Electronic Laboratory Neighborhood

From Allies and Activists to Proactive Panelists: Speaking out About Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

November 18, 2024
SLAS New Matter Podcast participants and members of an SLAS diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) panel share thoughts on ally support in the workplace. On the campus, in the lab and around the conference table, panel members encourage life sciences professionals to be willing to challenge situations that don’t support the rights of others, and to know when to ask for guidance surrounding DEI topics.

When Ramisa Fariha, Ph.D., came to the United States (USA) 11 years ago as an undergraduate student at Pennsylvania State University, Erie, The Behrend College, (Erie, PA, USA), it was the first time she learned about her differences.

“I’m from Bangladesh, which is a very homogeneous society,” explains Fariha, scientist, biomedical engineer, STEMinist, mentor and postdoctoral associate at the Brown RNA Center, Brown University, (Providence, RI, USA). “Everyone in Bangladesh has a similar appearance, we share the same culture, and there’s not a lot of racial diversity there. When I began my studies in the United States, people described me by the color of my skin, or they commented, ‘Oh, you almost don’t have an accent for an international student!’ I thought it was a compliment, or I thought a lot of what I was experiencing was natural,” Fariha says.

As for less-than-positive experiences, Fariha reasoned, “Hey? I’m the odd one out here. I’d never paid much attention to the fact that I was experiencing discrimination until it was on a massive scale.” Such as the occasion when she received a zero on a class assignment when a white peer got full points for the same work. Fortunately, another professor — a mentor of Fariha’s who stepped up as an ally to challenge the grade — settled the score.

“After that, everyday aggressions and casual racist comments that I didn’t understand or comprehend began to register on me,” says Fariha, who was the first foreign student to receive the Outstanding First-Year Student Award, and the first woman to be elected president for the Muslim Student Association at Penn State Behrend.

“I realized that I was checking a lot of boxes for firsts, and it occurred to me that anything I achieved could help pave the way for others to follow,” she says. “As I discovered all these intersecting identities related to my ethnicity, culture and religion, the concept of being a representative began to emerge. I realized how much my presence meant, and that I could proactively contribute to ending some of this.”

For Colin Cox, Ph.D., becoming aware of other people’s struggles shaped a career-long determination to level the playing field in the lab. “Scientists fight so passionately over their data sometimes. Why can’t we do that for the people who manufacture the data?” says Cox, senior director of automation at Hexagon Bio (Menlo Park, CA, USA) and an SLAS Fellow Member. “We’re all working together — whatever our gender, identity, age, physical abilities, and/or color of our skin. We can all contribute, and we all should.”

Management consultant Brandon Miller, B.Sc., has invested much of his career in leading an internal DEI council and leading external DEI client services for the company in which he works, Clarkston Consulting, (Durham, NC, USA). “These roles have made it incredibly important for me to stay abreast of the subjects to understand how diversity, equity and inclusion impact our clients in consumer products, retail and life sciences spaces, while continuing to build and elevate the culture at Clarkston and among clients we serve,” he comments.

Fariha, Cox and Miller are active allies to support a strong DEI presence inside and outside the organizations in which they work and study. SLAS brought the trio together for an SLAS2024 DEI panel, which opened discussions that included accessibility, diversity of researchers and incorporating a sense of inclusion in the lab.

If possible, Fariha would have all recruiters and professors sit through an open-panel discussion. “It would be useful to have those with power listen to those who have intersecting identities and no voice in the power hierarchy, so they can openly share what they experience every single day,” says Fariha, who serves on the SLAS Knowledge Content and Delivery Council, as well as several advisory boards, including serving as chair of International Advocacy (her term ended in December 2023), and the Graduate Student Council at Brown University. She also mentors minority students and provides support for their retention in the STEM field.

Miller comments that panels and workshops are an overlooked avenue for making progress in the DEI space. “In 45 minutes, we not only share information on the topic — health equity, diversity and inclusion in life sciences — but we also create a starting point for individuals to begin doing the work while we’re in the room. We can capitalize on collective knowledge, experiences and share with one another,” he explains.

“Diversity, equity and inclusion create cultures of innovation and belonging, and the ability to advance life sciences and create better outcomes for our patients, customers and consumers,” continues Miller, who earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a minor in technology and management from the Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA, USA) prior to joining Clarkston Consulting.

In his consulting work, which includes addressing recruitment, retention, promotion, succession planning and training when it comes to DEI, Miller advises clients to think through training and other areas where unconscious bias and cultural insensitivity might be creeping into their organizations.

“Companies should consider their DEI vision and goals and understand the commitment,” Miller continues. “Until they get a solid core and have that alignment in their leadership team to what DEI means within the company, they’re not going to effectively launch any other DEI initiatives. Allyship is incredibly important in any organization, no matter how big or small, or what industry you're in.”

Being an Active Ally

DEI Panel — *From left to right: Lloyd, Miller, Fariha and Cox speak during SLAS2024 in a panel discussion about aspects of DEI.*

Fariha is grateful to Colin Cox and laboratory architect Marilee Lloyd, AIA, for participating on the SLAS panel. “Colin came and asked if it was OK for him to sit on the panel because he has a passion for this subject,” Fariha comments. “People like Colin and Marilee (who contributed to an article last year in SLAS Electronic Laboratory Neighborhood) work well in a DEI panel because they are vocal allies. They talk about their attempts to be good allies and help us feel more comfortable about opening the conversation.”

Cox comments: “As a white male, I haven’t experienced much discrimination or microaggression, but I have this asterisk that I’m gay,” he says. “It may be not such a big deal in the California Bay area, but that’s not true everywhere in the nation, and certainly not what everyone experiences. Looking at how I’ve been discriminated against as gay person keeps me cognizant of defending others.”

He is grateful to the people who stood beside him and fought for his rights. “Gay marriage used to be illegal in the State in California. In June 2013, when the Supreme Court pulled back on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) for the nation, and they pulled back Proposition 8 for California, I got legally married in San Francisco City Hall,” Cox continues. “I never thought I would have the 1,100 rights that come with marriage, but I needed those legal protections when my husband got sick. He almost died from heart failure, had two strokes and became disabled. I don’t know what would have happened if we weren’t legally married. It would have been a mess in that emergency moment when I had to make quick decisions in the hospital. They had to know that I had the right to make decisions for him.

“And I must fight for other’s rights, too, because people did it for me,” Cox continues. “We have to keep passing the baton forward like a relay race.”

After years of participating in an LGBTQ+ group organized within a large pharmaceutical company where he worked at the time, Cox decided to join another group — the women’s career club. He first got involved in peer-to-peer discussion groups that exposed him to new things and different perspectives.

“After working a year on this peer circle with them, I decided I wanted to contribute more of my time. I cautiously asked if they wanted to have a male help. And they were like, ‘yeah, you’re the first one that ever asked.’ This is a 35-year-old group, and I was the first man that ever volunteered to help,” says Cox. “After I spent a few years with the women’s club, I branched out into African American and disability groups as well, which was interesting considering that years later my husband would become disabled.”

Fariha notes that sometimes in activism appearance overpowers intention. "It’s hard for me to show that I am an ally for Black students, for example, because I obviously don’t look the part. Mostly South Asian students reach out to me. I proactively go out of my way to reach out to Black students to let them know I’m an ally and I’ll do everything in my ability to make this a level playing field for everyone.”

In 2015, Fariha suffered a massive concussion, which resulted in a learning disability, “and this is how I learned more about how disabilities can be invisible and how neuro-divergent individuals cope with everyday life,” she explains. “I went from having an eidetic memory to not being able to retain any information in the short term. To this day retrieving information is incredibly challenging.” At this point in her academic career at Penn State, she had to navigate securing recommendations and registering as a disabled student.

“As all these identities came into play, what also emerged was the concept of being an ally — to fight for those who are differently abled,” she says. “When I first came to Brown University, I learned that my presence and my voice carried a lot of value, not only for the identities that I represent, but also for those that need support.”

Fariha realized she had a significant role to fulfill in the STEM field. “I had people reaching out to me, saying, ‘We were able to take a step forward because you took the first step.’ What drives me in life sciences, in STEM, is first, making certain that minority voices are heard, and that minority representation takes place,” Fariha says. “And second, we need to make certain that we’re not just merely doing a good job of recruiting, but also retaining people. I think understanding DEI doesn’t typically mean you’re only fighting for your race or your kind.”

Miller encourages passionate allies to blend their enthusiasm with the action that Cox and Fariha have demonstrated. “Active allyship involves pushing agendas forward, securing a budget needed to achieve goals, and mentoring or sponsoring individuals of marginalized communities to help them elevate their career and catalyze their career trajectory,” he says.

While he supports allies for bringing the ideas, plans and goals of these communities to executive leadership conversations — where oftentimes members of the communities aren’t at that table — he cautions: “I think sometimes we get into the point in allyship where allies start to speak for a community rather than supporting a community to be able to speak for themselves.”

Where Do We Grow from Here?

When it comes to DEI areas that need the most growth, the panelists offer some concluding thoughts.

Miller describes moving DEI initiatives within organizations beyond performative or marketing efforts to become more systemic. He would like to see life sciences organizations intentionally increasing the diversity of their leadership teams and being proactive when it comes to increasing equity and diversity in clinical trials.

"There’s still a lot of work that we can do around clinical trials,” Miller comments. “Some of the companies that I see recently are more reactive in the space. They see FDA draft guidance come out about diversity in clinical trials, and then they react by fulfilling that guidance to be compliant instead of considering how it might benefit their organization to truly build bridges and equity into how they operate."

Cox wants leaders to circulate and gather information beyond their own corner of the organization. “A lot of unconscious and conscious bias comes from a lack of exposure. We can all learn, even if we are an intersectional minority," he comments. “Reading about DEI initiatives is not as impactful as taking a 30-minute, online training class, but neither is as impactful as sitting down with one of your colleagues that you respect and listening to the crap that they’ve had to go through — that’s what changes people’s minds and perspectives.”

Fariha agrees. “The day that affirmative action overturned, I walked into the office, and one of my minority students was crying. I stood crying with him,” she says. “You know you can watch the news all day, but unless you see someone you care about being so deeply impacted — it doesn’t move you as much to proactively do something about it.”

Cox comments that once you begin to understand another’s struggles, “you look out for them. Some of the best minds in the lab have gone through more struggles than the average person. They’ve persevered. They know how to find solutions because they’ve done it for themselves,” says Cox, who serves as chair for the SLAS Membership and Engagement Council. “If we hold those people back, then we’re holding back science and progress for everyone. Biotech is full of people who want to help if they only know how. If they only had that perspective.”

Fariha is particularly passionate about reaching high school and college-aged STEM students and mentors heavily among these communities. “I didn’t see female scientists as much as I would have liked and that impacted what I was considering for my career down the line,” she concludes. “If students stop seeing people with whom they identify, they lose hope.”