Associate Professor Cornell University Ithaca, New York
I was lucky to grow up and complete my B.S. in Biology in Colombia. It turns out that Colombia is one of only three countries where your boss is more likely to be a woman than a man. This was not just true for any job, it was also my personal experience at my undergraduate university. A perceived half of my university professors were women. I grew up academically without a doubt that I could be a woman with a family in academia. It took me leaving Colombia to do my Ph.D. in Germany and starting to work in the U.S. to realizethat this is not true for women in science in other countries - and is even less true for many other axes of diversity. Reflecting on my experiences, I realized how studying in an environment with an equal representation of men and women allowed me to concentrate on studying with no fear of the future that was tied to my identity. In this talk, I will review the current state of diversity in Entomology and reflect on the steps many programs are taking to diversify. Hopefully, we will soon be able to provide an environment where entomologists can study and develop academically without any doubt that they can reach their full potential, without fears of how their identity might influence their future.