The first time that I attended my institution’s monthly meeting of the “Scientific Center and Institute Directors,” I was a new Deputy Director and I was attending the meeting because my boss (the Director) was out of town. Our Dean was a woman, but before she entered the room, I was the only woman in the room. I was also younger than most of the Directors. Just before the Dean walked in, there was an awkward moment when one of the men mistook me for an administrative assistant, assuming I was there to take notes. For a moment, I felt embarrassed and very out of place. I remembered something that my mother, who was a trailblazer in her own career, likes to say: “when we step outside our comfort zone, our comfort zone gets bigger.” I realized that by taking a seat at that table, I was stepping outside my comfort zone. I may have been simultaneously expanding the comfort zone of some others in the room, who had preconceived notions about what STEM Directors look like. My mother’s adage has turned out to be true in this case; the comfort zone has expanded and I now feel entirely comfortable at that meeting. I’ve seen increasing diversity among the other Scientific Center Directors around the table. My wish for women in STEM is that we continue to push the edges of our comfort zones – when we do, we make the comfort zone bigger for ourselves but also for those who come behind us.
-Dr. Heather Whitson, Associate Professor of Medicine at Duke University
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