The Department of Biology Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) works to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion awareness and practices in the department.

Committee composition (current members indicated in parentheses)

• Two faculty representatives acting as co-chairs (Clay Fuqua, Megan Murphy)
• Professor and department chair (Armin Moczek)
• Director of Graduate Studies (Heather Reynolds)
• Department staff representative (Jennifer Tarter)
• Graduate office advisor (Sam Allen)
• Graduate student representatives (Allan Gramillo, Camille Pushman)
• Postdoctoral representatives (Meenu Singla)

Committee work

• Identify and advise on issues pertaining to diversity, equity, and inclusion of relevance to all department members including staff, NTT and TT faculty, undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers
• Assist in the implementation of action items aimed to lessen or eliminate deficiencies in areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Serve as a point of contact between the Department of Biology and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion of the College of Arts & Sciences.
• Committee chairs attend collegewide Diversity Chairs meetings and serve as a point of contact and communication between the college and department on DEI matters pertaining to the department, college, university, and campus.

Recent foci

• Petition to support renaming the Biology Building to Holland Hall in honor of Dr. James P. Holland (submitted to University Naming Committee)
• Creation of a graduate student-led help desk to assist with efforts to build community between Biology graduate students, faculty, and staff
• Postdoctoral mentoring program in which postdocs familiar with IU and Bloomington partner with newly incoming postdocs for individualized mentoring
• Enhanced training for associate instructors (AIs) and undergraduate teaching assistants (UTAs) regarding bias incidents in the classroom
• Development of database for faculty and staff service activities, to better track and inform equity in service roles

Join us!

We welcome your input! Email us at biodi@iu.edu if you would like to get involved with our work or have ideas that you’d like the committee to consider.