UW SACNAS Chapter

At SACNAS, it's not about being someone else — it's about being YOU...and all the parts of you that make you YOU. Send us a quick video to share your talents by 8/31 and your video may be selected to stream during !

Submit your video here: https://bit.ly/3Dfushs

Post Doc Opportunities in Cancer research, Genetics & Genomics, and Molecular Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Lab in N.Y. World-renowned research Lab, with a highly collaborative social & scientific environment - Competitive salary & benefits.
http://pathwaystoscience.org/programhub.aspx?sort=PDC-ColdSpringsLab-AllPostDocs

JOB OPENING ALERT!
The Research University Alliance (RUA) is now hiring for a part-time Program Operations Specialist (50% FTE)!

The Research University Alliance (RUA) is an exciting, new nine-member collective of R1 "high research" universities who are all committed to increasing diversity at the postdoctoral and assistant professor levels. We work within the fields of Mathematics, Physical Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Computer Sciences, and Engineering, and we focus our recruitment efforts on those currently under-represented in these fields, including Black or African American, Hispanic/Chicano/Latino, Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander students and postdocs. RUA is dedicated to creating community within and across member universities through a set of funded activities, and where each university leads one component of the program. At the University of Washington (UW), our RUA program is responsible for designing, building, and staffing the Postdoc Portal, a digital space for eligible senior graduate students and postdocs to connect with faculty with postdoctoral positions.

Check out the job listing at:
https://uwhires.admin.washington.edu/eng/candidates/default.cfm?szCategory=jobprofile&szOrderID=191650&szCandidateID=0&szSearchWords=&szReturnToSearch=1

Make an impact on the future of STEM and lead a session at ABRCMS 2021! The call for session proposals is now open, and we are seeking robust, engaging and interactive proposals to inspire the next generation of scientists. Submit your proposal by August 10. https://skyw.io/CyhNDT

[ATTENTION GRADUATING STUDENTS] In lieu of our usual in-person Spring Soirée celebrations, we are pivoting to a virtual yearbook recognition this year with an optional cord pickup!

If you are a grad student in the graduating class of 2021 (Fall 2020 - Summer 2021) and want to be recognized in our virtual yearbook and/or receive a cord, please submit your response to the form below by 12PM PDT, May 10th.

https://docs.google.com/forms/u/1/d/1xb4SRy7Y85gdoyCfcExKL1H_1-f0bYGkj8kgu-7_qNU/edit?ts=6070b7c1

Hey Sacnistas!

Our friends in the School of Public Health are passing a great program announcement:

"Thinking about applying to grad programs? Our final "Which Public Health Degree is Right for Me?" session for this academic year is coming up in 2 weeks on 5/6/21! Register today to secure your spot!"

May 6, 2021 4:30-6:00pm PT
Online, via Zoom (RSVP for participation link)
RSVP link:

catalyst.uw.edu

After becoming a Latina immigrant to the United States in 2015, Stefani Florez-Acevedo had two firsthand experiences that made her “aware of the urgent need to increase representation of Latinx scholars among the circle of agenda-setters in public health research.” The first experience was after one year living as an immigrant, when she was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, due to the social stresses from the acculturation process. Stefani recalls, “Despite having a strong epistemological background as a mental health researcher in Colombia, and professional experience helping refugees access resources to deal with emotional issues, I found myself struggling with finding and accessing culturally-appropriate mental health care in the US.” This experience, along with the desire to help other Latinx people going through similar situations, motivated Stefani to pursue her Health Services MPH training at UW, and “become a voice of support for my community when dealing with health care challenges.”

The second troubling experience occurred during the first year of her MPH, while Stefani was working as a Research Assistant for a local organization. Says Stefani, “As part of a larger study, I was recruiting seriously-injured patients who spoke only Spanish, to help them navigate our complex health system, especially with regards to their mental health care. When the pandemic hit, funds were cut, and an immediate and final decision was made to stop recruiting only these Spanish-speaking patients, while the study continued for all other patients.”

Together, these experiences represented “a bitter awakening” to the urgent need to make structural changes with regards to who dictates the research agenda, and the representation of Latinx individuals as decision makers in public health.

In July 2020, Stefani began her MPH practicum with El Centro de la Raza, a community-based agency in Seattle. The project focused on designing and implementing a Community Needs Assessment to understand the needs of and challenges facing the South King County Latinx community, both before and during the pandemic. Under the direction and support of Health Services faculty member Dr. Linda Ko, Stefani designed a qualitative approach that included conducting focus groups in Spanish: her own first language, and the participants’ preferred language.

Stefani reports, “The conversations during the focus group sessions confirmed previous findings, showing that the Latinx community has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The community has endured an overwhelming economic, physical and emotional burden.” Some of the participants lost their jobs, were exposed to the virus, and/or lost close relatives, both in the US, and in their home countries. Study participants also reported increased experiences of discrimination during the pandemic, based on appearance and perceived racial status, gaps in English proficiency, and undocumented status. These experiences with discrimination posed barriers to accessing a variety of crucial resources, including access to stable and well-paid jobs, health care, nutritious food, and high-quality education.

Reflecting on lessons learned from the focus group experiences, Stefani says, “As a Latina immigrant and public health professional, I could relate to many of the challenges that participants mentioned, but I was also aware of the importance of using a culturally-relevant approach to understand the problems, and to propose real and sustainable solutions. The fact that the participants had the opportunity to express all their concerns in Spanish, and that they understood, in a transparent way, what the main goal of the focus groups was, made participants feel secure to share their concerns in a safe space. This is important because one of the main barriers to engaging with the Latinx community is, understandably, the lack of trust they feel towards organizations and institutions in the US.”

Stefani hopes that the findings from her Community Needs Assessment will guide future work to help Latinx community members overcome these structural barriers, and to advocate at the local- and state-level for the Latinx community.

Stefani credits her MPH training at UW with giving her “effective tools for addressing the social determinants of health when proposing strategies to improve population health and reduce health disparities among communities that have been historically marginalized and oppressed.” Especially helpful in this regard were classes such as Strategies of Health Promotion (Dr. Hannon), Research Methods of Social and Contextual Determinants of Health (Dr. Hajat), Qualitative Research Methods (Dr. Ko), Structural Racism (Dr. Spigner), Population Health and Disparities (Dr. Baquero), and Community-Based Participatory Research (Dr. Duran).

Stefani is also using these skills in her thesis research with Health Services faculty member Dr. Barbara Baquero, at the UW Health Promotion Research Center. For the past year, Stefani has been coordinating a community-based project in King County, called Shop Healthy/Compre Saludable, which aims to understand the challenges facing local Latino small-food retailers during the pandemic, as well as to develop and evaluate the usability of a toolkit for safe pandemic operations. The preliminary findings from this study have provided further evidence that “the pandemic has only deepened the social and health disparities facing the Latinx community, despite our community’s vast contributions to the economic and cultural development of this country.”

Stefani’s public health experiences in the classroom, and through research and practice, have taught her that “As public health professionals, we have a responsibility to identify the barriers facing different communities, and to develop effective responses to improve community life conditions and well-being, using a social justice lens. This is more important than ever, in the midst of a global health crisis.”

Stefani’s long-term career goal is to become a leading scholar with the capacity to shape the research agenda to better serve the Latinx community, and to work with the community to help reduce disparities facing Latinx immigrants. Stefani will be earning her MPH in June 2021, and as the next step in this journey, will be continuing on with her UW PhD Program in Health Services, starting in Fall 2021.

A note of appreciation for our graduate students from Graduate School Dean Joy Williamson-Lott 💜

Thinking on pursuing career in academia? This webinar is the best place to have all your questions answered! Get insider tips from professors and postdoctoral fellows, who will share their expertise on how to successfully apply and interview for positions, develop research and teaching programs, prepare for a chalk talk, and so much more!

RSVP: http://bit.ly/3tpjvnZ

Speakers include:

Dr. Ana María Porras (she/her)
Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University & AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador

Dr. José M. Vargas-Muñiz (he/his/him)
Assistant Professor, Microbiology Program, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Dr. Shreya Raghavan (she/her)
Assistant Professor, Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University

Dr. Nana Ankrah (he/his/him)
Assistant Professor, Biological Sciences Department, State University of New York at Plattsburgh

Congratulations to Dr. Keolu Fox, former UW Sacnista!

Dr. Keolu Fox (Native Hawaiian) joins the 2021 AISES Leadership Summit as the April 2nd Keynote Speaker! Dr. Fox’s mission is to increase ethnic diversity in genome studies in order to figure out why certain populations — including indigenous peoples — experience higher rates of common chronic diseases. He is also creating tools that empower indigenous peoples to be partners in their own health research, including a mobile genome-sequencing platform, interactive informed consent forms and a tribal consultation resource. Register for the 2021 AISES Leadership Summit at summit.aises.org

: Marigold Linton (born 1936) is a cognitive psychologist and member of the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians. In 1964 she became the first Native American to earn a doctorate in psychology. In 1974 she co–founded the National Indian Education Association. Her research in long term memory is widely cited in psychology. She is director for mathematics and science initiatives in the University of Texas system, where she is responsible for bringing minority students into those two fields. She has been president of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science from 2004 - 2007, and her legacy is honored through the SACNAS Linton-Poodry Leadership Institute .