History of SEEDS

The National Academies report Beyond Bias and Barriers, chaired by President Donna E. Shalala, documented that, despite advances in the proportion of women and other underrepresented minorities in science and engineering graduate programs, relatively few become successful faculty. Accordingly, University of Miami Provost Tom LeBlanc established a University-level SEEDS office as a focus for diversity programs across all three UM campuses. SEEDS orchestrates grass-roots efforts to study and improve climate and policies and has an NSF ADVANCE award for programs designed to increase opportunities for ALL scientists and engineers at UM.

You Choose Award winners 2010
Andrew Baker, RSMAS, for his application to organize a one-day communications workshop to teach ocean scientists effective methods for communicating their research to policymakers, the pubic and the media.

Lee Wen-Hsiang, Miller School of Medicine, for her application to host educational forums aimed at navigating the promotions and tenure process. Each forum will consist of presentations by members of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, a panel discussion, a networking event and a follow-up evaluation.

Blythe Nobleman and Helena Solo-Gabriele, College of Engineering, for their application to organize a one-day writing workshop led by Judith Swan of Princeton, that will be particularly focused on effective writing for faculty and postdoctoral associates as well as for writing mentors.

Villy Kourafalou, RSMAS, for her application to participate as a leader in the international science team meeting for global ocean data assimilation and experiment OceanView.

Laura Bianchi, Miller School of Medicine, for her application to bring prominent women in Physiology and Biophysics to UM, to give research seminars and engage in mentoring.

 

Brief reports
SEEDS Sponsored Distinguished Scholar Dr. Linda Sanford, member of the National Academy of Engineering, Senior Vice President at IBM, spoke on Jan 25 2010, on "Building a Smarter Planet: Strategies for Meaningful Change" followed by a mentoring event with junior faculty and women from IBM.

SEEDS Postdoctoral Fellow Speed Mentoring at the Miller School of Medicine on Jan 22 2010, helped answer questions about moving postdocs' careers to the next level, followed by a social mixer with light refreshments. For a fuller report, click here.

In the SEEDS Industrial Engineering Speaker Series, funded by a “You Choose” award to Dr. Eunji Lim, the second of three speakers, Amy Cohen, professor of mathematics and former Dean of University College at Rutgers University, spoke Dec 10, 2009, followed by a mentoring event with junior faculty

The SEEDS Scientific Writing Workshop funded by a “You Choose” award to Dr. Paquita Zuidema, on Nov 21 2009, a workshop wasled by Judith Swan, Ph.D. in Biochemistry from MIT, Associate Director of the Princeton Writing Center, co-author of The Science of Science Writing (pdf). It was attended by 175 faculty, postdocs and grad students drawn from all three campuses.

The SEEDS NIH Grant Writing Workshop, funded by a You Choose award to Dr. Joy Lincoln, ws led by NIH/NINDS Program Director Ramona Hicks on Nov 11 2009. It was the first of three forums on navigating the NIH system.

SEEDS sponsored a mentoring event on Nov 9, 2009, with Dr. Barbara Liskov from MIT, member of the National Academy of Engineering.

CV Review & Academic Advancement for Women In Academic Medicine and Leadership On Nov 9th 2009, 31 junior faculty women met one-on-one with nine senior women to assess CVs and career issues, presaged by networking and followed by general discussion. See the full report with assessment and career hints from the event and photographs of participants participating.

SEEDS UM-wide Networking Dinner on Oct 19th 2009 featured President Donna Shalala, the inaugural SEEDS Interactive Theatre skit, The Mid-Term review, SEEDS Award Winners and Speed Mentoring participants and an audience perception survey (1.1 MB). Three web pages describe the event: 1) Participants and photos, 2) Event assessment and 3) Interactive Theatre assessment and comments .

Downloadable resources related to the event
Application form for a SEEDS You Choose award
List of career survival resources mentioned 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

 

NEW features:
Career survival reading list (pdf)
Scholarly studies
Best Practices
Featured joke

SEEDS is now on the NSF ADVANCE portal.
Resources from the UM library supporting SEEDS. Also see Resources and UM links.