of her successful academic career as one with obstacles for sure, but affirmed that a certain grit and personal willingness are necessary to make it in this field and throughout life. “Achieving things is about determination…not everyone’s path is the same; my PhD was difficult as a lot of experiments didn’t work, but don’t compare yourself to others. Your path is your own,” she stated.
You have to be willing to take on opportunities even if it is not what you would’ve envisioned!
Dr. Amariliz Rivera
Dr. Rivera and I segued into challenges that affect minority women in academia. Although she had no overarching generalizations to point out specifically, she touched on a personal anecdote to convey her familiar sense of determination and the willingness needed to propel forward. “There is the issue of feeling the need to prove yourself, and how you are perceived…I have an accent and so much about our field involves oral communication and your opinion being respected. It can be challenging if you aren’t understood, but I had to get past it and never let someone asking me to repeat myself for clarification bother me,” Dr. Rivera emphasized. I asked her how she felt about the progress women have made in academia. She recalled that during her time as a PhD candidate, more than 50% of her class members were female, but noted that this doesn’t necessarily translate into faculty positions, a familiar reference to “the leaky pipeline,” where recruitment is one thing but retaining is another. She emphasized the path toward faculty positions for minority women is even more slim.
Regarding Rutgers specifically, Dr. Rivera stated that she strongly believes Rutgers does a lot to help recruit and retain minority faculty within our community. Dr. Rivera herself is a prominent promotor of minorities in biomedical sciences. She is an active member in the Rutgers community on multiple fronts including student mentorship, student recruitment, and minority advancement organization participation. “Rutgers RBHS has a department for minority diversity initiatives. The Hispanic Center for Excellence helps sponsor minority faculty salaries, and hosts grant writing workshops to aid with Faculty development,” she stated. Dr. Rivera and I also work together as program coordinators for the Rutgers School of Graduate Studies Undergraduate Summer Research Program. This program aims to provide undergraduate students interested in biomedical science PhD degree programs, opportunities to get firsthand research experience while showcasing the resources that Rutgers University has to offer. My participation in the very same program back in 2017 was my first introduction to the Rutgers community and Dr. Rivera. It continues to be a critical part of my journey that I attribute to pursuing my PhD thus far.
Women have come a long way, but in terms of Hispanic and Black women, I believe it is extremely limited in this area of study (Biomedical sciences) and it’s honestly sad.
Alicia Codrington, 4th year PhD candidate
After talking with Dr. Rivera, I then realized I had yet to consider members of my own PhD program. Off the top of my head, I was able to count 5 female minority students (including myself) out of the 30 plus people I know in my program. So, I decided to interview one of my fellow colleagues, Alicia Codrington, and get her insight on the experience of minority women in academia. “Women have come a long way, but in terms of Hispanic and Black women, I believe it is extremely limited in this area of study (Biomedical sciences) and it’s honestly sad”, the 4th year PhD candidate shared. Alicia, an East Orange, New Jersey native, attended the private Newark high school, Chad Science academy. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers New Brunswick Douglas College in 2005, followed by her master’s degree in 2008 from the Rutgers School of Biomedical Science-UMDNJ. Prior to starting her PhD in 2017, she took an 8-year gap where she worked as a science educator for 3 years and later transitioned to become a classroom math/science teacher for 5 years. When asked about her experience as an educator she replied, “I always loved science…I did really well at teaching science, and I think that is because my mother was big on education.” Alicia’s mother wasn’t an educator, but she wanted Alicia to be educated and stressed the importance of taking school seriously. In order to attend Chad Science Academy, she had to earn a scholarship since her mother couldn’t afford to keep paying tuition. In order to earn that scholarship, she needed to maintain a certain GPA throughout her freshman year. Alicia is a second-generation college graduate following her mother, who was the first in her family to attain a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management in Guyana.
Alicia Codrington is a fourth- year PhD cancidate in the Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation Track at Rutgers SGS-Newark Campus. Her current work focuses on investigating the impact of epigenetic proteins in virus-stimulated plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) in IFN-alpha production. Additionally, she is studying the functional and phenotypic changes of pDCs in COVID-19 patients. She is also the Rutgers Brain and Health immunology COVID-19 education liason for the African American elderly community in Newark, as well as the Vice President of the Rutgers SGS-Newark campus Minority Student Association.
Regarding the low presence of minority women in academia, Alicia says that as both a science educator and as someone going through the PhD process, that there are a variety of obstacles that impede minority students from earning a PhD and pursuing a research-driven academic career. “I saw it during my time as an educator that the education is different and the quality is different throughout parts of New Jersey, and people don’t want to hear that. But those differences are there, and they come to light when these students go off to college as I experienced it myself,” Alicia reflected. She went on to provide a special inside look at how students’ exposure to science differs early on along socioeconomic and financial income lines and how that exposure affects long term recruitment and retainment of minorities in STEM related fields. “I taught in-house and outreach program for The Newark Museum and was able to see a diverse selection of students across New Jersey, and I must say they (Newark, Orange, East Orange Area) do try to embed STEM interests in students, but in comparison to what I have seen in other communities there is a big difference; I think it has a lot to do with funding as well as other factors,” Alicia stated. She went on to share that her relationship with God, mentorship, and self-determination drives her to do what she loves. “I wouldn’t have made it if I didn’t have people that gave me a chance; Dr. Patricia Fitzgerald-Bocarsly said she saw something in me, and I believed her,” Alicia said in reference to her mentorship here at Rutgers University. She went on to volunteer in Dr. Bocarsly’s lab, and eventually continued her thesis work with her once she was accepted into the Rutgers PhD program. When asked about her future aspirations once she earns her PhD, she said she wants to continue biomedical research but wants to be a teacher and give back as well.
After hearing from these different voices, I came to ponder these questions myself. How did I feel about my place in biomedical academia? Has my mentorship significantly influenced where I am today? It was a truly self-reflective moment where I recognized that yes, I have worked very hard to get where I am today and couldn’t be where I am without the guidance of my mentors. However, I also realized I’ve been extraordinarily blessed with support from my family and luck in the opportunities I sought, leading to an almost survivor’s guilt-like perspective as a current PhD candidate. From my hometown of La Puente, California, I have seen so many of my friends give up the opportunity to go to college because their family needed them to work or they had to decide between starting a family versus pursuing education. I was lucky I had parents who stressed the importance of education and had two stable incomes so I could do the extra curriculars to advance myself at the high school level. On a cultural level too, my parents stressed education before starting a family and normalized having children at an older age instead of younger like they and their parents did. Like Alicia, I thought I was well-prepared for college, but I immediately noticed the differences between myself and my more well-off classmates when classes started. But I don’t blame them, it wasn’t their fault they had more resources available to them than I did. I now take into higher consideration the influence of resources and cultural norms that so often impede minority women from entering and succeeding in biomedical and other STEM related fields.
We move forward by moving together, and for every one of us who decides to pursue a career in the STEM academic world, or in anything we dedicate our lives to, we do so hoping better outcomes for the next generation.
Samantha Avina, 3rd year PhD candidate
Reflecting on my experience, I took advantage of what was available to me and looked for more, which is a common theme between Dr. Rivera, Alicia, myself, and any other minority students. The constant notion of having to fight and persevere to get where we are now and defy a world that perpetually tries to tell us “no” makes for a good underdog storyline, but we are breaking into this world for the first time and trying to go beyond making our mark. We are trying to be bosses in our own right while bringing our communities with us. But as the old saying goes, “it takes a village.” As I look at how our country increasingly diversifies and the next generation continues to fight for the idea of inclusion for all, I am hopeful of a more diverse STEM community where “minority women” and “women in general” doesn’t have to carry such a heavy distinction with regard to representation in the STEM workplace. We move forward by moving together, and for every one of us who decides to pursue a career in the STEM academic world, or in anything we dedicate our lives to, we do so hoping for better outcomes for the next generation. And if my great-grandmother could see me now, I hope that she would see all the sacrifices she made for her family were worth it.
This article was edited by Junior Editor Zachary Fritz and Senior Editor Brianna Alexander.