The conference included a collection of scientific
speakers who spoke on topics ranging from health disparities to climate change,
to molecular and cellular biology. A number of professional development
workshops were also offered to participants, such as grant writing, applying to
graduate school and mentoring relationships. Undergraduate and graduate
students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty had opportunities to network and
mentor one another.
The keynote speaker, Dr.
David Burgess (Cherokee) professor of biology at Boston College, discussed his
experience as a cell biologist and one of only few Native American scientists.
He motivated conference participants to pursue a career one loves to do, to be
proud of oneself, and not settle until one has achieved great success.
SACNAS is one of the largest and oldest national
societies of scientists dedicated to fostering the success of Latinos and
Native American scientists to attain college degrees, careers and positions of
leadership in all science fields (http://sacnas.org/). Additionally, SACNAS is a strong promoter of diversity
in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, organizing
conferences open to everyone, providing mentoring and recruiting resources,
promoting the professional development of young scientists, and working
collaboratively with other scientific societies, corporations, academic
institutions, and government agencies to advance public policy agendas that
enhance diversity in the sciences.
The conference was sponsored
by UMass Boston, the UMass Boston-Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center U54
Partnership, and the National Research Mentoring Network (https://nrmnet.net/).
