Broadening Participation

A major focus of our research program and activities has been interrogating the culture and practice of STEM. PI Esposito is the Founder of 500 Queer Scientists, a visibility-focused organization for LGBTQ+ people working in STEM and STEM-supporting fields. After launching in 2018 with 50 biographies of queer scientists, we have grown to over 2,000 contributors, steward a social media community of over 30K, and receive 10–15K unique visitors on our website each month. We also host virtual mixers, produce a newsletter with long-form interviews, and maintain a community events calendar and job board. Through this work, I have received two grants. The first was from the Association for Science and Technology Centers to develop an exhibit, New Science, that tells the stories of intersectional identities in science and has been exhibited permanently at the California Academy of Sciences since 2021, as well as in four other major museums and universities. The second grant is from the Royal Society of Chemistry to collaboratively study the factors impacting the retention of scientists with intersectional queer identities in the US and the UK.

Esposito is also involved in the leadership of The Entomologists of Color, a collective group formed during the 2020 #strike4blacklives that seeks to improve recruitment and retention for entomologists of color. Through this effort we have raised over $20K for a fund to support professional entomological society memberships and conference attendance for student and early career entomologists. We have given away over 450 society memberships and supported 60 students in conference attendance. We have also launched a mentorship program, journal club, and are currently working on a funded project to collect basic statistics about student perceptions of entomology careers across race and ethnicity.