Supporting underserved graduate students focused on health equity research

Shayla Brown — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 19:24:51 +0000

Supporting underserved graduate students focused on health equity research Shayla Brown Tue, 12/06/2022 - 14:24

Photo by Getty Images

The Communicating Health Equity and Healing Justice Research Lab (CEHJ) came to life on George Mason University’s campus in October 2021.

“It started out an all-Black women endeavor, but now it has expanded to Black and Brown men as well as alternative gender identity individuals,” said Akila Ka Ma’at, the director of the lab and core faculty member with Women and Gender Studies Program and the Communication Department.

The lab allows students to engage in the production of research projects and contribute to data collection efforts through an immersive experiential learning and training experience. Its members focus on the mental and reproductive health of Black women as well as identify factors related to internalized racism.

Ashley Dawson, who joined the lab as an undergraduate student, is getting her master’s in public health with a concentration in health promotion. She hopes to become a public health consultant as well as a program developer so she can provide health intervention for underserved communities.

“Currently, we’re working on the impact of the “Strong Black Woman” stigma on the birth outcomes in Black women,” said Dawson. “This allows us to address the intersectionality and social determinants that are either negatively or positively impacting prenatal health.”

Sahana Natarajan, who recently graduated from Rutgers Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, is currently working as Mason affiliate faculty in collaboration with the CEHJ research lab.

“Health communication was something I had never really done before. Despite that, Dr. Ma’at believed in my potential and went to great lengths to mentor me,” said Natarajan. “I’m still in the process of learning how to lead. I’m starting to lead my own projects.”

Natarajan is currently working on a pilot testing a survey to access racial stress and related factors among prenatal Black Women.

“This lab is really about team collaboration. Along with that, addressing health disparities. If that’s something that’s important to you, I think the lab will really benefit you in terms of increasing your abilities and your impact in the world,” she said.

Mason sociology student J Orisha is also a part of CEHJ and working on this project. “I think it’s important that there be more spaces like this for students. [My research interests have] honestly been changing the more involved I get on campus and meet more professors, but it’s centrally around African American/Black studies and anti-racist, decolonized research,” said Orisha.

“It’s an open environment where you mess up, great, you learn and keep moving. I never experienced that in the other schools,” Orisha said. “They’re actually trying to listen to their students. They really do care, and I really, really appreciate it.”

Ma’at hopes to collaborate with more disciplines and more community stakeholders. She wants the lab’s research to extend into the African diaspora and include immigrant communities in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

The CEHJ Research Lab meets on Tuesdays from 2-3 p.m. and Thursdays from 1:30-2:30 p.m. in Robeson Room 240A in the Johnson Center.

Topics

African and African American Studies

Women and Gender Studies

ARIE

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Research

Communication Department

Team of Mason researchers win NSF ADVANCE Catalyst grant for STEM programs

Colleen Rich — Mon, 29 Aug 2022 19:07:48 +0000

Team of Mason researchers win NSF ADVANCE Catalyst grant for STEM programs Colleen Rich Mon, 08/29/2022 - 15:07

A team of George Mason University employees dedicated to building and maintaining more diverse faculty and staff has secured a National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Catalyst grant for just under $300,000 to help them with the process.

From left, Mason faculty Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, Jaime Lester, Girum Urgessa, Milagros Rivera, and Leigh McCue Weil. Photo by Anthony Bahizi

Team members for this project include Milagros Rivera, director of faculty diversity, inclusion and well-being, Office of the Provost; Jaime R. Lester, associate dean of faculty affairs, strategic initiatives, College of Humanities and Social Sciences; Kim Eby, vice provost for faculty affairs and development, Office of the Provost; Girum Urgessa, associate professor of civil, environmental and infrastructure engineering, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC); Leigh McCue-Weil, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CEC; and Tehama M. López Bunyasi, associate professor in the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution.

“I called for a group of people from science, engineering, and social sciences to have discussions about how we could frame the potential grant,” said Rivera.

This diverse group of scholars conducts multidisciplinary research that helped secure the grant, which was submitted in June 2021. In February 2022, they were asked to respond to technical questions from reviewers before the official notification of award was received in May.

Illustration by Getty Images

The grant marks the first step of a long-term project. “This is try number three and five years in the making, so we’re pretty excited that we were finally able to secure the grant,” said Lester.

NSF has three types of grants: Catalyst, Adaptation, and Institutional Transformation. Catalyst, the smallest of the grants, funds university research that will lead to innovative ideas and bigger grants to implement the ideas.

The goal of this grant program is to advance representation of women in higher education science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs and careers. For more than two decades, the NSF has invested millions of dollars to support these catalyst-funded projects at more than 100 institutions of higher education and STEM-related nonprofit organizations.

“Winning this coveted grant signals to the nation that George Mason University is an R1 institution that is serious about dismantling barriers to greatness,” said López Bunyasi. “It’s committed to preparing its diverse student body for the immense challenges that lie ahead.”

The team's research will focus on increasing diversity among faculty within Mason’s STEM programs. This research will also contribute to work begun with President Gregory Washington’s Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence initiative.

Currently, the faculty/staff demographics of Mason lag behind the diversity of the student body.

“Our numbers are low. Black faculty is not quite 6%, and Latinx faculty is not even 4%,” said Rivera. Approaching the lack of diversity among STEM faculty at a systemic level is how the catalyst-funded project plans to implement new equitable policies.

Although the grant is exclusively focused on faculty diversity, students will benefit in the long run. “Our students cannot be what they cannot see, and having more STEM faculty diversity will certainly be a motivating factor for them to pursue STEM fields, as well as for pursuing academic careers,” Urgessa said.

The team will focus on three general areas during their research: institutional culture, recruitment and hiring, and equity.

“Universities are ecosystems, you have different things supporting one another,” Rivera said. “When we improve institutional barriers that impede the recruitment and retention of diverse faculty, there are outcomes at the student level.”

The grant will reside in the Office of the Provost.

“Even though the grant is for STEM, the best practices really apply to the entire university. The result of having an ADVANCE grant is that it has a broader impact,” said Rivera.

Topics

Office of the Provost

President's Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence

diversity equity and inclusion DEI

Research