Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)

Postdoc Committees

Affiliates

Resources

Postdocs are the future leaders of academia and industry alike. However, the postdoc community remains the least diverse trainee group at Stanford compared to undergraduate or graduate students (see IDEAL Demographics Dashboard and IDEAL DEI Survey). In order to create an inclusive academic community, it is critical that we support and elevate the experiences of all our members, especially those who have been systemically minoritized and marginalized.

The committee leads the JEDI mission, and efforts of SURPAS to 1) understand and support the needs of postdocs with minoritized and marginalized voices and experiences and 2) advocate for the needs and recruitment of under-represented postdocs (current and future). We seek to create an inclusive postdoc community by maintaining close partnerships with affinity groups, creating events and programs that foster dialogue across differences, and bring awareness to issues and experiences of marginalized postdocs.

Get Involved!

    1. Attend a monthly SURPAS JEDI meeting. For most up-to-date info join SURPAS mailing list.
    2. Join one of our active programs (details below).
    3. For more information, contact the JEDI co-chairs. 

Current Programs

Someone Like Me

“Someone Like Me” is a peer mentoring program supporting trainees from marginalized backgrounds across Stanford University. The program seeks to create a supportive community for graduate students and postdocs from underrepresented groups and needs.

We provide a safe and informal platform for trainees to gather and address challenges pertaining to navigating academia and life as marginalized people. SLM is 100% trainee-designed and organized and has been a VPGE Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIF) project since 2018.

Learn more here.

Better Ally

The Better Ally program is a trainee-organized monthly journal club and action planning series focused on understanding the challenges faced by various marginalized communities and how we can each do our part to help address them. 

The impetus for this program came from the need to create spaces for conversation and actionable plans for active allyship, especially in order to support the many trainees that now serve on DEI committees around Stanford. We aim for this to be a brave space for everyone, where we can get out of our comfort zones a bit and question our own resistances, biases, or assumptions, and really speak into existence what it is we are working for. 

Better Ally has been a VPGE Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIF) project since 2021.

Learn more here.

Diverse Perspectives Seminar Series (DPSS)

The Diversity Perspectives Seminar Series (DPSS) is a trainee-hosted event that contributes to the ongoing, university-wide discussion on diversity and inclusion in academia. Speaker visits additionally provide opportunities for marginalized trainees to network, share personal experiences, and discuss strategies for navigating the increasingly-competitive job market.

A key objective is to provide cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural interactions between diverse trainees to enable postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduates to share, learn about, and improve the experiences of currently marginalized members of the Stanford community. DPSS has been a VPGE Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIF) project since 2018.

Learn more here.

Diverse Ambassadors Program (DAP)

The Diverse Ambassadors Program (DAP) is a dual training and outreach program that aims to support both the advancement of URM postdocs to tenure-track faculty positions and the recruitment of URM undergraduates into graduate research programs. 

 The DAP prepares senior URM postdocs to deliver a full research seminar and meet with faculty and undergraduates at partner Universities and Colleges during a full-day event. These visits include one-on-one meetings with faculty at the participating institution prior to the seminar, which simulates the first day of the on-site interview for tenure-track faculty positions. Ambassadors receive targeted professional development training coordinated through the OPA and SURPAS to craft and practice a highly successful seminar talk. Ambassadors will follow up their seminar with a focused event for undergraduates interested in a research career, with the aim of demystifying the research job path and creating meaningful connections with these students. This community-building and networking aspect will empower undergraduates to pursue graduate studies.

DAP has been a VPGE Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Fund (DIF) project since 2022 and is supported by OPA.

Partner Groups

Affiliate Postdoc Groups

Graduate Student Partner Groups

Stanford Offices and People

Outside Stanford

Resources

For Current Postdocs

For Prospective Postdocs

Our Team

Co-Chairs

Seungsoo Kim, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical and Systems Biology

Michael Lawson, Postdoctoral Fellow, Structural Biology

Program Directors

Jingxun Chen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Genetics – Someone Like Me

Stephanie Bachas-Daunert, Postdoctoral Fellow, Infectious Diseases, and Meghan McDoniel, Postdoctoral Fellow, Education – Better Ally

Andrea d’Aquino, Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering, and Mason Wu, Postdoctoral Fellow, Chemical Engineering – Diverse Perspectives Seminar Series

Anthony Venida, Postdoctoral Fellow, Genetics, and Alex Prossnitz, Postdoctoral Fellow, Materials Science and Engineering – Diverse Ambassadors Program