Helen Murray Free Endowed Public Lecture

Rigoberto Hernandez, PhD

– Gompf Family Professor, Department of Chemistry, Johns Hopkins University

– Director, Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE)

• Lean Lecture, Room 001, Wishart Hall
• A reception with light refreshments will immediately follow the lecture

Dr. Hernandez is a computational and physical chemist who studies nanoscale systems with applications in biology and energy. He is also a leader in building diversity, equity, and inclusion into institutional practices, and has been president of OXIDE (Open Chemistry Collective in Diversity & Equity) for over a decade

Managing Inclusive Excellence in Academia

The Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE) is aimed at institutional reform so as to lower inequitable barriers hindering the success of faculty from diverse groups. We implement the “top-down” hypothesis by asserting that academic middle managers—namely, department heads and chairs—held accountable for diversity and inclusion will make sustained and significant improvements in the representation and climate of their departments. The collaborative itself is a partnership with the department heads of research-active chemistry departments, social scientists, and other key stakeholders.  The lowering of these barriers increases the likelihood that individuals already in the tenure pipeline will have equitable chances of success and thereby leads to changes in faculty demographics closer to those of the broader U.S. population. The creation of a more equitable climate is also expected to encourage more disadvantaged students to enter academic careers in the chemical sciences. We will report on OXIDE’s approaches to increase awareness of effective policies and practices that decrease inequitable barriers and improve the diversity climate in research-active chemistry departments. We will discuss how these findings can inform the intentional management of inclusive excellence, and why the lens of discipline-based diversity (DBDR) research is needed in chemistry.