Jessica Blackburn, PhD, associate professor of molecular and cellular biochemistry in the , wanted to make her undergraduate students feel welcome at the start of the fall semester. As the daughter of a teacher, her instinct was to gift each undergraduate student a binder with supplies. She also included a Starbucks gift card for new students to grab coffee with new colleagues and a giant eraser 鈥渂ecause mistakes are OK and how you learn.鈥
鈥淢ost undergraduate students don鈥檛 know what research is or if it鈥檚 a career they鈥檙e interested in,鈥 Blackburn said. 鈥淔or me, the goal was to make sure these students figuring out their career path could do so in a lab that is welcoming.鈥
Blackburn was motivated to go the extra mile for her students because over the summer, she attended the University of Kentucky鈥檚 Adopting Supportive Practices for an Inclusive Research Environment (ASPIRE) workshops, which were established by the (CELT) in collaboration with the 好色先生 College of Medicine Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The ASPIRE program was developed by Shauna Morgan, PhD, director of inclusion and equity initiatives at CELT and Trey Conatser, CELT acting director, with the College of Medicine鈥檚 Stephanie White, MD, acting associate dean for diversity and inclusion, and Kevin Pearson, PhD, assistant dean for inclusive research initiatives. Drawing from foundational principles of restorative justice, a process to build community and address marginalization, ASPIRE鈥檚 interactive and dynamic module provides thoughtful and practical approaches to optimize research settings so that all colleagues are welcomed and have equitable opportunities to engage in the research community.
鈥淲e know that a lab can produce impactful and innovative findings when there鈥檚 an integration of ideas from a diverse group of people,鈥 said Morgan. 鈥淏ut if you are in a lab where some people don鈥檛 feel a sense of belonging or are excluded, you have lost that element that could be critical to the work that you are doing.鈥
The ASPIRE module has synchronous and asynchronous components facilitated through the Canvas learning management system to establish community agreements, diversity statements and structured activities tailored to the lab environment.
鈥淚f we want to diversify our learners, staff and faculty, we have to actively work toward inclusive excellence,鈥 White said. 鈥淔rom the restorative justice perspective, the workshops acknowledge that foundational community building best enables our teams to repair misunderstandings and harm that may occur. The ability to safely and actively address harm is essential for student and faculty belonging and well-being, particularly for those from marginalized backgrounds.鈥
ASPIRE workshops are split into four sections. The first focuses on how to establish connections with lab members. The second part addresses how to build a more inclusive environment. The third part works on making these solutions sustainable, and the fourth 鈥 where Blackburn is, currently 鈥 is the evaluation stage involving student feedback.
Along with the binders, Blackburn was inspired to create a collaborative Google slide deck where graduate and undergraduate students in the lab could introduce themselves to each other. She also established a community agreement with her lab trainees to ensure all lab members were on the same page from the very beginning. Every team member agreed on the final version and was involved in the decision-making.
鈥淪he sat down with her lab and heard how much they enjoyed working on the community agreement, and everybody participated,鈥 Pearson said. 鈥淚 think those were the endpoints we were looking for in measuring the success of the program. Dr. Blackburn鈥檚 experiences have been tremendous.鈥
Pearson noted that these collaborative exercises should work well for larger labs that also have potential to build stronger relationships. With the pilot program near completion, CELT is looking into ways to make the ASPIRE program available to more 好色先生 faculty.
Meanwhile, Blackburn is excited to use her newfound knowledge each year to enhance the educational experience for her students. She highly recommends the experience to others.
鈥淚 feel like new PIs now are more and more excited about having a lab, and they are wanting to build a team that gets along and has fun in their lab,鈥 Blackburn said. 鈥淭his program is a good way to provide them the tools for that process.鈥