Associate Dean's Message - March 8, 2021

Dear GSBS,

Today is International Women’s Day. While women are now a majority of our GSBS students, women are still underrepresented in leadership positions in science nationally. In our own school we have embraced leadership by women. Over the past 20 years, we have been led by excellent women scientists including former GSBS Dean Naomi Rosenberg; JAX scientific director Nadia Rosenthal; former TUSM department chairs in Neuroscience (Barbara Talamo), Microbiology (Catherine Squires), Immunology and Integrative Physiology (Laura Liscum), and Immunology (Caroline Genco); and former GSBS program directors such as Laura Liscum and Michele Jacob. Currently, women lead three of our programs: Katya Heldwein (Microbiology), Pilar Alcaide (Immunology) and Pam Yelick (Genetics). Our pipeline programs are also led by women, including Claire Moore (IRADCA), Jamie Maguire (BDBS) and Maribel Rios (PREP).

Despite these accomplishments, there is still work to be done. While women are a majority of the graduate students at both GSBS and the University as a whole, faculty representation lags behind. The ratio is further unbalanced at the level of the Trustees and Board of Advisors. We have made progress, but we should never stop striving to do better.

Let’s honor and salute our women leaders, thank them for all they do and for setting an example for our current students, faculty and staff. Let’s also make sure we all join them in continuing to forge a path toward gender equity in the biomedical sciences.

Dan Volchok, Associate Dean