Diversity






“Among the immediate pleasures of diversity, “in” groups and “out” groups become untenable when variety is the most obvious commonality.”

Allegra Raff, RaffCo

Just as adaptation is more efficient in genetically diverse populations, science itself benefits from including diverse minds with broad perspectives, varied cultures, and life experiences. In the Heath lab, we don’t tolerate our diversity – we celebrate it. These are some ways we will work to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and access:

  1. We will strive to change systems of rewards – at the university and in science – towards those that explicitly value and reward independence and creativity, mentoring and community engagement, inclusive teaching, and Diversity/Equity/Inclusion work.
  2. We will keep an eye to the literature on implicit bias and how it affects minority, women, disabled, and LGBTQ+ scientists (and other identities) so that we can actively counter our own and others’ bias during recruitment and promotion at all levels, and in our teaching and mentoring work.
  3. We will open spaces for discussion and reflection about DEI issues: during lab meetings, in individual meetings, and in other shared discussions (e.g., on Heath lab Slack channel).
  4. We will engage with training programs, student groups, and other campus resources to support DEI efforts on campus and to continue our education.
  5. We will use our platform to diversify the pipeline through outreach and engagement efforts from K-12 through postdoctoral programs. 
  6. We will actively listen to scientists with identities and life experiences other than our own, so that we might broaden our view of the scientific enterprise and how people move through it.
  7. We will intentionally search out and cite the work of researchers with diverse backgrounds in our own papers as well as in our teaching.
  8. We will make mistakes, but are open to listen to others and learn from them.