Investigating the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine

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The spring of 2020 marked a change in how almost everyone conducted their personal and professional lives, both within science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global scientific conferences and individual laboratories and required people to find space in their homes from which to work. It blurred the boundaries between work and non-work, infusing ambiguity into everyday activities. While adaptations that allowed people to connect became more common, the evidence available at the end of 2020 suggests that the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic endangered the engagement, experience, and retention of women in academic STEMM, and may roll back some of the achievement gains made by women in the academy to date.

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identifies, names, and documents how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the careers of women in academic STEMM during the initial 9-month period since March 2020 and considers how these disruptions - both positive and negative - might shape future progress for women. This publication builds on the 2020 report Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine to develop a comprehensive understanding of the nuanced ways these disruptions have manifested. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will inform the academic community as it emerges from the pandemic to mitigate any long-term negative consequences for the continued advancement of women in the academic STEMM workforce and build on the adaptations and opportunities that have emerged.

Publication information

194 pages · 6 x 9 · paperback
ISBN Paperback: 0-309-26837-0
ISBN Ebook: 0-309-26861-3
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17226/26061

Suggested citation

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2021. The Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Import this citation to:

Eve J. Higginbotham

Dr. Eve Higginbotham (NAM) is the inaugural Vice Dean for Inclusion and Diversity of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, a position she assumed on August 1, 2013. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) since 2000 and is now an elected member of the NAM Council, upon which she chairs the Finance Committee. Dr. Higginbotham is also a member of the Governing Board of the National Research Council and Past President of the AOA Medical Honor Society. Notable prior leadership positions in academia include Dean of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences at Howard University, and Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, a position she held for 12 years. She formerly chaired her section of the National Academy of Medicine and is a former member of the NAM membership committee. Dr. Higginbotham also serves as an Associate Editor on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Ophthalmology. Dr. Higginbotham, a practicing glaucoma specialist at the University of Pennsylvania, has either authored or co- authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles and co-edited four ophthalmology textbooks. She continues to remain active in scholarship related to glaucoma, health policy, STEM, and patient care. She holds degrees undergraduate and graduate degrees in chemical engineering from MIT, a medical doctorate from Harvard Medical School, completed her residency in ophthalmology at the LSU Eye Center, and completed a Masters of Law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.

Elena Fuentes-Afflick

Dr. Elena Fuentes-Afflick (NAM) is a Professor and Vice Chair of Pediatrics, Chief of Pediatrics at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and Vice Dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). In 2012, Dr. Fuentes-Afflick was appointed Vice Dean for Academic Affairs and Faculty Development for the School of Medicine. She is responsible for overseeing all academic affairs in the School of Medicine, including the recruitment, development and advancement of a diversified academic workforce of the highest caliber. She is also responsible for overseeing innovative programs for faculty orientation, career development, and leadership training. After completing her undergraduate and medical education at the University of Michigan, Dr. Fuentes-Afflick came to UCSF for her residency training in pediatrics, followed by a fellowship in health policy at UCSF and MPH in epidemiology from UC Berkeley. She has served in several important national leadership roles, including President of the Society for Pediatric Research, President of the American Pediatric Society, and service on the Council of the National Institute for Child Health and Development. Dr. Fuentes-Afflick was chair of the UCSF Academic Senate from 2009-2011. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2010 and has served as a member of several consensus study committee committees.

Leslie D. Gonzales

Dr. Leslie D. Gonzales is an associate professor in the Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Learning unit at Michigan State University in the College of Education. She also serves as an affiliate faculty member in the Center for Gender in a Global Context and Chicano/Latinx studies. As a working class, Latina, and first-generation-college-student-turned academic who earned all three of her academic degrees from Hispanic Serving Institutions, Gonzales understands how relations of power, privilege, and prestige operate in ways that can be detrimental to people that have been historically underrepresented in the academic profession. With the realization that the effects are both individual and collective, Gonzales' research aims to expose these relations of power in hopes of shaping departmental, disciplinary, and organizational cultures that are more just and inclusive of historically minoritized persons. In practice, Gonzales often examines how academics appraise one another in peer review contexts, such as hiring, tenure, and publishing. Gonzales pays particularly close attention to how such appraisals are detrimental to historically underrepresented scholars, to scholars whose work challenges conventional norms of knowledge production, and to scholars situated in historically marginalized disciplinary and organizational spaces within the academy. Gonzales is currently the co-PI on Aspire, a multi-million dollar project sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Jeni Hart

Dr. Jeni Hart is the Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Studies at the University of Missouri. She is also Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA). Dr. Hart joined ELPA as an assistant professor in 2003. She completed her PhD in Higher Education Administration at the University of Arizona. Prior to becoming a faculty member, she worked for 9 years as a student affairs educator at a number of colleges and universities, and one year as a faculty member at Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. Hart’s scholarship centers on three mutually reinforcing themes: faculty work, gender and feminisms, and campus climate. Specifically, she is interested in how organizational structures in academe mutually shape the experiences of those in higher education, particularly women and feminist faculty. Dr. Hart serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and the NASPA Journal about Women in Higher Education.

Reshma Jagsi

Dr. Reshma Jagsi, M.D., D.Phil., is Newman Family Professor and Deputy Chair in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Director of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine at the University of Michigan. She graduated first in her class from Harvard College and then pursued her medical training at Harvard Medical School. She also served as a fellow in the Center for Ethics at Harvard University and completed her doctorate in Social Policy at Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar. A substantial focus of her research considers issues of bioethics and gender equity in academic medicine. Her investigations of women’s under-representation in senior positions in academic medicine and the mechanisms that must be targeted to promote equity have been funded by an NIH R01 grant and grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, AMA, and other philanthropic funders. She leads the national program evaluation for the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Fund to Retain Clinician Scientists, a large national intervention that was inspired in part by her own research. Active in organized medicine, she has served on the Steering Committee of the AAMC's Group on Women in Medicine in Science and now serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She was part of the Lancet’s advisory committee for its theme issue on women in science, medicine, and global health.

Leah H. Jamieson

Dr. Leah Jamieson (NAE) is Ransburg Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University, John A. Edwardson Dean Emerita of the College of Engineering, and holds a courtesy appointment in Purdue’s School of Engineering Education. She is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. She is co-founder and past director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program. She was an inaugural recipient of the NSF Director’s Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars. Dr. Jamieson served on the steering committee for the NAE report Changing the Conversation: Developing Effective Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering and for the NRC report Barriers and Opportunities for 2-Year and 4-Year STEM Degrees: Systemic Change to Support Students’ Diverse Pathways. She has served as president and CEO of the IEEE, board chair of the Anita Borg Institute, and co-chair of the Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research. She received a B.S. in mathematics from MIT and M.A., M.S.E, and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, all from Princeton University. She has been awarded honorary doctorates by Drexel University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Erick C. Jones

Dr. Erick Jones is a Professor and Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in the College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA). He is currently and the George and Elizabeth Pickett Endowed Professor in Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering. Jones returned from his three year rotating detail at the the National Science Foundation where he was a Program Director in the Engineering Directorate for Engineering Research Centers Program. Earlier Dr. Jones worked at NSF in the Education Directorate where he worked in the Division of Graduate Education for led the INTERN and Graduate Research Internship Programs. He was also a program director for the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF) Program. Dr. Jones was one of the few program officers who worked in two Directorates as a rotating program director. Prior to joining UTA, Dr. Jones worked at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for eight years, and where he initially received tenure. He is the George and Elizabeth Pickett Endowed Professor of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering and served as Deputy Director of UTA’s Security Advances via Nanotechnologies Center from 2013-15. He is an active member of AAAS, IISE, ASEE and National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Dr. Jones has served as IISE, NSBE and other organizations as faculty advisor for the past decade; served as an Alfred Sloan Minority PhD Program Director and now on Sloan Mentoring Network Board; has worked with the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering for over a decade; and was also one of the initial founders and Past Chair of Texas A&M’s Black Former Students Network. Jones was recognized as an Alfred Sloan Underrepresented Minority Ph.D. Program Fellow and has been honored by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering three times. Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Texas A&M University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Houston.

Beronda Montgomery

Dr. Beronda Montgomery is Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Microbiology & Molecular Genetics in the Department of Energy (DOE) Plant Research Laboratory at Michigan State University (MSU). She completed doctoral studies in Plant Biology at the University of California, Davis and was a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded postdoctoral fellow in Microbial Biology at Indiana University. Since starting at MSU in 2004, Dr. Montgomery’s laboratory investigates the mechanisms by which organisms such as plants and cyanobacteria which have limited mobility are able to monitor and adjust to changes in their external environment. The ability of these largely immobile organisms to adapt their patterns of growth and development to fluctuations in external environmental parameters increases their survival and maximizes their growth and productivity. Dr. Montgomery’s scholarly efforts were recognized by her receipt of an NSF CAREER Award in 2007, being selected as a finalist in the 2014 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professors Competition, and a 2015 Michigan State University Nominee for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) U.S. Professor of the Year Award. In addition to her core research and teaching efforts, Dr. Montgomery is also actively involved in scholarly efforts to promote effective research mentoring and management and the inclusion and success of individuals from groups underrepresented in the sciences. She has published extensively on evidence-based strategies to nurture and retain talent in academia, developing strategies for effective mentorship that center on the individual and their specific needs and goals. As an expert in effective and evidence-based mentorship, Montgomery serves on a number of leadership boards and as a consultant to universities working towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion within their research and education programs.

Kyle Myers

Dr. Kyle Myers is an assistant professor of business administration in the Technology and Operations Management unit of Harvard Business School. Dr. Myers studies the economics of innovation. His research lies at the intersections of science, health care, and the commercialization process. More specifically, Professor Myers is interested in the strategic choices and performance of scientists, the supply and demand of innovation in high-tech sectors, public versus private funding of R&D, and the management of innovation in large organizations such as hospitals and pharmaceutical and engineering firms. His work has received funding from the Kauffman Foundation and was awarded the NBER-IFS Predoctoral Scholarship in the Value of Medical Research. Professor Myers holds a Ph.D. from the Wharton School’s Department of Health Care Management and Economics. He has a M.S. in Health Policy and Management and a B.S. in Biology from Penn State University. Prior to joining HBS, he served as a post-doctoral fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Renetta Tull

Dr. Renetta Tull is the Vice Chancellor of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the University of California, Davis. Before joining UC Davis in 2019, Dr. Tull was Associate Vice Provost for Strategic Initiatives at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and Professor of the Practice in UMBC’s College of Engineering and IT (COEIT). Within COEIT, she served as part of the “Engagement” team, and pursues research in humanitarian engineering. Tull is Founding Director and Co-PI for the 12-institution National Science Foundation University System of Maryland’s (USM) PROMISE AGEP, and Co-Director/Co-PI for the NSF USM’s Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP). In addition to roles at UMBC and roles with grants, she also served the University System of Maryland as Special Assistant to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Student Affairs, and was the system’s Director of Graduate & Professional Pipeline Development. In 2017, Dr. Tull was appointed to serve as Chair for the University System of Maryland’s Health Care Workforce Diversity subgroup. Dr. Tull has engineering and science degrees from Howard University and Northwestern University. Dr. Tull served on the Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM consensus study committee.

Rian Lund Dahlberg

Ms. Maria Lund Dahlberg is a Senior Program Officer and Study Director with the Board on Higher Education and Workforce and the Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Her current work focuses on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Research Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine; the Response and Adaptation of Higher Education to the COVID-19 Pandemic; the Science on Effective Mentoring in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine); and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Postsecondary Education. Her work with the National Academies spans topics ranging from equity and identity in science, through science communications, to postdoctoral research experiences, health care, and innovation ecosystems. She came to the National Academies by way of a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, which she received after completing all requirements short of finalizing the dissertation for her doctorate in physics at the Pennsylvania State University. Ms. Lund Dahlberg holds a BA with high honors in physics from Vassar College and an MS in physics from the Pennsylvania State University.

Meeting

Investigating the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine - Committee Meeting 1, Part 2

August 27, 2020

12:00 PM - 5:00 PM (ET)

Past

Materials

Women and COVID-19 committee presentation

About

The second part of the first committee meeting of the fast-track consensus study on Investigating the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Committee will hold closed sessions to discuss the statement of task and process. Open sessions will be held to hear about the National Academies report Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine: Opening Doors (2020).

Additional Information

Is it a Closed Session event?

Partially Closed

The following committee members were present at the closed sessions of the event

Eve Higginbotham
Elena Fuentes-Afflick
Leslie Gonzales
Jeni Hart
Reshma Jagsi
Leah H Jamieson
Erick C. Jones
Beronda Montgomery
Kyle Myers
Renetta Tull

The following topics were discussed in the closed sessions:

Statement of Task
Goals of Study and Broader Questions
Commissioned Paper Topics
Logistics and Process

The following materials (written documents) were made available to the committee in the closed sessions:

Categories of Practices based on a model being piloted by NASEM’s
Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment in Higher Education

Date of posting of Closed Session Summary:

August 28, 2020

Contact

Maria Lund Dahlberg

(202) 334-3372
mdahlberg@nas.edu

Disclaimer

It is essential to the National Academies mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization that includes under its Charter the National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine, and that operates the National Research Council.

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Investigating the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine

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Publication information

Suggested citation

Materials

About

Additional Information

Contact

Maria Lund Dahlberg

Disclaimer

My Academies

Investigating the Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Science, Engineering, and Medicine

Dropdown items

Featured publication

The Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Description

Collaborators

Committee

Sponsors

Staff

Parent projects

The Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine

Major units and sub-units

Contact

Contact us

Provide feedback

Request materials

More like this

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Health Care Financing to Improve Availability of Affordable Contraception: Identifying Promising Practices

Review of the draft United by Nature assessment

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Transportation Research Board Executive Office

Modernizing Mathematics Education for Grades 9-14

Prevention of and Response to Sexual Harassment in Higher Education: Tools for Department Chairs and Principal Investigators: A Workshop

Enhancing the Reach and Contributions of Informal STEM Learning