The Steering Committee is comprised of up to two representatives from each of the six participating societies.
Patricia Baldrich
International Society for Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions (IS-MPMI)Director of Strategic Initiatives and Research Funding Genome Center | UC Davis
Sonali Roy
International Society for Molecular Plant Microbe Interactions (IS-MPMI)Assistant Professor | Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences | Tennessee State University
Jennifer Ackerfield
American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT)Head Curator of Natural History Collections, Associate Director of Biodiversity Research | Denver Botanic Gardens
Melissa McDaniels, PhD
Associate Executive Director, Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
CIMER
Melissa McDaniels, PhD
Associate Executive Director, Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison
CIMER
We are thrilled to have partnered with Movement Consulting as our Equity Consultant.
Movement served as ROOT & SHOOT’s equity consultant from 2022-2023. For more information on our collaboration, please visit our blog.
A bit more about Movement Consulting, from their successful proposal to the RCN Steering Committee
Our Philosophy. At Movement, we believe in making the world of science better now – not by checking diversity boxes, but rather by transforming organizational cultures through emotional, relational, and collective work. We value curiosity and vulnerability over shame and judgement while creating immersive learning spaces to build awareness of systems of oppression. With these foundational elements in place, we then contextualize and unpack behaviors on individual and interpersonal levels. It is from this place that we can sustainably build community and culture shifts.
Our Positionality. We are a consulting collective led by disabled, neurodivergent, queer women and nonbinary people with multiple intersecting class, race, and ethnic experiences (e.g. Black, Indigenous, mixed, white, Latine; class straddlers, lower, upper and middle class). We all hold the privileged identities of being collegiate students, advanced degree holders, or career academics, while many of us are first-generation students and immigrants. Our founder, Dra. Nicole, as a unique positionality as a white Latina with a PhD that has allowed us to navigate, speak to, and leverage the politics of academia while centering those most marginalized in STEM.
Our Impact. Since our founding in 2018, Movement Consulting has successfully partnered with students, faculty, and scientific leaders from over 25 universities and organizations across the US, Canada, and Europe. These include the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.