ImmunoDiverse

Default Hero Image

Page

Mission Statement

We are committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for individuals from historically marginalized and underrepresented communities, recognizing that systemic barriers continue to impact these groups disproportionately.

Advancing inclusion will benefit all scientists affiliated with ImmunoX. We acknowledge that longstanding policies and practices have historically disadvantaged some groups. The urgent push to build a more inclusive scientific community was catalyzed by the tragic murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Trayvon Martin, and many others. Our Plan of Action is designed to ensure that ALL voices within our community are heard, valued, and amplified.

Key Initiatives:

Community Education in learning about structural and personal biases.
Representation - ensuring appropriate representation of all groups among faculty, fellows, trainees
Partnership with organizations that uplift high school, undergrad, and post-grad trainees.
Sponsorship to support the academic success of scientists in our community.
Celebration of the rich scientific contributions of scientists within our community.

ImmunoDiverse and its activities are open to everyone in our community.

Tiers of commitment:

ImmunoDiverse allies: Anyone with a vested interest in learning about, participating in, and/or supporting our initiatives to create an inclusive community for all ImmunoX members.
ImmunoDiverse Leadership: Ideating, spearheading, and communicating ImmunoDiverse initiatives
- ImmunoX Faculty Leadership Team: Mark Ansel, Tiffany Schardschmidt, Jeroen Roose, Oscar Aguilar, Roberto Ricardo-Gonzalez
- ImmunoX Trainee Leadership Team: (PostDocs, Graduate students, Junior Specialist and SRAs): Jesse Garcia Castillo, Dara Fonseca, Kevin Ly, Molly Bassette, Maya Lopez-Ichikawa.

Leadership Team

Faculty Support

Max Krummel Professor, Pathology Chair, ImmunoX	Mark Ansel Professor, Microbiology & Immunology Director of BMS, ImmunoX Chair
Tiffany Scharschmidt Associate Professor, Dermatology	Jeroen Roose Professor, Anatomy
Vincent Chan Assistant Professor, Microbiology & Immunology ImmunoX Chief Strategist

ImmunoDiverse Allyship Program

The ImmunoDiverse Allyship Learning Team is a trainee group organization focused on creating a welcoming and inclusive environment at UCSF.

Why is Allyship important in the scientific community?

Allyship is crucial in the scientific community. Allies help create an environment where diverse perspectives can thrive, leading to more comprehensive and innovative solutions. In a field that relies on shared knowledge and teamwork, allyship ensures that all voices are heard, reducing barriers to success and promoting equality. This, in turn, strengthens the integrity of scientific research and advances the overall goals of the

Allyship Program Overview

Objectives

Increase awareness of biases and behaviors that contribute to inequities in academia

Create a community of allyship learners to actively dismantle policies and practices that disadvantage or advantage some groups of people more than others.

What to Expect

nondiscriminatory/allyship learning resources related to different themes
Programming to discuss resources and relevant symposia
Building an open and supportive community with UCSF

Resources for you to explore:

What is systemic racism?

Video:

The racial politics of time (Brittany Cooper, TedTalk)

Text:

How America's Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew by Plunder

Podcast:

In the Thick: The Legacy of Redlining (Maria & Julio, Apple podcast)

How to be an Ally

Video:

How to be an Ally in the remote workplace - Linda Briana Epler

Text:

Learning how to be an ally for people from diverse groups and backgrounds - Community Toolbox

Podcast:

The Racial Reckoning That Wasn't - Code Switch

How to be a better Ally

Video:

5 Tips For Being An Ally by Chesca Leigh

Text:

Be A Better Ally - Tsedale M. Melaku, Angie Beeman, David G. Smith, and W. Brad Johnson

Podcast:

Why Now, White People? Gene Demby, Code Switch

Racism in science/medicine/academia

Videos

Text

The Rothfels Lab stands against racism everywhere

Podcast

The Leaky Pipeline (Rad Scientist)

Intersectionality

Video

Dorothy Roberts: The problem with race-based medicine | TED Talk

Text

Hidden in Plain Sight -- Reconsidering the Use of Race Correction in Clinical Algorithms (Darshali A. Vyas, Leo G. Eisenstein, David S. Jones)

Podcast

A Shot In The Dark (NPR Code Switch - Alyssa Jeong Perry, Gene Demby, Shereen Marisol Meraji)

What is systemic racism?

Video

The Urgency of Intersectionality (Kimberle Crenshaw)

Text

Broadening the Science of Broadening Participation In STEM Through Critical Mixed Methodologies and Intersectionality Frameworks (Heather Metcalf, Dorian Russell, Catherine Hill)

Podcast

They Don't Say Our Names Enough (NPR Code Switch - Shereen Marisol Meraji + Gene Demby)

Building Community

Video

13th (Documentary - Ava DuVernay)

Text

Systemic Inequiality and Economic Opportunity (Center for American Progress - Danyelle Solomon, Connor Maxwell, and Abril Castro)

Podcast

Historian Says Don't 'Sanitize' How Our Government Created Ghettos (NPR - Interview of Richard Rothstein)

Antiracism

Video

How to be an Antiracist (Dr. Ibram X. Kendi Interview)

Texts

What Black scientists want from colleagues and their institutions (Nature, Virginia Gewin)
The New Reconstruction (The Atlantic, Adam Serwer)

Podcast

Bonus Episode: 'Not Just Another Protest' (Codeswitch)

RFAs

COMMUNITY AND RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP

In order to stay true to ImmunoX's commitment to highlight and uplift our trainees, we have allocated funds for the ImmunoDiverse Allies Community and Research Enhancing Fellowship that provides needed funds for professional and academic development activities or research funds to offset effort put into ImmunoDiverse activities.

URM/SRA Fellowship

To continue to build and uplift the underrepresented minorities (URM) in our community, we seek to provide incentives and opportunities for our faculty to recruit talented URM students to join their lab during their post-baccalaureate period. We hope that this fellowship will give an URM an opportunity to gain research experience needed to transition to graduate school and beyond. This is to complement and take advantage of ImmunoDiverse and UCSF professional development opportunities for post-baccs. As participation in this program, we will ask that any supervisor that benefits from this program to also allow and encourage their URM SRA to participate in all ImmunoDiverse professional development initiatives.

ImmunoDiverse Colloquia

Keynote Speakers from past years:

Community Award

In addition to honoring the scientific talents of our scientists, we feel that it's equally important to highlight those individuals who pioneered the way for our community. We previously honored two individuals that have been instrumental in laying the foundation for our ImmunoDiverse initiative.

DR. D'ANNE DUNCAN, PHD

Dr. Duncan is the Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success and is also an Assistant Professor at UCSF. She has been an advocate for folks in the DEI space ever since she joined us from Vanderbilt University. She is involved in coordinating UCSF's Summer Research Training Program which provides opportunities for undergraduate students to train in our research laboratories. She is also involved in overseeing the National Institute of General Medical Sciences' Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, which is a program to improve the academic and research competitiveness of graduate students in biomedical research. She helped the Black students at UCSF form a community known as Black Excellence in STEM, or BE-STEM. Dr. Duncan has been a source of support for URM students in the BMS program as they navigate the academic arena.

She is truly an inspiration for our students, and the ImmunoDiverse Outreach team looks forward to working closer together with her on the training programs.

DR. BREANNA ALLEN, PHD

Dr. Allen is a graduate of the BMS PhD program, where she worked in the laboratory of Dr. Matt Spitzer investigating the impact that bearing a tumor weighs on the systemic immune system. During her time at UCSF, she was also involved in organizing IgEquity, a trainee-led student group aimed at tackling gender equity in science and immunology. As she was busy wrapping up her PhD studies, writing her thesis, and pumping out a phenomenal article in Nature Medicine, Dr. Allen also poured all of her energy into her efforts to create what is now ImmunoDiverse.

She knew that she was not going to see or experience the fruits of her labor, yet she selflessly volunteered her time to ensure that our group would provide an inclusive environment and would be a sustainable program. She was pivotal in helping us navigate the intricacies of forming this collective from scratch and doing it at an accelerated rate given the urgency of the situation. We cannot thank Dr. Allen enough and are forever grateful for the instrumental role she played in improving our ImmunoX community.

Events

Annual Programming Calendar

2025

ImmunoDiverse Colloquia - April 18th, 2025 9-5pm

ImmunoDiverse Immunology Crash Course + Community Hour

Lectures: June 17 - July 22

Crash Course on Scientific Presentation: August 5

Symposium: August 12

2024

ImmunoDiverse Colloquia - April 19th 9am - 5pm

ImmunoExplore Summer Camp - Monday, July 15th - Friday July 19th from 8:30am-4:30pm at UCSF Parnassus Campus

ImmunoDiverse Immunology Crash Course + Community Hour - July 2nd - August 6, 2024. 12pm -1pm CS-0101

ImmunoDiverse Immunology Crash Course Intern Symposium - August 13th 11am - 12pm (Celebration at the Nursing Mezzanine)

2023

ImmunoDiverse Immunology Crash Course + Community Hour - July 11th - August 15th from 12pm-2pm

ImmunoExplore Summer Camp - July 19th - July 21st 9-4:30pm

ImmunoDiverse Intern Symposium - August 15th

2020

ImmunoDiverse Allyship Initiative Sessions
10/1/2020 - 10/2/2020

Allyship Programs

9/24/2020 & 9/25/2020: Launch Session

View recording here.

Training Opportunities

We are pioneering an ambitious cross-generation research training program that seeks to recruit, sponsor, and celebrate ALL trainees by partnering with programs aligned with our vision at UCSF and in the Bay Area. We are building a community that will provide scientific research skills, professional development, and career mentoring.

Stay connected as updates will come!

HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Are you a high school student interested in seeing what a career in STEM looks like? Do you want to join a program that can provide you with tools that can help you in your career? Would you like to join a vibrant community of scientists at UCSF? If so, then apply to the SEP High School Intern program and see if you match with one of our labs!

Visit the SEP website for more information on how to apply.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE

TBD

POST-BACCALAUREATE TRAINEES

Are you a recent graduate from a bachelor's degree in science? Are you interested in gaining research experience? Are you interested in pursuing a graduate degree or professional degree and think research will help you with your career goals? Would you like to join a vibrant community of scientists at UCSF? If so, then apply to the PROPEL post-baccalaureate program and see if you match with one of our labs!

Visit the PROPEL website for more information

Other scientific outreach programs are currently listed in our resources tab and can be found there along with the link to our Allyship program and anti-racism resources.

Resources

Anti-racism resources link from the 6/9 Office of Research communication

ALLYSHIP RESOURCES

January's theme: Building Community: Learning Anti-racism and Allyship as a Community

Video: How to be an Antiracist (Dr. Ibram X. Kendi Interview)
Text: What Black scientists want from colleagues and their institutions (Nature, Virginia Gewin)
Text: The New Reconstruction (The Atlantic, Adam Serwer)
Podcast: Bonus Episode: 'Not Just Another Protest' (Codeswitch)

SCIENTIFIC OUTREACH PROGRAMS AT UCSF

Science & Health Education Partnership (SEP)
PROPEL
- PROPEL is a post-baccalaureate research program serving over 100 post-bac researchers through career and professional development training sessions, networking opportunities, and laboratory mentorship. The trainees are full-time employees with salary (>$50k) and benefits.
Center for Science & Education Outreach (CSEO)
- CSEO works with K-16 students, their parents, school representatives, and community members to design, implement and evaluate programs and services that foster students' academic development to make them admissible to the post-secondary institution of their choice.
Brain Camp @ UCSF
- Brain Camp @ UCSF is a free, immersive, week-long experience for high school students in San Francisco, led by UCSF medical students and faculty. Join us in exploring the fascinating anatomy of the brain, learning about mind-blowing advances in neurosurgery, and understanding the complex interplay between mind and behavior. You'll learn how to suture, dissect a brain, use a reflex hammer and much more! Additionally, there will be workshops and panels on college prep as well as extensive opportunities to interact with neurology faculty and medical students.
Biotechnology at CCSF

The Biotechnology Program of the Department of Engineering and Technology at City College of San Francisco trains a students for careers as technicians and lab assistants at companies and academic institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Summer Research Training Program (SRTP)
- Students selected for summer research at UC San Francisco spend up to ten weeks working with UCSF faculty members on research projects. Participants in the program take part in seminars, lectures, and social events, creating a cohesive and supportive community. At the end of the program, students give presentations of their research and get valuable feedback from students, postdocs, and faculty at UCSF.
UCSF Amgen Scholars Program
- The UCSF Amgen Scholars Program provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to conduct research in the basic sciences with an emphasis on health-related research including Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Bioengineering, Biological and Medical Informatics, Biomedical Sciences, Biophysics, Cell Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Genetics, Neuroscience, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics.
- As a graduate-only university that is home to one of the most vibrant biomedical communities in the nation, UCSF offers a unique environment for Amgen Scholars. Amgen Scholars will work collegially alongside graduate students, postdoctoral scholars and faculty, receiving mentorship from some of the most preeminent scientists in their field.
- The goal of this ten-week summer experience is to prepare students for graduate study and a research career in the health sciences. Students complete an original project under the guidance of a faculty mentor whose work is closely aligned with the student’s research interests and experience. During the last week of the program, Amgen Scholars present their findings in a written abstract and give oral and poster presentations at a Research Symposium attended by faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students. Participants also attend a mid-summer Symposium with Amgen Scholars from all host institutions.

Content Lists