Empowering Underrepresented Students in Science: STEM Students Speak [Minkštas viršelis]

Sonji Johnson-Anderson is the Director at the UMass Amherst STEM Ambassadors Program. Sonjis research interests sit at the intersection of Black Feminist Epistemology, Critical Race Theory and Performance Ethnography. Her work focuses on the experiences of students and families who are marginalized in public domains, primarily educational institutions. A gifted educator and public speaker, Sonji brings decades of teaching experience and a deep commitment to critical and culturally relevant pedagogy. Sonji has taught in K-12 classrooms, as well as higher education contexts in Western Massachusetts, New York City and Jamaica, and currently lectures in world literature at Westfield State University. Dr. Johnson-Anderson develops and teaches/facilitates courses, workshops, lectures, trainings, public events, and performances. Ranjana Lingutla is a medical student at the Tufts University School of Medicine. She earned her B.S. in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. As a native of rural Western Massachusetts, she spent years serving and mentoring students from traditionally marginalized backgrounds. She mentored high school STEM students in Pittsfield Public Schools Science & Engineering Academy and mentored and advised STEM undergraduates in the Commonwealth Honors College Advising Center. Because of her passion for equal education and student welfare, Ranjana was recruited to Dr. Rileys STEM Ambassadors Program where she has since served as a Peer-Mentoring Instructor, Undergraduate Program Manager, and current Assistant Director. Margaret (Peg) Riley is a Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard and served on the faculty at Yale until she moved to UMass in 2012. Pegs research focuses on the evolution of antibiotic resistance and the use of ecological approaches to drug discovery. She is one of the pioneers of narrow spectrum antimicrobials, which provide novel solutions to the global challenge of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Riley is also known for her efforts to increase civic science literacy leading to the creation of the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences in 2007. She has also appeared on several of Bill Nyes shows and podcasts. Most recently, she created the NSF grant-funded STEM Ambassadors Program, whose mission is to build a supportive and diverse community of STEM scholars at the college level. Her program has resulted in improved outcomes for over 250 students at UMass Amherst and she is now poised to bring this programs tenets to a wider audience of STEM faculty, university administrators, and leaders in STEM industries and funding agencies.