SEEDS Networking Programs: UM-wide events and local focus groups

UM-wide events
Each year, SEEDS hosts a UM-wide networking event. The first UM-wide event, Lunch with the Prez in 2008, is described at the bottom of this page. SEEDS 2009 Annual Networking event is described below; also see web pages with many photos and assessment as well as reviews and comments on the event's Interactive Theatre sketch The Mid-term Review for tenure.

 

Annual Networking event, 2009

SEEDS UM-wide networking dinner on October 19th, 2009, hosted 120 people from all three UM campuses. The event began with a networking and dinner session during which television monitors profiled SEEDS people and events and participants interacted with people they knew, and people they didn't know. The keynote address by President Donna Shalala described the importance of diversity programs nationwide and her strong support for SEEDS activities at UM. SEEDS endeavors were briefly highlighted by speakers: SEEDS Director Kathryn Tosney, SEEDS You Choose Award Winners Tulay Koru-Sengul, Lisa Beal, Eunji Lim, Acquittal Zuidema and (represented by Mary Lou King) Joy Lincoln as well as Speed Mentoring participants, Claudia Rodrigues, Angela Knapp and Marilyn Brandtan. The program included an audience perception survey that used "student response units" to anonymously gather people's perceptions on UM's climate. Other web pages show more photos and event assessment.

The evening culminated with the inaugural SEEDS Interactive Theatre skit, The Mid-Term Review for Tenure, presented by SEEDS Theatre Director Jennifer Burke, stage manager Christine D'Amore, facilitator David Wilson and the SEEDS Repertory Players Janet Allard, Maha McCain, Marc Mocohbe, Glenn Patron, Lee Soroko and Jennifer Vellenga. Other web pages show photos and theatre reviews and comments.

Downloadable resources related to the event
Application form for a SEEDS You Choose award (due December 15, 2009) docx, 48 KB
List of career survival resources mentioned by Kathryn Tosney pdf 104 KB
Slides of SEEDS people and events pptx 14 MB
Results of the audience climate perception survey pptx, 1.1 MB
List of event participants url
SEEDS annual networking event, program pamphlet pdf 408 KB

 

Local "focus groups" see calendar for description of past and upcoming events.
SEEDS aims to encourage a suite of local networking and mentoring activities to address the varied needs of junior and senior faculty in different research environments. Some groups are already well established: a recurrent meeting of women and junior faculty in epidemiology was initiated by Lora Fleming. In addition, RSMAS women faculty have long met monthly. In addition, since SEEDS began additional groups have begun to meet, often monthly, to plan SEEDS events, to discuss opportunities, climate issues, mentoring, science, and in short to network. Two such groups are a SEEDS group in the medical basic sciences, email Dr. Mary Lou King, SEEDS Steering Committee, for information, and a SEEDS group in engineering email Dr. Helena Solo-Gabriele, SEEDS Steering Committee, for information. To have your meeting listed in the SEEDS calendar, email the SEEDS Director.

Such networking groups are efficient and cost-effective enterprises in which faculty experience near-immediate benefits. These meetings provide informal communication networks, opportunities to compare experiences, aid in non-judgmental interactions, offer peer support and a nascent professional network. As these groups grow to include a broader base and to interact with other groups at UM-wide events, they will help us learn about issues that impact other fields and other races differentially and raise our sensitivity to one another. Networks that cross disciplines, power hierarchies and boundaries of gender and race build connections that advance careers.

 

Lunch with President Shalala November 18, 2008
This event attracted one hundred and ten people, predominantly women in science, math and engineering, but also women in other fields. Women came from Anthropology, Biology, Education, English, Mathematics, Philosophy, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Cell Biology, Microbiology, Molecular Cell Pharmacology, Epidemiology, the Eye Institute, The Human Genome initiative, Medicine, Microbiology, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Radiology, Rehabilitation, Surgery, Diabetes Center, Trauma Center, Urology, Marine Biology and Fisheries, and Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. Deans Pascal Goldschmidt, James Tien and Michael Halleran, as well as Provost Leblanc, joined in discussion of issues.

Women talked with one another, ate an excellent lunch and then listened to the SEEDS Director Kathryn Tosney talk about the need across UM for interactions, programs and an office to assure the career support of all our constituency, particularly women and minorities. She thanked Provost LeBlanc for funding the SEEDS office to fill this role, and the Science Deans and the President for their strong support of the SEEDS office and the NSF ADVANCE for Women in Science grant.

The main event was a talk by President Shalala, who emphasized the need for support and recruitment of women and minorities to assure American success. She talked about diversity at UM, saying that our baseline for women and minorities is as low as it is elsewhere, but that efforts like SEEDS, supported by strong leadership, will make a crucial difference. As an example, she cited Dean Tien, who doubled the number of faculty women in Engineering: from four to eight, in one year! She had intended to visit each table after her talk, but had to leave for an emergency meeting in Boca. We all thank President Shalala for her extraordinary leadership.

Event photographs, taken by UM photographer Robert Jones