Equity, diversity, and inclusion

I am fortunate to work with a diverse group of collaborators. I think our collective perspectives enrich the work we do together. I extend support to equity-seeking groups across academia by participating in initiatives like the Long-term Research Section of the Canadian Society for Ecology and Evolution and Support Our Science that help share data and funding with students and early-career researchers from equity-seeking groups. I recruit mentees equitably and remain flexible to any accommodations my mentees might need to succeed (e.g., irregular work hours for childcare, part-time programs for professionals, etc.). I foster a welcoming and safer environment by representing my own identity as a transgender person and seeking ways to highlight other identities in academia.

Collegiality and community

Community is one of the essential ingredients of good science. Learning communities allow us to share our talents and skills and ideas grow and become better when we share them rather than compete for them. I think part of being a good community member — and one of the most important soft skills for early academics — is learning to give and graciously receive thoughtful feedback. We also need to recognize the contributions of community members to group research both by using instruments like the CRediT taxonomy for authorship and by finding ways for all community members to meaningfully participate.

Mental health & work-life-balance

I support a positive work-life balance for all my students and mentees. When possible, I think students should be able to work in the environments and at the paces they feel most comfortable or their personal responsibilities allow, whether this means missing class to pick a child up from school or taking a mental health day at home. These students and mentees should also not be required to disclose their personal reasons for their decisions. I also think we can do better as a community to support peers struggling with their mental health. Just as First Aid courses are a normalized part of employee onboarding, I think Mental Health First Aid should be normalized to prepare us to support peers experiencing mental health crises.

Open and ethical science

Much of science is funded by the public. I think as publicly funded scientists we have an obligation not only to make that science available to the public but to make it accessible. Accessible science means learning to communicate our findings to non-experts and finding ways to disseminate our findings directly to the communities impacted by our science. I make all my research available by preprinting. I also share all my code and data whenever possible on repositories like GitHub, Zenodo, and Dryad.