Ecolunch (Ecology Seminar) is an informal weekly seminar series hosted by the Department of Integrative Biology (UT Austin) where speakers present on topics generally related to ecology and is also available for course credit as ‘Ecology Seminar’. I’ve been the co-organizer for the seminar for Fall 2020 and Spring 2021.

This seminar serves to enhance the diversity and inclusivity of the EEB program through the content of the presentations that are offered as well as the presenters (at different levels in their careers and from different institutions). Presentations range from casual research progress reports to practice conference talks to well-versed presentations of long-term research programs. Presenters can include anyone investigating topics with ecological aspects, colleagues from other universities, and industry or science professionals working for non-academic agencies and institutions.

The International graduate committee of EEB has been found by me and other graduate students of EEB to help facilitate communication and interaction between current and incoming graduate students in the Department of Integrative Biology at UT Austin. We host monthly meetings to keep in touch and address various issues that might be important for the international student life on campus and aim to serve as an incubator for the incoming graduate students to the graduate program.

The Society for Advancing Gender Equity in STEM (SAGES) at UT is a student-led organization that was founded to promote the representation, professional development, leadership, and success of women in STEM by fostering a cross-disciplinary community. AWIS at UT has grown rapidly since its founding in 2019 to over 500 members, including undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty, and staff across a broad range of STEM disciplines.

I’ve been serving as the co-founder and director of the Mentorship Committee of AWIS at UT, responsible for the annual mentorship program. Currently in its second cycle with 77 mentorship pairs, this program matches mentors from positions in academia (graduate students, postdoctoral associates, faculty members) and industry with mentees that are at different levels in their academic training at UT Austin (undergraduate students, graduate students, postdoctoral associates). Not only do we serve women at different career stages, but we are building a program that includes women from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. This program allows both the mentees and mentors to learn from each other’s experiences and has even shaped some of our mentees’ post-graduate career choices by expanding our mentees’ professional networks. Stay tuned to hear about our upcoming mentorship program cycle!

EcoEvoApps is a cross-instutional effort to make education in ecology and evolutionary biology more inclusive and equitable. It includes R Shiny apps developed to be used by students and educators to supplement learning and teaching of models in ecology and evolutionary biology. Key apps have been translated to Spanish, Portugese, Chinese and Turkish (by me!).

This work is published: