Connecting Underrepresented Scientists to the Biology Core Curriculum, Volume 1

Northeastern Illinois University and its Department of Biology have been working to center diversity and amplify the voices of underrepresented scholars. To help with this, we (the editors) developed an assignment where undergraduate and graduate students identified underrepresented scientists and researched their personal story and their contributions to science. This assignment culminated in a final paper based on the students’ research. In the Spring of 2023, this assignment was instituted in our Senior Seminar and Biological Literature courses for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, respectively. From the completed assignments ten were chosen for inclusion in this publication. These ten scientists were selected by the individual students because they connected to them or their work in a meaningful way and wanted to share that connection with other students and faculty. We hope that this book will be helpful to faculty and students in the sciences who are engaged in their own diversity, equity, and inclusion work and make meaningful examples easier to find and incorporate into your biology curriculums