AMTRAK to NYC, "Inspiring Women Scientists" Forum

September 24, 2010: Inspiring Women Scientists Forum

I took the 5:30 a.m. AMTRAK train from Washington Union Station (WAS) to Penn Station (NYP) and arrived in New York City at 8:40 a.m. with an easy walk to the CUNY Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street. Dr. Shirley Mow, Project Director of the NSF Women Writing Science Program at The Feminist Press, City University of New York, invited me to this conference. I first met Dr. Mow at the 2010 Joint Annual Meeting (JAM) Conference in Washington DC this past summer. The forum brought together research scientists, post docs, faculty members, authors, and undergraduates. The day began with keynote speaker, Dr. Elaine Fuchs, discussing her research concerning Stem Cells of the Skin. Claudia Dreifus, New York Times reporter and co-author of a book with Andrew Hacker, “Higher Education”, interviewed her. The personal interview focused on the challenges, thoughts, and career as a women scientist. The participants in the audience were given the opportunity to ask questions to address specific concerns, such as child care, mentoring, funding of grants, equal pay, territorial faculty members, and the need to work harder to succeed. One thing I took away from this interview exchange was the message of knowing when to take a negative and turn it into a positive.


The forum also included a panel of women scientists from City College-CUNY and panelists from industry and research, including a patent attorney. Each panel included a moderator to field questions from the audience as the scientists and professors discussed challenges each faced at different stages of their career. Again, child care was addressed, as well as the tenure track, isolation, lab time, opportunities for jobs and advancement, protecting research time by balancing research, families, and being on committees. I benefitted from not only hearing the answers, but also by hearing the questions, suggestions, and concerns from the audience. It reinforced the research-based evidence addressed in “Why so Few”. The guest speaker, Dr. Janna Levin, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, at Barnard College, Columbia University, gave an energetic presentation of her research followed by a question and answer session. I spent a little time at the poster session at the end of the day before leaving to catch the 6:20 PM train back to DC. Despite the train delay due to a motor replacement, (which put me back in DC around 10:45 PM), it was a day well spent.