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1. Introduce yourself, who are you what do you do? Hi! I’m Claire Meaders, and I’m a postdoctoral associate at Cornell. I used to study plants – specifically the columbine flower, but during my Ph.D. I got really interested in studying how we teach and create inclusive classrooms in STEM. My research now focuses on the transition for students from high school to college in their introductory STEM courses. 2. How did you arrive at this career (or point in your life/work)? Was it always something you knew you wanted to do? When I was a kid the field of biology education research was just coming into existence – I didn’t know about it until well into my Ph.D. Looking back it looks like I was preparing for it all along (I got involved with science outreach during my first semester of graduate school, took courses and fellowships focused on education, and in general loved teaching), but I really was just pursuing areas I was interested in. As I was getting ready to graduate, I thought more about how to make my “extracurriculars” my career and got really lucky in finding a postdoctoral advisor who could help me switch paths. 3. What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning, especially on those cold, dark mornings? I almost switched out of STEM during my first semester of college after a poor grade on my first mid-term, and I love that the work I do now has the potential to support and keep students who want to pursue STEM degrees in the field. 4. What is your personal cure for stress or how do you raise your spirits in times of doubt? Can you share a Story? It can be easy for me to get caught up in the minutiae of research but doing work where I can see immediate impacts has been really helpful to keep myself grounded when I’m stressed. For example, I mentor an 8th grade student weekly through an after-school program and taking time to focus on someone else always makes me feel centered again. I’ve also always found running to be therapeutic – I got into longer-distance running when I was in college as a way to get out of the campus bubble. I’ve run with various friends over the years, and the mix of company and endorphins always raises my spirits when I’m stressed. I started running marathons in college, mostly to see if I could, but it’s turned into a long-term way for me to literally step away from my work when I’m overthinking things. Plus, the personal feeling of accomplishment after going for a run is always a great way to deal with a way when you feel like nothing else has worked in lab! 5. Who is your role model? If no one, any thoughts on this? I’m really lucky and I have a lot of role models – both my PhD advisor and postdoctoral advisor are women in STEM who manage multiple roles while also researching, teaching, and being advocates for students in their departments. Their work and efforts to support future scientists gives me more confidence in my own abilities to juggle projects and motivates me to mentor students across various levels in K-16. I also just became a AAAS If/Then Ambassador, which is a program of 125 women in STEM from all different fields and career stages. The goal of the program is to provide middle school girls with role models in STEM, but I have also really benefited from having this new network of women to be inspired by. 6. What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back in time? I’d tell myself not to stress about figuring out exactly what I wanted to do with my life. 7. Top 3 tips for girls starting out in STEM? The job you want might not exist yet – keep pursuing all of your interests, you’ll get transferrable skills from each one and you might also be preparing for a future career where you get to combine multiple interests.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions – not knowing something only shows that you’re still learning. And we’re all still learning. Build a mentoring network – different mentors can serve different roles. For example you might have a formal research mentor once you start working in a lab, but you also might have mentors who can help you with professional development or developing other skills, mentors who are sounding boards or who give feedback, and also peer mentors (these might be friends you look up to). Your mentors can be from all aspects of your life, and can be your biggest cheerleaders to help you celebrate your successes, and also your safe spaces if you have stressful times. And then pay it forward by mentoring others! 8. How do you measure your success? I feel successful when I feel like I’ve learned new things or new skills. If what was challenging for me last year now feels easy, that’s a huge success! It’s also really important to me to feel like I’m doing impactful work – whether it be through research, teaching, or outreach (preferably all three), I feel most successful when I feel like my work could benefit individual students and on a broader level academia. 9. Where can we find out more about your work? I recently launched my personal website: https://www.clairemeaders.com , where I have some more details about my work! 10. Are you social? Will you share your Twitter handle, or LinkedIn profile, or Facebook so that young women can connect with you? Yup! Twitter: @clairemeaders Instagram: @drclairemeaders Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clara-meaders-3451123b/

1. Introduce yourself, who are you what do you do? I’m Sam, I am a postdoctoral fellow at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. I am working on developing a test that can identify which pregnancies are at risk of delivering prematurely. To do this, I measure modification made to DNA called DNA methylation and use machine learning (mathematical models) to identify patterns in the DNA methylation that are associated with a premature delivery. 2. How did you arrive at this career (or point in your life/work)? Was it always something you knew you wanted to do? Ending up in this career was a journey of experiences and opportunities where I just followed what work I most enjoyed. I definitely did not think that science was a career I wanted to do. Neither of my parents attended University, and I didn’t know what a PhD was until I was completing my undergrad. I became interested in science in high school and found that I really enjoyed learning about genetics. I followed that interest and made decisions that allowed my to continue studying it as long as possible. 3. What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning, especially on those cold, dark mornings? The most major thing is the feeling that I have the opportunity to contribute to science and maybe that will make a difference one day. Day to day, I love learning new things, and getting better at them. I also love that my job allows me to work with amazing people and learn from them. 4. What is your personal cure for stress or how do you raise your spirits in times of doubt? Can you share a Story? I put a lot of effort into enforcing working hours for myself. While I love what I do, I know that working myself to the point where I’m exhausted doesn’t make me more productive. This is particularly true in times of high stress. I love to hike, so I will take the time to plan a day to do a big 10-20km hike. I got a dog the first year of my postdoc and this has helped immensely in making sure I do that, and do daily walks. I also like to travel and destress by planning my next trip. When stressed, I always make sure I treat myself as well. Sometimes that means I get a fancy coffee, or get ingredients to make a really nice dinner. Essentially, schedule time to spend on yourself guilt free. 5. Who is your role model? If no one, any thoughts on this? I have many, but collectively I have been fortunate to work with many female mentors who I look up to immensely. Being able to see someone like you succeed is very inspiring and motivational to keep working and maybe one day you will get there too. 6. What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back in time? No one can make you feel inferior without your consent - Eleanor Roosevelt 7. Top 3 tips for girls starting out in STEM? Grades do not reflect your research ability or your passion to a subject Get to know the people you work with, makes day to day more fun and starts your network. Don’t try to rush to the next phase of your career. Try to gather as much experience from where you are now, and enjoy it. 8. How do you measure your success? If I can answer “Yes” to the question “Am I happy?” then I would consider that success 9. Where can we find out more about your work? Google scholar link- https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=wdjQgMkAAAAJ&hl=en 10. Are you social? Will you share your Twitter handle, or LinkedIn profile, or Facebook so that young women can connect with you? Twitter - @SamanthaLWilson

1. Introduce yourself, who are you what do you do? Hi! My name is Dyna Cockus Rose, and I’m a drag queen! I live and perform in the SF Bay Area where I love to combine my “nerdy” passions for science and nature with something over-the-top, silly, glamorous, sexy and humorous! By day, I’m usually out of drag, where I go by my legal name, Dylan McClung, and work as a Microbiology PhD student at UC Berkeley. 2. How did you arrive at this career (or point in your life/work)? Was it always something you knew you wanted to do? Arriving at this point in life was unexpected and is still evolving. I remember in 7th grade thinking that I wanted to be a scientist, so I stuck with that general direction. Then in 8th grade, I auditioned for our school’s musical, High School Musical. I didn’t have any singing or acting experience at that point, but afterwards, I realized that I loved being on the stage. I performed in a couple more school productions until I decided to focus on taking more AP science classes instead of extra-curriculars. That lead me into college where I declared a biology major. In my sophomore year, I went to our campus’s annual drag show (my first ever). I thought it was so cool, but I was so worried about the stigma around cross dressing. I didn’t take the plunge until about 4 years later (in my 2nd year of graduate school). I had seen more local drag shows, became obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race, and decided that it was time for me to try it out. I found a drag mentor and performed for the first time a few months later! Over the next year and a half, I worked on building my confidence as a performer. However, I wanted to combine my passions for science with drag. I wanted to capitalize on my unique set of skills and stand out from the many queens in the Bay Area. A labmate heard about a campus science communication competition (the UCB Bear Slam) and told me to apply as Dyna. I ended up being chosen as one of seven contestants, and won the competition! We each gave 10 minute talks about our research, but had to make them understandable and entertaining, along with scientific. Giving a talk in drag really set in motion my current pursuits of incorporating science into my drag, and more drag into my science! One of my missions is to use drag as a way of engaging the public so that I can help create a more scientifically literate society. At the same time, I want to help expand the idea of “who/what a scientist is” by showing that scientists come in many kinds of packages - mine just happens to rhinestoned and glittery. 3. What about your job makes you jump out of bed in the morning, especially on those cold, dark mornings? Teaching other people science really gets me jazzed! Honest! I’ve realized through my PhD that I find much more joy in teaching and mentoring than physically performing experiments or analyzing data. Seeing someone have that “aha” moment or noticing the glimmer of intrigue in their eyes really inspires me to keep sharing science with others. 4. What is your personal cure for stress or how do you raise your spirits in times of doubt? Can you share a Story? As I mentioned above, I participated and won the UC Berkeley Bear Slam 2018 after giving a scientific talk about my research in drag. That night, I was elated! I practiced a ton, I combined two very different fields into a coherent presentation, and I had fun! Yet the next day, all of those happy feelings vanished. For no particular reason. I didn’t feel like myself, so after a few weeks, I decided to speak to a therapist. Through my time in therapy, I realized that I wasn’t being very kind to myself. And that lack of kindness had been damaging my psyche for multiple years. Through therapy, I started to shift my perspective to change the conversation in my head. I started to realize my value, to recognize my skills and my shortcomings, and to set realistic expectations. When I’m feeling stressed out, I try to be kind to myself. If I need a break, I take it without feeling shame or guilt. For me, that’s usually watching TV or playing video games. Also, I remind myself that I’m not perfect and that no one is expecting perfection. That usually helps me break down and identify what needs to get done, and what would be nice if I’m feeling extra and have time. 5. Who is your role model? If no one, any thoughts on this? My undergraduate research advisor, Dr. KT Elliott, is a huge role model for me. She introduced me to microbiology and is the reason that I fell in love with this field. Her excitement for science is infectious (pun intended)! She was an incredible mentor/teacher to me; she set high expectations, was direct and stern with issues, but had such a kind and caring heart. Her mentoring style inspires me and is what motivates me to share as much as I can with my mentees and students. 6. What advice would you give to yourself if you could go back in time? Be kinder to yourself, and be authentically you. You’ll be surprised by how many people will be inspired by that. 7. Top 3 tips for girls starting out in STEM? Find a mentor who genuinely supports you, your goals, and your successes. Surround yourself with people who have similar but non-competing goals. This will be motivating for everyone, without causing unnecessary stress from competition. Be kind to yourself 8. How do you measure your success? This is super cliché, but I measure my success by my happiness. 9. Where can we find out more about your work? Follow my social media accounts! 10. Are you social? Will you share your Twitter handle, or LinkedIn profile, or Facebook so that young women can connect with you? Twitter: @dynacockusrose Instagram: @dynacockusrose YouTube is coming soon!