You Should Know: Stephani Page and #BLACKandSTEM

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

Welcome to the ninth installment of You Should Know, where I give my own #ScholarSunday salute to Science Bloggers and Blogs you may not yet know about.

Introducing … Stephani Page and #BLACKandSTEM.

#BLACKandSTEM started as a hashtag that quickly became a twitter community. The #BLACKandSTEM blog is connected to the weekly discussions or 'Twitter chats' that happen each Thursday. Broad topics covered include: mental health, policy, education, and professional development. Other topics include more racial and/or socioeconomically relevant topics such as ʺcodeswitchingʺ or very personal topics such as how music or art may connect with our journeys as STEMers. It is a fully engaged community of contributors and readers/observers can check in at any time to see what the community has to say on topics. Discussions are archived at the blog.

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#BLACKandSTEM is a dynamic online community that exists because of social media. It serves to amplify the voices of a community that are not well represented either within the Black community or in the mainstream. Ms. Page not only wants to amplify the voices of Black STEMers, she also hopes to connect #BLACKandSTEM individuals across the globe, to expand the picture of what a STEMer looks like. She wants the blog to be an opportunity portal to reach the community, and to provide a base of support for current and future #BLACKandSTEM-ers. She eventually hopesto expand to feature a #BLACKandSTEM-er twice a month.

Ms. Stephani Page is currently a doctoral student at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the Biochemistry & Biophysics Department. She's planning to defend this year. (Woot, woot!). She also has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.S. in Biology from North Carolina A&T State University. She is research scientist. She studies the protein components of microbial signal transduction pathways.

In her own words

I study the biological machines that tiny living things use to respond to changes in their environments. I am interested in the biochemical reactions that occur and the features of the proteins that influence those reactions. One reason we are interested is these systems is because microbes that make humans sick use them and knowing more about these microbes may help to find ways to prevent and treat illnesses that they cause.

Ms. Page has been exploring diversity and inclusion in STEM for quite some time. Before the creation of #BLACKandSTEM she contributed a few posts to Soapbox Science at Nature Blogs including Science Mentoring: Does Race Matter? and When science becomes personal: a role for personal life in advocacy.