Faculty Interview: Dontarie Stallings

New to this edition of the The Periodical and moving forward, we will be featuring a different Chemistry and Biochemistry faculty member in each issue. Our focus will be on their research field and their accomplishments within the scope of their work. Please click below to hear from our inaugural faculty highlight, assistant teaching professor, Dontarie Stallings. As an icebreaker, and to informally introduce yourself, please complete the following sentences. 1. My biggest motivation is ... to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday. 2. The best advice I have ever been given is ... that while you don’t have control over the circumstances that life presents, you do have control over the way/method that you respond. 3. The most significant scientific advance of the last 100 years has been ... the supercomputer. 4. If I could have dinner with three famous scientists from history, they would be ... Percy Julian, W. E. B. Du Bois, & Charles Richard Drew 5. I chose chemistry as a career because .. I wanted to better understand the complexities of life. 6. My favorite saying/quote/motto is ... He who is behind will be forever behind unless he chooses to move faster than those in front of him. 7. Someone who made a big difference in my life is ... Prof. Kimberly D Schurmeier. 8. When I'm not working, I like to ... cook, listen to audiobooks, & hangout with my family. 9. I've learned from my students that ... authenticity helps to build better learning communities. Q: What is your primary, or current, research focus? A: Science Policy (w.r.t Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Q: Why is the work you do important? A: I have both professional and personal reasons pertaining to why I find my scholarship important. Professionally: With respect to our nation’s scientific efforts, we do not effectively utilize our greatest resource —its people. Though this failing has not substantially limited our nation’s scientific standing/competitiveness, continuing on this pathway certainly will. The demographics of our nation will be majority minority within 25 years. The minority population also happen to represent the cohorts that have been systematically precluded from contributing to our nation’s scientific efforts. My scholarship endeavors to facilitate a transition away from the status quo of past and develop new pathways towards inclusive excellence. Personally: My son loves science. Watching him trying to understand the way the world works reinvigorates my passion for science on daily basis. It’s easy to turn away from a career path when it seems as if the world has decided to place ‘Do not enter’ signs on the avenues for success. I don’t want the systemic hurdles that I faced professionally to inhibit my son’s opportunity to pursue science as a career or as a lifelong knowledge quest. My scholarship aims at reducing/eliminating systemic barriers so that my son, and everyone’s daughter and/or son, path to success is based on hard work and capability —in lieu of social/economic positioning. Q: Can you tell us about your recent research (or teaching) achievements? A: Before joining the faculty ranks at UCSD, I was the Research and Program manager for OXIDE —Housed at Johns Hopkins University. I managed a cross-functional team of research scientists and administrators tasked with reducing implicit bias and increasing diversity and inclusion within the chemistry field. As the Research and Program Manager, I collaborated with chemistry chairs, deans, research scientists, psychologists, social scientists, and industrial scientists to bridge the field’s availability gap with respect to hiring, retention, and progression of underrepresented chemistry. As a new faculty member at UCSD, my EDI-scholarship efforts have continued. My colleagues and I are currently launching the DPS Scholar Program —designed to build cohort learning and mentoring programs within the Division of Physical Sciences. My colleagues and I are also developing a DPS Undergraduate Research Program which will feature Industrial Research Scholars. The program is designed to foster professional connections between STEM Industrial companies and our student population, while simultaneously generating coordinated undergraduate research opportunities. I also serving as the Associate Director of OXIDE. We are a couple of weeks away from launching our VDEW (Virtual Diversity Equity Workshop). The workshop is open to faculty member from chemistry and biochemistry departments and it is designed to help thought leaders develop targeted policies and procedures designed to improve inclusive excellence within their respective departments. Q: How do you think your field of research (or teaching) will evolve over the next 10 years? A: So much of my scholarship is dependent upon removing the systemic hurdles that have been cultivated in our nation over the last 100 years. As a field, we will continue to make small improvements that enhance our nation’s inclusive excellence. That being said, the problem we face can’t be overcome in 10 years. In addition, the transitioning of our nation’s demographics will add an extra layer of pressure to our current system and our pace to effect change will be challenged. In short…. I know where we are going, but I don’t know when we’ll get there.