Women in STEM: 2022
March is Women's History Month, a time to celebrate the contributions women have made to society. Sigma Xi will participate by celebrating women's contributions to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
This year's theme is Lighting the Torch. We reached out to a handful of Sigma Xi members at various points in their careers and asked them about what sparked their initial interest in pursuing a STEM career and the accomplishments that help pass the torch between different generations of women along the way.
#WomenInSTEM 2022: Krishna Foster • Luisa M. Rebull • Dawn Crawford • Roha Kaipa • Vivian W. Pinn • Sydney Hope
Past years: 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Krishna Foster
What is your current role?
I am a professor of chemistry and special assistant to the vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion at Cal State LA.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
It’s difficult to select one person or event that inspired me to pursue STEM. My 3rd grade teacher Ms. Jenkins nurtured my creativity by allowing us to make picture books on anything we wanted including my purple elephant without a trunk. My high school chemistry teacher Ms. Larivee showed me how exciting and fun chemistry can be. The Elementary Science Institute introduced me to scientific research during high school, and none of this would have happened without parents that taught me to work hard and question everything.
What is one career accomplishment you are most proud of?
I am proud of the research I did in the High Arctic showing how sea salt generates free radicals that change the chemistry of air in coastal regions. Here I pushed my boundaries as a scientist, worked closely with others from around the world, and gained a new respect for the power of nature. This is also when I decided I wanted to work at Cal State LA preparing diverse students to make future contributions to science.
What advice do you have for other women starting a career in STEM?
Use your mind and your heart as you build your brilliant career. Don’t shy away from challenges and always remember that your voice matters. Address science questions that are important to you and your communities and you’ll never regret it!
Luisa M. Rebull
What is your current role?
I am an associate research scientist at Caltech-IPAC/IRSA, which is a Science & Data Center for Astrophysics & Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA. I also work specifically for NASA’s Infrared Science Archive, which is the home of NASA’s long wavelength astrophysics data.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
I have always wanted to be an astronomer. I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area where my favorite museum was the National Air and Space Museum. As a kid, I was a “NASA junkie,” collecting NASA lithographs, which was how NASA made “pretty pictures” available to the public before the web. I was born after Apollo 11, but the sheer coolness of NASA things was indescribable and the images from the Voyager mission hit me at just the right time to really entrance me.
What is one career accomplishment you would love to achieve?
Getting over imposter syndrome. You’d think by this point that this wouldn’t be an issue. And yet...
What is one career accomplishment you are most proud of?
Unfortunately, there are very few high school science teachers in this country who have ever worked with real scientific data, much less done real science. I run a program called NITARP, the NASA-IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program that partners small groups of mostly high school educators with a research astronomer for a year-long authentic astronomy research project. Almost 20 years running, we have changed the lives of so many teachers by changing the way they think about science, about scientists, about using data in the classroom, and about teaching science. And by extension, we continue to impact the lives of hundreds of students every year.
What advice do you have for other women starting a career in STEM?
Don’t take criticism personally. This is good advice for everyone but especially for women entering the STEM workforce or other fields that have historically been male-dominant. Let it roll off your back, pick off the legitimate criticisms from trusted mentors, and move forward.
Dawn Crawford
What is your current role?
I am an Anthropology PhD Candidate with a specialty in Mesoamerican archaeology. I am defending my dissertation in March of 2022 and will graduate this May.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
I am a first generation college graduate and I grew up in a rural area, so I loved biology, geology, and ecology from a young age, even before I knew what they actually were. I was very lucky to have science teachers from elementary through high school that encouraged me to build on my love of science. In high school one of my history teachers told me that I could combine my two favorite subjects (history and science) into one by studying archaeology, and I was hooked. My graduate school mentor is also a woman in STEM, and has provided excellent mentorship navigating a sometimes male dominated field. She encouraged me to learn new material science techniques and analyses to broaden my knowledge and experience.
What is one career accomplishment you would love to achieve?
Since I am finishing my PhD, my goal is to teach and mentor other students. I want to pay forward all of the support and opportunities I was given to other first generation students and students from diverse backgrounds, so that when people think of science or scientists they can easily see themselves in that role.
What is one career accomplishment you are most proud of?
This semester I will be the first person in my family to earn a PhD. This is huge for me. It was a difficult road to get here and I’m so grateful to those who have helped me along the way.
What advice do you have for other women starting a career in STEM?
Sometimes I get bogged down by people trying to claim what is and isn’t “STEM” for research. Doing scientific research makes you a scientist, not what others label you as. Sometimes doing science is difficult and feels impossible, but the best advice I got was to “stay stubborn” and keep pushing forward.
Roha Kaipa
What is your current role?
I am an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Oklahoma State University (OSU). I also direct the language learning lab at OSU. My research focuses on how individuals (adults and children) learn novel words and the factors that influence vocabulary learning.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
My mom was always passionate about learning. However, she did not have the opportunity to pursue higher education because of her early marriage and family responsibilities. My dad supported her while pursuing her dream to complete a master’s degree when I was in ninth grade. She always told me not to wait for opportunities, but to create them. She inspired me to pursue a career in science and complete my PhD.
What is one career accomplishment you would love to achieve?
I would love to work with infants and toddlers who have difficulty acquiring language and provide them and their families with tools and resources to communicate efficiently.
What advice do you have for other women starting careers in STEM?
Embrace the challenges you face in your life, both personally and professionally. If you settle for an easy goal within your comfort zone, you may lose an opportunity to learn and grow in life. Be true to yourself, your principles, and to others.
Vivian W. Pinn
What is your current role?
I am officially retired from the position of Founding Director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). I now hold the title of Senior Scientist Emerita at the Fogarty International Center at NIH and continue to be involved in issues related to women’s health research and biomedical careers.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
I wanted to become a physician from my childhood years, but a summer position as a research assistant at the Massachusetts General Hospital really fired up my intent to become a research scientist. I was truly inspired and excited by observing the many facets of research to which I was exposed and that dictated the remainder of my career. I believe that providing exposure early in the education of women interested in sciences to those who are actively engaged in STEM provides that additional inspiration to pursue STEM careers, just as was the case for me.
What is one career accomplishment you are especially proud of?
Of the many accomplishments and honors I have received, I am most proud of not my own, but of the achievements of the young women and men that I have mentored over the years. That many continue to be in touch with me and share their professional positions and honors makes me proud that I had some role in their careers and successful leadership roles in STEM and academic medicine.
What advice do you have for other women starting careers in STEM?
My advice to women who are considering or beginning careers in STEM is to not be discouraged by some of the challenges they may face. Have self confidence in their abilities to excel in the exciting world of scientific discovery that can be achieved through careers in STEM and seek opportunities to provide leadership and their own accomplishments to their field of choice.
Sydney Hope
What is your current role?
I earned my PhD in Fish and Wildlife Conservation from Virginia Tech in 2019 and I just finished my first position as a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chizé in France. As I continue in my career, I would like to orient my research toward more applied questions, such as investigating ways to mitigate the negative effects of climate change and human-induced environmental changes on wildlife.
Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in STEM?
I always liked science in school and I love animals and nature. Growing up, I thought my only option was to be a vet. After shadowing a vet in high school and realizing that was not what I wanted to do, I started college as a Biology major because it was the only thing that I found interesting. I went to a small college (The College of New Jersey) with a small Biology department, but I discovered that there was one professor who did research in the field and asked if I could volunteer. After going into the field with him and realizing that you could get paid (!) for going into the forest and catching birds, I was hooked. Here I am, 10 years later and still studying birds!
What is one career accomplishment you are especially proud of?
The career accomplishment that I am most proud of is definitely finishing my PhD. I am the first person in my family to earn a PhD, and so it was a really big deal for my family. After so many years of not quite understanding what I was doing in grad school ("So... why birds?", "Oh, so are you on summer vacation now?"), no one knew what to expect on my defense day. I had nine family members attend my defense, and to everyone's surprise, they all found my presentation interesting and thought that my research was important! So, it's really my biggest accomplishment thus far, because I could make my family proud.