"Diversify Your Faculty: A Roadmap for Equitable Hiring Strategies" was just accepted by Nature BME with Chesler as a co-author.  Best practices for recruiting and retaining faculty from diverse backgrounds and perspectives are provided.  A must read!

Once again, Building STEM Equity Founder and Principal Naomi Chesler was joined by Associate Dean of Engineering and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Lola Eniola-Adefeso in West Lafayette, IN this week to offer a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshop for new faculty and staff in the School of Engineering at Purdue University. Enrollment in the workshop was higher than any prior year due to positive word-of-mouth reviews.

Building STEM Equity Founder and Principal Naomi Chesler was joined by Associate Dean of Engineering and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Michigan, Lola Eniola-Adefeso in West Lafayette, IN this week to offer a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshop for new faculty and staff in the School of Engineering at Purdue University.  The sessions on unconcious bias and lived experiences of Black students and alumni were especially well-recieved.

The mission of UNITE (Underrepresented Needs In Technology & Engineering) is to combat racism, address disparities in funding, journal reviews, hiring, and other areas, amplify Black and brown voices, and achieve equity in BME. We deeply recognize that anti-black racism is the most lethal form of racism in our country today, the most stressful and exhausting physically and emotionally. We anticipate that by battling anti-black racism and promoting Black persons in BME we will see benefits for all URM persons in BME.

Over 200 racist ideas and policies identified in the prior UNITE Zoom call were organized and are summarized here. In our next Zoom call on October 21, 2020, we will identify tangible antiracist actions we will take to overcome each of these challenges.  Please join us! Conctact BuildingSTEMequity@gmail.com for more information.

Following on the success of the summer discussion of White Fragility, the BME UNITE team led a Zoom discussion of racist policies in biomedical engineering, building on the impactful work of Ibram X. Kendi, "How to be an Antiracist".

Guided and bound by a belief that public health and human dignity are inseparable, biomedical engineering faculty members Kelly Stevens (University of Washington), Princess Imoukhuede (Washington University), Lola Eniola-Adefeso (University of Michigan), the executive committee of UNITE, lead a public discussion of structural and systemic racism in biomedical engineering on university campuses. 

Current events have shown that valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion in our profession and society has not been enough. To be the change we want to see in the world, we must learn and promote antiracism. As a first step, we invited BME faculty members from across the nation to meet with us via Zoom to build community and learn about racism and antiracism together.

Over 100 faculty members joined the conversation and follow up conversations are planned.

As of July 1, 2020, Naomi Chesler will be the Director of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Engineering Technologies and Professor of Biomedical Engineering.  In this new position, she plans to expand outreach, training, recruitment, mentorship, and retention of women and BIPOC researchers.

Naomi Chesler has been named the Director of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Engineering at the University of California, Irvine.  See the press release here.

To pursue anti-racist strategies in biomedical engineering, Naomi Chesler, Omolola Eniola-Adefeso (University of Michigan), Princess Imoukhuede (Washington University), and Kelly Stevens (University of Washington) have created a slack group that already has over 150 members.  Plans are already underway to promote anti-racist reviewing strategies to the NIH, promote the careers of probationary and mid-career BIPOC faculty, and increase recruitment and retention of BIPOC researchers in academia.

With input from Dr. Chesler, a new Professional Impact Award from the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineering recognizes excellence in mentoring and contributions to diversity as well as philanthropy, advocacy, leadership and education.  Nominate your colleagues this year!

BuildingSTEMequity joined the Kardia Group at Purdue University to facilitate an all-day workshop on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM.  Attending the workshop is required by all new faculty and staff in the College of Engineering, which is a great example of valuing diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Naomi Chesler spoke to UW Women in Technology (WIT) about her journey to leadership and the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the computing workforce.  

Dr. Chesler facilitates and participates in a panel discussion of "Balancing Authority and Inclusion in the Classroom" for women faculty members.  While best practices shared for creating an inclusive classroom are typically gender and race neutral, perceptions of expertise and authority are not.  Our discussion focused on the challenges of intersectionality in the classroom.

Building STEM Equity is working with the Kardia Group to facilitate inclusive excellence in STEM disciplines at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) sponsored by the HHMI.

Dr. Chesler leads a panel discussion of equity, diversity and inclusion in Biomedical Engineering at the 2019 BME Education Summit Meeting organized by the BME Council of Chairs and the Biomedical Engineering Society:  https://www.bmes.org/coc

Dr. Chesler is elected to the AIMBE Board of Directors and serves on the AIMBE Diversity Committee