Carla Kim, PhD, Director of Gender Equity for Faculty in Science

November 4, 2024

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Carla Kim

I am delighted to write with the news that Carla Kim, PhD, Professor of Genetics and the BCH Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Regenerative Medicine at Harvard Medical School, will serve as the next Director of Gender Equity for Faculty in Science at HMS. In this role, Dr. Kim will work within the Office for Clinical and Academic Affairs and in collaboration with faculty, academic leaders, Female Leaders in Science (FLiS), and other HMS affiliated groups with a shared mission of promoting gender equity in opportunities to flourish as science faculty at HMS.

Dr. Kim’s laboratory at Boston Children’s Hospital has pioneered the use of stem cell biology approaches for the study of adult lung progenitor cells and lung cancer. Her work has contributed to a better understanding of stem cell biology in the lung, development of innovative approaches for examining the cellular and molecular basis of cancer, pulmonary disease and aging, and identification of new therapeutic avenues for lung cancer. Her scientific work has been recognized by numerous honors and awards; Dr. Kim has received the William Rippe Distinguished Award in Lung Cancer Research in 2015, has been recognized with an Outstanding Investigator Award (NIH R35) in 2020, and has recently been named as the incumbent of the BCH Professorship of Pediatrics in the Field of Regenerative Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Among her other scientific leadership roles, Dr. Kim serves as a Co-Leader of the Lung Cancer Program in the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and as a member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute Executive Committee.

In addition to her notable scientific achievements, Dr. Kim has worked energetically to advance gender equity in opportunities and career success among HMS trainees and early career faculty. She is a prodigious and generous mentor, for which she was recently recognized with the HMS Biological and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program Mentoring Award. She has served on the BCH Women Faculty Careers Council and currently serves as Director of Basic Science Career Development in the Office of Faculty Development at Boston Children’s Hospital. As many of you already know, Dr. Kim has also been a highly valued and engaged member of FLiS and the FLiS advisory committee. The support of gender equity among her peers and the next generation of women scientists has been a throughline in Dr. Kim’s work. As such, her new role as director is a logical extension of its scope and we are fortunate that she will now lead efforts and programming to advance gender equity for science faculty at HMS.

I would like to close by expressing enormous gratitude to Marcia Haigis, PhD, Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School, for her exceptional leadership and extraordinary impact as the immediate past Director of Gender Equity for Faculty in Science at HMS. As many of you already know and appreciate, Dr. Haigis brought wisdom and heart to this role. She has mobilized and energized a network of talented faculty through FLiS to strengthen channels for information sharing and to enrich mentorship of early career faculty; in this respect, she has been a highly effective champion of community building. Her efforts were instrumental in raising funds to support future gender equity initiatives. Dr. Haigis has also created programming that has elevated the visibility of female leaders in science and likewise has supported early career science faculty in developing as leaders, themselves. Her success and impact in these ways will no doubt play out into the future and have already been evident in the very strong field of candidates considered for this role.

We are grateful for Dr. Haigis’s signature combination of enthusiasm and leadership, which has been generative to programming and vital in engaging a community allied around support of gender equity for faculty at HMS. We also congratulate and extend best wishes to her on her new role as co-director of the Bertarelli Rare Cancers Initiative. We are delighted that she will also remain active in the FLiS community.

Please join me in thanking Marcia for her tremendous service in this role and in welcoming Carla to this important leadership role.

With high hopes for the continued success of this work and gratitude and best wishes to all of you who continue to animate and support it,

Anne E. Becker, MD, PhD
Dean for Clinical and Academic Affairs