Main points of interview.
1) If you are a Minority Woman working in STEM, in particular Black Women, you are a unicorn!!! There aren't that many of us but we are actively working on changing that.
2) The fight for Gender Equity is happening everywhere, even at HBCU's. We have more work to do in the at large communities but also within our own.
3) We've been taught to believe that selfishness is a bad habit, when in fact it is a life saving habit we should all adopt.
4) Dr. Owens is a badass both in person and on the podcast. She will be back on.
Dr. Marcia Allen Owens is a Biochemical researcher, environmental lawyer, ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Dr. Marcia Allen Owens has had a lifetime of being first and only, an intersectional minority among minorities. The first Black woman to earn tenure in the Florida A&M University (FAMU) School of Environment, she still hears from students that she is the first Black woman to teach them in a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) class (K-20). An interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Owens earned degrees from Jackson State University and Emory University (J.D., Ph.D., M.Div.). Combining her scientific and legal training, she practiced with the Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Atlanta. Using her academic and career expertise, she serves as Associate Professor of Environmental Science & Policy at FAMU, where her current and past impact as major professor is resulting in nearly 20 Black students earning the masters and Ph.D. in Environmental Science. She also actively mentors undergraduate students via the FAMU Office of Undergraduate Research. The dearth of Black women professors and students in STEM shifted her research focus to gender equity. In 2019, with Owens as Principal Investigator, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded FAMU the five-year, $2.97 million NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant (HRD-1824267). As director for the newly created Center for Faculty ADVANCEment at FAMU, Dr. Owens is leading the effort to examine and change institutional policies and practices that impact the recruitment, retention and promotion of women in STEM and the social and behavioral sciences. The existence, persistence and efforts of Dr. Marcia Allen Owens as a role model at FAMU expand the presence and possibilities of students from underrepresented groups in STEM professions.
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