Laura talks with her colleague, Dr. Diana Pérez Staples, a research professor at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico, who has conducted research in six different countries on four different continents. Dr. Pérez Staples provides a cross-cultural perspective on the challenges and benefits of being a researcher in developing countries. She then discusses the importance that role models and words have on making aspiring scientists feel welcome or unwelcome in STEM.