WISH Sponsored Events

2020

Wednesday, November 18, 5-6:30 pm - Negotiation Skills, A workshop and discussion led by Dr. Janice Pata, Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Dr. Edelgard Wulfert, Professor in the Department of Psychology.

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WISH Fall 2020 Programs

Women in Science and Health (WISH) hosted exciting programs in the Fall 2020 semester.    

• Women Collaborating for Inclusion, with Yolanda Caldwell and faculty panelists Dr. Joan Curcio (BMS), Dr. Rabi Musah (Chemistry) and Dr. Cara Pager (Biology) – Wed Sept 9th 11:30 a.m.
• Women in the Time of COVID-19 with Drs. Julia Hormes and Ho Kwan Cheung (Pyschology) – Fri Oct 2nd 12:00 p.m.
• Negotiation Skills with Dr. Janice Pata (BMS) – Wednesday Nov 18th at 5-6:30 p.m.
• Holiday Networking Event with Dr. Elga Wulfert (Psychology) – Thu Dec 10th at 5:00 p.m.

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Friday, May 8, 12-1:30 pm - Impostor Syndrome Virtual book discussion with Janice Para The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It by Valerie Young Ed.D

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Thursday, April 23, 2020

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Friday April 17, 12:00-1:00 - WISH Awards Marlene Belfort and Kristen Corbosiero

“Excellence at the interface of Science and Life” Student Awards

 

Life is hard – it can be even harder for those pursuing a degree in one of the STEM fields, but many individuals achieve school/work–life integration by succeeding academically or in their careers without losing sight of other important areas of their life. The Women in Science and Health (WISH) group has established an award to recognize students and postdoctoral fellows who are pursuing degrees and careers in STEM fields and are achieving excellence in their field while also being exemplars in excelling at life. The awards will take place Friday, April 17th at Noon via Zoom. RSVP to Irene Andrea at [email protected] to receive the Zoom link. Here are the winners: Undergraduate 1st: Mary Fucci, Physics, 2nd: Noreen Guilfoyle, Biology. Graduate 1st: Lauriana Gaudet, Atmospheric Sciences, 2nd: Rebecca Orrison, Atmospheric Sciences. (Pictured: Top row: Mary Fucci, Lauriana Gaudet. Second row: Rebecca Orrison, Noreen Guilfoyle)

 

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Tuesday, March 3, 2020

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Thurs. Feb. 27, 2020, 12-1:30 pm - Careers in Industry Joint meeting with RNA Cafe

 

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Monday, February 3, 2020

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WISH Meeting January 21 - Male Ambassadors

For the first meeting of on Friday, Jan. 17, 2020 (LSRB 1143 12-1:30 pm), WISH invited supportive male colleagues from across the campus to become “male ambassadors.” The male ambassadors provided their thoughts and suggestions for promoting gender equity at University at Albany in STEM. Our panelists included: Andy Berglund – RNA Institute, James Boswell - Psychology, Jim Dias – VPR, Keith Earle – Physics, and Prash Rangan – Biological Sciences. Chris Thorncroft – Atmospheric Sciences was regretfully unable to attend. This meeting was the first of hopefully many meetings to discuss gender issues with a broader audience.

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2019

Thurs. Dec. 6th, 2019 4:00-6:00 pm - City Line - WISH members enjoyed a holiday networking party at City Line on Western Ave. more than 20 WISH members and Scientista members celebrated the year’s accomplishments and networked with colleagues while enjoying some good food and drink!

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Fri. Nov. 14th, 2019 - 12:30-2:00 pm - Life Science Building - Julia Hormes, Associate Professor in Psychology reported on what she learned from Women in Leadership in Higher Education 2019 Conference that was held on the Harvard Campus in Cambridge, MA.

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Fri. Oct. 25th, 2019 12:00-1:30 pm - book discussion led by Kristen Corbosiero, Associate Professor, DAES (How Women Rise: Break the 12 habits Holding you Back by Sally Helgesen and Marshal Goldsmith)

To help stimulate our discussion of How Women Rise: Break the 12 Habits Holding you Back, the 12 habits are:

1. Not claiming your achievements/advocating for yourself
2. Expecting others to notice your achievements
3. Over-valuing expertise
4. Not leveraging relationships
5. Failing to enlist allies
6. Putting your job before your career
7. Hobbled by the desire to be perfect
8. Disease to please
9. Minimizing
10. Too much
11. Ruminating
12. Letting your radar distract you

The discussion focused on the 12 habits. Members discussed which ones do you most identify with, which ones would you most like to discuss, and which have you found effective strategies to overcome?

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Sept. 26th, 2019 – 12-1:30 pm - Faculty success program and informal mentoring - Janice 

WISH Steering Committee

Marlene Belfort, [email protected]
Kristen Corbosiero, [email protected]
Julia Hormes, [email protected]
Melinda Larsen, [email protected]
Janice Pata, [email protected]
Elga Wulfert, [email protected]

We had very interesting discussions on multiple topics. WISH Welcomes Janice Pata and Julia Hormes to the Steering Committee! We are sad to say goodbye to Cara Ocobock but wish her well in her new position at Notre Dame!

Tentative upcoming schedule for 2019-2020 WISH events:

• Fri. Oct. 25 12-1:30 LSRB 1143 – book discussion led by Kristen Corbosiero (How Women Rise: Break the 12 habits Holding you Back by Sally Helgesen and Marshal Goldsmith
• Thurs. Nov. 14 12-1:30 pm - Women in Leadership in Higher Ed conference – Julia Hormes
• Thurs. Dec. 6 – Holiday Networking Social - tentatively 4 pm-6 pm – City Line
• Tues. Jan. 21 – Male ambassadors
• Fri. Feb. 7 – Mentoring Panel for students and post-docs (suggestions for panelists are welcome)
• March 13 – Entrepreneurship meeting – non-traditional careers (suggestions for speakers are welcome)
• Fri. April 17 – WISH awards
• Thurs. May 7 – Impostor Syndrome

Most meetings will be held at 12 pm in LSRB1143 TBC. Email WISH at [email protected] or [email protected] with suggestions for speakers or topics.

Resource for faculty and trainees: NCFDD

We learned more about our Institutional Membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) from Chris Wagner and Janice Pata. In case you missed, it the first campus webinar workshop was on “Every semester needs a plan.” As this is a topic that can help many of us, we decided at the meeting to watch the archived webinar on the website and discuss it at the end of the next WISH meeting in Oct. It is a 90 min video so reserve time to view it. Those who have done it say that you will gain back more than the 90 min that you spent on the video. If you have not yet taken advantage of your free access to this valuable tool, please sign in and make an account. As this is a resource that WISH has long wanted access to, it is important that WISH members make a commitment to using it. If there is not sufficient interest on campus, the president will not renew the subscription next year.

Future NCFDD webinar workshops include:

• Align Your Time with Your Priorities
  October 24, 2:00-3:30 in UNH 110
• How to Develop a Daily Writing Practice
  November 21, 2:00-3:30 in Assembly Hall
• Mastering Academic Time Management
  January 13, 10:00-11:30 in Assembly Hall

SLACK Discussion Board for members:

To facilitate information discussion among members on the NCFDD and other topics, Janice Pata created a WISH SLACK account. WISH members can use this link to join our private discussion board:

https://join.slack.com/t/ualbany-wish/shared_invite/enQtNzc3MTYxNTExNjA2LTY2MmQwNzMwNzQ4YjI5YTY4OTM2MzRlNGVjNjliMGUxZGUwYTc3NjBiMDhjM2ZhMzM5ZmU2MzRjZTFhYjI5MDI

Follow us on Twitter: WISH now has a twitter handle! Follow us on Twitter: @ualbanywish

Events from last year:

We also discussed some important events from last year that we wish to continue. The WISH awards were very successful. We awarded three $100 awards to a postdoc, graduate student, and an undergraduate student. We plan to offer the awards next year as well but do need donations to keep funding the program.

Donations/membership fee:

Please consider making a donation to WISH today. https://www.albany.edu/wish/

As was sent out over the summer, we are asking WISH members to contribute $25/yr for an annual membership. This is a voluntary donation that will help to continue the WISH awards program, cover food for meetings, etc. Please consider donating today. There is a donation button on the WISH website.

Scientista:

We learned about the new UAlbany chapter of Scientista forming on campus from Clare Miller and Alicia McCarthy. Scientista is an organization for promoting women in STEM. Our UAlbany group is a graduate student group who will be planning events on campus. As their goals align with WISH we will be working with them on some joint events this year. If you are interested in more information or want to give more information to your students, their email is scientistaual[email protected]. They are also on Facebook at UAlbany Scientista.

NSF Advance Grant:

UAlbany plans to submit an “adaptation” grant to NSF with a letter of intent due Nov. 1, 2019 and the full proposal due in January 2020. SUNY Central also plans to submit a grant in the Transformational Grant category.

Authoring’s Women’s Success

Please also note that the university is holding a one-day conference called “Authoring Women’s Success” to be held on campus on Oct. 10-11. You can register for the event through Oct. 7: www.albany.edu/ualbanywomen

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Thurs. May 16th, 2019 1:30-1:45 – Life Science Building – Announcement of the 2019 WISH Award winners!

First annual Women in Science and Health awards held May 16, 2019

The winners of the first annual Women in Science and Health (WISH) awards were recognized in an awards ceremony on May 16, 2019 for their ability to balance Excellence in Science and Life. Winners are shown together with WISH co-founder and Steering Committee member, Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences, Marlene Belfort (second from the left).

From left: Marissa Louis, Graduate Student winner (Biological Sciences); Laura Munn, Undergraduate Student Honorable Mention (Biological Sciences); and, Sharon Shaughnessy, Undergraduate Student winner (Biological Sciences). Not present: Alvine Kamaha, Postdoctoral Fellow winner (Physics).

The essay contest was open to students and trainees in STEM fields at all career levels and all genders. Winners were determined on the basis of their essays describing how they balance their studies and careers in science with their lives and achieve excellence in both.

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Thurs. May 16th, 2019 1:45-3:30 – Life Science Building – Assistant Professor Cara Ocobock, Anthropology and co-host of “Sausage of Science” podcast for the Human Biology Association https://www.humbio.org/podcasts/ Dr. Ocobock led a Science Communication workshop to discuss strategies for communicating science to the general public. In this open interactive workshop, the participants, 15 people of all levels and genders, learned the basics of how to hone your message and engage others with your science to positively impact their research, teaching, and service activities!

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Thanks to everyone who attended Julia Horme's presentation at the April WISH meeting on "Leaky Pipelines and Concrete Ceilings: The Status of Women in the Academy."

One point Julia made in her presentation is that women's behaviors can limit their own progress. Spend some time this summer thinking about how to beak the habits that hold you back! Read the book, How Women Rise: Break the 12 habits holiding you back from your next raise, promotion or job by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Godsmith. We will have a discussion of the book during a WISH meeting in the fall.

See this on YouTube: How Women Rise: Overview

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Thurs April 25th, 2019 12-1:30 pm – Life Science Building -- Dr. Julia Hormes, Associate Professor of Psychology gave a seminar and lead a discussion on “The Leaky Pipeline and the Status of Women in Academia”

Also on the agenda:

• Discussion of WISH mentoring groups – what is working and what is not working
• First annual WISH Awards

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Fri., March 9th, 2019 – Professor Karla Neugebauer, Ph.D. Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry and of Cell Biology; Director of Graduate Studies, Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry; Director, Yale Center for RNA Science and Medicine; Yale University, gave a seminar on “Breaking Barriers for Women in Science.” Karla is a long-time advocate of equality in science and spoke specifically on steps that academic departments and other groups can make to achieve gender equality.

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Fri. Feb. 15th, 2019 – Campus Center - WISH sponsored a Mentoring Panel featuring: Amy Teale, Regeneron; Heidi Newberg, Professor of Physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic; Kristin Christodulu, Associate Proffessor of Psychology, University at Albany and Director, Center for Autism. The panel discussion was led by Dr. Cara Ocobock, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and WISH Steering Committee Member. Around 100 undergraduate and graduate students enjoyed an open and lively discussion with panel members.

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2018

December 13, 2018 (5:00 pm, The Point): Holiday NetworkingWISH members enjoyed a holiday networking party at The Point on Madison Ave. Around 20 WISH members braved the snowstorm to celebrate the year’s accomplishments and network with peers.

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November 9, 2018 (12:00 - 1:30 pm, LSRB 1143): Academic Branding & Social Media Use Seminar - Dr. Jennifer Manganello, SPH

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October 25, 2018 (12:00 - 1:30 pm, LSRB 1143): Dr. Kristen Corbosiero, Associate Professor DAES and WISH Steering Committee member, led a discussion of the book: The Coach’s Guide for Women Professors Who Want a Successful Career and a Well-Balanced Life by Rena Selzer involving about 20 WISH members.

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Topics for future meetings:

• Forum for female post-docs
• Forum for female graduate students
• Forum for female undergraduates
• Forum for under-represented minority women
• Outreach to the College of Computing and Information as well as the School of Public Health
• Outside Speakers (eminent female scientists and women engineers)

For more information please contact Marlene Belfort.