Artistic 3D render of a strand of DNA double helix

Black scientists lead the push for equity in STEMM on Juneteenth

In a Q&A, cancer biologist Donita Brady, PhD, discusses the barriers to racial equity in the U.S., why there are still few Black scientists, and how Penn Medicine is protecting mental health of marginalized faculty and students.

  • Tonya Russell
  • June 19, 2023
Portrait of Donita Brady
Donita Brady

The Juneteenth holiday celebrated on June 19 is one of delayed recognition. It’s a day for Black Americans to celebrate freedom and civil rights. It commemorates a date, in 1865, when the last large group of enslaved people in the U.S. belatedly learned they were legally free, at the end of the Civil War and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

It took over 150 years for Juneteenth to be recognized as a federal holiday, and today, in academia and other large institutions, the pattern of delayed progress toward equity persists.

But there is a great deal of momentum and leadership toward racial equity today. In response to recent years' calls for equitable practices, the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) have undergone their own racial reckoning. In a recent article published in the academic journal Cell, 52 Black scientists give voice to the barriers and struggles faced by the population—where only 5 percent of academic faculty are Black. The Cell commentary included insight from three Penn Medicine faculty: Donita Brady, PhD; Blanton Tolbert, PhD; and Cornelius Taabazuing, PhD.

Brady, the Harrison McCrea Dickson, MD and Clifford C. Baker, MD, Presidential Professor in Cancer Biology and assistant dean for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Research Training in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was one of the corresponding authors of this piece. An accomplished cancer biologist and leader in advancing health equity, Brady spoke about the process of tackling this tough topic, including an exploration of barriers to racial equity in the U.S., why the number of Black scientists is still so low, and the ways that Penn is protecting the mental health of marginalized faculty and students.

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