{"id":10406,"date":"2021-02-18T14:31:34","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T19:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/?p=10406"},"modified":"2024-03-26T10:28:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:28:13","slug":"diversity-and-inclusion-in-stem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/2021\/02\/18\/diversity-and-inclusion-in-stem\/","title":{"rendered":"Moving beyond the numbers: Diversity and inclusion in STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tYPEKfVTIwM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span>The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) significantly influence major aspects of everyday life from technology and communications, to medicine, research, and the implementation of healthcare, yet, the workforce in these fields rarely reflects the diverse populations they serve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In this panel discussion, alumni professionals who are leading the charge to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within their STEM organizations, share first-hand about their strategies to implement change and challenge the status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>About the speakers:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong title=\"\">Anthony Harrison (COM&#8217;81)<\/strong><span>\u00a0is passionate about the power of words. He loves a well-turned phrase and the impact of a powerful story. That\u2019s what brought him to public relations over 20 years ago. A graduate of Boston University\u2019s College of Communications, Anthony\u2019s career is built on telling powerful and compelling stories about everything from telephones (Verizon) to lattes (Starbucks) to Mickey Mouse (Disney); from the paper of record (The NY Times) and the world\u2019s best-known software, (Microsoft) and most recently, the largest social network on the planet (Facebook). He prides himself on finding and telling stories that engage people and change their opinions. Stories that build or renew a reputation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Anthony doesn\u2019t take himself too seriously. He thrives on making those around him better than they were when he met them. And in turn lets them make him better. He works hard and laughs harder. He\u2019s ridden his bike from San Francisco to Los Angeles, handled balloons in the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving Day parade, and when you meet him, you\u2019ll never forget him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong title=\"\">Dr. Pooja Mittal (CAS&#8217;98)<span>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><span>is a Family Physician who works at HealthNet as a Medical Director. She is a member of the leadership team that works to further equitable care through a population health model for all HealthNet members.\u00a0 Dr. Mittal has an expertise in the area of maternal child health.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>She started at Boston University as a faculty member practicing full scope family medicine. She then moved to the UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine, where she was an Associate Professor with a full scope clinical practice including obstetrics and inpatient medicine. At UCSF, Dr. Mittal was the Director of Maternal Child Health for the residency training program. She also served as an Assistant Medical Director of Family Centered Care, where she worked to improve the care of families across the life course.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dr. Mittal also works at the National Clinicians Consultation Center at UCSF, a national HIV\/AIDS warmline, where she is recognized as a national expert on Perinatal HIV care. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. In addition to her clinical work, she has published in the areas of well-child care, group visits, preconception care, and perinatal HIV.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong title=\"\">Minita Shah-Mara (CAS&#8217;00, SSW&#8217;03)<\/strong><span>\u00a0is a human resources leader with experience in both the legal and biotech industries.\u00a0 She is currently VP of Organization Effectiveness and Global Diversity and Inclusion at Biogen, Inc, a global biotech which discovers, develops, and delivers worldwide innovative therapies for people living with serious neurological and neurodegenerative diseases.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In her current role, she leads a team focused on shaping a strong organizational culture, cultivating talent, driving organizational performance through high-performing teams, and excelling in employee experience.\u00a0 She also partners with business and HR Leads to further develop and execute the company\u2019s workforce strategies around diversity and inclusion (D&amp;I), with a focus of embedding D&amp;I principles throughout the employee lifecycle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Before joining Biogen, she held positions of successive leadership, including heading the attorney recruiting and development function at a mid-sized law firm in Northern California, and heading the Diversity and Inclusion functions for two large AMLaw 200 firms.\u00a0 Prior to that, Minita worked as a clinical social worker counseling adolescents with mental health disorders.\u00a0 Minita received a master&#8217;s degree in clinical social work from Boston University and an MBA from Babson College.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Minita sits on Bentley University&#8217;s Business Advisory Council, is a Board member of ATASK, the Asian task force against domestic violence, and coaches students as a part of Babson College&#8217;s Coaching for Leadership Program.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"dar-line\"><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/buconnects.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-636x95.png\" alt=\"BU Connects logo\" width=\"241\" height=\"36\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8578\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-636x95.png 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-1024x153.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-768x114.png 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-1536x229.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/files\/2020\/08\/BU-Connects-Logo-Final-2048x305.png 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 241px) 100vw, 241px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span>Looking for more ways to connect with alumni in STEM fields? Visit\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/buconnects.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong title=\"\">BU Connects<\/strong><\/a><span> and join the\u00a0<\/span><span title=\"\" style=\"color: #c00000;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/buconnects.com\/groups\/14\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><\/span><\/a><\/span><span><a href=\"https:\/\/buconnects.com\/groups\/13\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Life Sciences, Health, &amp; Medicine Network<\/a> or the <a href=\"https:\/\/buconnects.com\/groups\/14\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Technology &amp; Data Sciences Network<\/a> today!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hear from a panel of BU alumni leaders advancing D&#038;I in their STEM organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16959,"featured_media":14516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,1,390],"tags":[749,553,410,261,573,833,276,832,108],"featured_img":"\/alumni\/files\/2021\/02\/diversity_in_stem-800x600.png","agg_excerpt":"Hear from a panel of BU alumni leaders advancing D&I in their STEM organizations.","agg_title":"Diversity and inclusion in STEM","media_icon":"webinar-icon","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10406"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14518,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10406\/revisions\/14518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}