SECQUOIA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
SECQUOIA is committed to fostering an inclusive, equitable, and supportive research and learning environment. We believe that diverse perspectives across race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic background, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, age, academic discipline, and thought strengthen scientific discovery and make our work more impactful and trustworthy.
Our commitments
- Inclusive recruitment and mentoring: We actively recruit trainees and collaborators from diverse backgrounds and provide mentorship that recognizes varied career paths and life circumstances. We aim to lower barriers to participation by offering transparent mentoring, inclusive hiring practices, and accommodations when needed. Your engagement in these efforts helps foster a welcoming environment for all.
- Accessible and equitable teaching: We incorporate inclusive pedagogy and accessible materials in our courses and training activities, and we strive to make our seminars, workshops, and events welcoming to all participants.
- Community building and accountability: We maintain regular group activities (e.g., journal club, seminars, and outreach) that promote respectful dialogue and broad participation. We hold ourselves accountable through regular review of practices, open feedback channels, and alignment with departmental and university DEI policies.
- Open and reproducible research: We advance open-science practices and reproducible workflows so that our outputs are broadly accessible and enable participation across institutions and resource levels.
- Partnerships and outreach: We collaborate with student groups, professional societies, and institutional offices to support recruitment, retention, and career development of underrepresented students and scholars.
Actions we take
- Provide structured mentoring and professional development for undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and staff.
- Foster an inclusive lab culture with clear codes of conduct and mechanisms to raise concerns safely.
- Design and teach interdisciplinary courses and workshops that welcome diverse student backgrounds and learning styles.
- Share code, data, and documentation openly to reduce access barriers and enable reproducible work.
Continuing to improve
We recognize that building an equitable community is an ongoing process. SECQUOIA will continue to listen, learn, and adapt: soliciting feedback, tracking practices, and partnering with institutional DEI resources to measure progress and update our actions. Your input is vital to our continuous improvement.
If you have suggestions or concerns or would like to collaborate on DEI work with our group, please get in touch with the group leadership. Your participation is essential to our collective progress.