Ithaca College

Nanda moderated the session: “How to Thrive and Finish Your Program – A “When Faculty Say X” at this year's PROMISE SSI (PROMISE Summer Success Institute). In this session, professors from across the country, members of the Alfred B. Sloan Mentoring Network Advisory Board, answered all of the questions that students never asked their faculty, and are too nervous to ask their advisor. Between them, they have experience as deans, department chairs, center directors, and PIs of grants from NSF, NIH, and the U.S. Department of Education.

Since 2003, SSI has been bringing graduate students in STEM from underrepresented groups in Maryland for a conference and series of workshops with the goal of building a community of scholars who would finish graduate degrees and go on to be professors and leaders in their respective fields. This PROMISE Summer Success Institute, is sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Alliances for Graduate Education and Professoriate (AGEP) program, will celebrate 15 years of the Summer Success Institute in 2017!

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As part of the Diversity Committee of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), Nanda co-organized the following symposium: "Birds of a Different Feather: Increasing Diversity in Ornithology". American Ornithological Society Conference.  Michigan State University. Summer 2017.

Organizers: Nancy Chen, Scott Taylor, Nandadevi Cortes-Rodriguez, Sara Kaiser and Kevin Omland

Promoting the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in science is important. This symposium will feature speakers from established programs aimed at increasing diversity in STEM at various career stages (undergraduate, graduate, postdoc, faculty, and non-academic biologists), followed by a breakout session during which attendees brainstorm concrete steps we can take to increase diversity and inclusion in our fields. Increasing diversity in ornithology is a key goal of the current AOS leadership, and ideas generated during this symposium will be considered and implemented by the newly formed AOS Diversity Committee.