Liannie C. Velázquez Santana
DEI Outreach & Mentoring Initiatives
Motivation
Pursuing my graduate degree at a predominantly white institution (PWI) opened my eyes to the lack of racial diversity in higher education. The longstanding underrepresentation in the American professoriate has seen little to no improvement in the past 40 years with less than 10% of doctoral degrees awarded to BIPOC [1]. Even more alarming is the fact that faculty of color hold less than 3.8% of tenure-track or tenured positions in the top 100 geoscience departments [2].
As a Latina, I am passionate and committed to contributing to efforts that increase diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in STEM. Below are some of the mentoring and outreach efforts that I have participated that specifically target recruiting and retaining BIPOC students in the geosciences. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in collaborating or learning more!
Mentoring
Top Image: My advisor and mentor, Dr. Claire McLeod and I during the 2021 Miami University Field Camp.
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Bottom Image: Having community is important! My seismologist best friend Wilnelly Ventura Valentín and I visiting Chicago for the first time.
I have greatly benefited from mentoring and role models throughout my academic career. This can be one of the most effective strategies for retaining BIPOC students in the geosciences and building a sense of community.
I choose to pay it forward by frequently serving in panels and outreach activities such as the Geoscience is for Everyone week and by serving as a mentor to undergraduates conducting research. I have also served as a mentor for the SACNAS NSF-funded GeoFutures program and GSA On to the Future Program.
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At UT Austin, I am currently a peer mentor for the Mentee-Centered Mentorship for Minority Women PhD Students program which seeks to address specific experiences and mentoring needs of Black, Indigenous, and women of color. During Summer 2023, I will also participate as a mentor in the NSF-funded Strengthening Traineeship and Research Opportunities for Next Generation of Geoscientists at MSIs program (Strong at MSIs). The goal of this program is to help BIPOC students thrive at research-intensive institutions through research and mentoring initiatives.
Science Communication
An integral component to advancing the accessibility of science for BIPOC communities is communicating our science effectively while also creating a sense of relatability.
I actively collaborate with community members and science teachers in my local hometown in San Germán, Puerto Rico to provide virtual geoscience workshops fo middle and high school students. These workshops target the lack of a geoscience curriculum in the local high schools and shatter stereotypes regarding what scientists look like.
I have also created a video for The Geology Project social media that discusses my research in Spanish for a non-scientific audience (watch it on my En Español tab) to increase the accessibility of science for my communities.
Most recently, I was a subject matter expert for the Telemundo 48 Bay Area News where I was interviewed in Spanish about the hazards of the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption.
Top Image: Presenting my summer research at the 2017 Stanford Undergraduate Research in Geoscience and Engineering (SURGE) Symposium.
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Middle Image: High school students from the Lola Rodriguez de Tío high school in San Germán, Puerto Rico during one of the Geoscience workshop sessions.
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Bottom Image: Interview for the Telemundo 48 Bay Area News about the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcanic eruption.
[1] Status of the Geoscience Workforce (American Geoscience Institute, 2016)
[2] Bernard, R.E. & Cooperdock, E.H., Nat Geosci. 11, 292-295 (2018).