Attendees of the Female Leadership in Science workshop held at HMS. Image: Yuval Hart
What does it take to help women in academic medicine reach their full leadership potential at Harvard Medical School?
For some, the answer might be as simple as having easily accessible childcare while they’re at work.
“A lack of childcare support is perceived as a passive disinterest in supporting female faculty at HMS,” said Stirling Churchman, an assistant professor of genetics at HMS and principal investigator in the Churchman lab.
“Before there can be more female leaders at HMS, we need to address the obvious shortcomings and, together as a group, we are motivated to work with the administration to offer the same support to female faculty as is offered at our peer institutions,” added Churchman, whose lab is seeking to quantitatively visualize gene expression processes at higher levels of resolution.
“The workshop was an incredible opportunity to get to know other women faculty on the Quad.” —Nancy Keating
Churchman was one of 11 HMS junior and senior women faculty members who recently participated in the Female Leaders in Science Workshop co-sponsored by the Office for Academic and Clinical Affairs and the Vallee Foundation.
Nancy Tarbell, dean for academic and clinical affairs at HMS, and one of the attendees, noted “the participants’ intense work and in-depth conversations were important to meeting the goals of the workshop—to empower women and help move them into leadership positions.”
According to Tarbell, participating in these types of workshops provide an opportunity to continue with the goals set out by the HMS Task Force on Faculty Development and Diversity, such as being able to attract and retain a thriving faculty who will lead biomedical research, provide exceptional patient care and ultimately advance the mission of the School.
“The workshop facilitated a focus on the key issues that face female faculty directly and indirectly at HMS,” said Churchman.
The workshop was designed to strengthen individual skills for success in academic medicine, such as self‐confidence, authority, leadership and negotiating skills; to foster networking and mentoring among women faculty; and to develop a set of recommendations to enhance the overall climate for women faculty at HMS.
Workshop attendees also heard from Bonnie Bassler, Squibb Professor of Molecular Biology at Princeton University, who gave a talk on the molecular mechanisms that bacteria use for intercellular communication.
Bassler, who is also chair of Molecular Biology at Princeton, is the inaugural Kuggie Vallee Distinguished Lecturer and a passionate advocate for diversity in the sciences.
“It was encouraging and empowering to have Bassler share her challenges and successes as a department chair with attendees,” said Galit Lahav, professor of systems biology at HMS and academic and clinical affairs liaison. Lahav was one of the organizers of the workshop and attended as a faculty member.
S. James Adelstein, the HMS Paul C. Cabot Professor of Medical Biophysics Emeritus and past president of the Vallee Foundation, explained that Kuggie Vallee, for whom the lecture series is named, was a professor of human biology at Lesley College (now Lesley University) in Cambridge, Mass., and an early champion of women choosing careers in science.
The two-day workshop, led by Sue Hewitt from HFP Consulting, took place at the Harvard Club in Boston. Attendees had the opportunity to bond and create a peer support group that engaged in case studies, group and partner work, discussion groups and personal reflection based on real-world examples.
“The workshop was an incredible opportunity to get to know other women faculty on the Quad,” said Nancy Keating, professor of health care policy at HMS. “Although our areas of focus may be quite different, we have many shared experiences. I also gained tools that have helped me be a more effective communicator, which I’ve been able to share with my mentees.”
Adapted from a Vallee Foundation news release.
