Office for Research Celebrates National Hispanic Heritage Month

María Gloria Domínguez, PhD
Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome,
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology;
Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences
Rutgers-New Brunswick

What is the focus of your research and its potential impact?

My research is focused on trying to elucidate the mechanisms by which the microbiome (our adapted microbes that live on us) makes us healthy, the effects of stressors on our microbiome, and how to restore it.

What inspired you to focus on this particular area of research, and what inspires you now?

I was fascinated by organs that function thanks to microorganisms, such as digestive organs in animals like the rumen of cows, or the crop of a unique South American bird, the hoatzin, that ferments like the cow rumen.

In what ways has your background, culture, and heritage impacted who you are and the research you do?

I grew up with a lot of contact with nature, in the tropics, on my grandfather's farm. My ancestry is Spaniard, but I grew up in rural Venezuela, in a very diverse environment of locals and immigrants from Europe and the Middle East. I developed, from a very early age, an enormous respect and love for nature, for cultures, for foods.

What has your experience been like as a Hispanic/Latinx person working in research or in your field of research?

I did my training in Venezuela and then Scotland, did postdocs in France and Spain, then started my career in Venezuela and Puerto Rico before coming to mainland US. Research and science are like the arts, a universal métier, with a lot of diverse people from different origins. In the US, it is remarkable how so many top institutions attract the brightest minds of the world, from all countries and ethnicities. I found many Hispanic and Latinos, and many women such as myself, had the privilege of opportunities, and are currently in academia.

All over the world, poor socioeconomic conditions, prejudice, and discrimination restrict the path needed for bright minds to excel in a fair competition. Many talents, potential artists, and scientists were never able to develop their careers to their fullest potential.

How can diversity and inclusion in academia and within research universities be improved? What do you feel is the most critical issue facing people of Hispanic/Latinx heritage in higher ed, and what do you believe could and/or should be done about it?

Universities should engage very seriously in leveraging bright students from poor families to prepare them to excel in the competition for college. A scholarship to offer a pre-college year that enables motivated and bright students to compete in equal opportunities, much as the pre-med leverages students that lack formation in sciences. If talented people were given the opportunity, we would have a much better society.

Manuel Jimenez, MD, MS, FAAP
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics & Family Medicine and Community Health, Child Health Institute of New Jersey;
Director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Education, Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities;
Attending Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician, Children's Specialized Hospital;
Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital
Rutgers Health

What is the focus of your research and its potential impact?

My research focuses on promoting optimal developmental and behavioral health outcomes for children and their families. We use community engaged research strategies to identify research questions that are important to community members, work collaboratively with partners to develop interventions and programs that address unmet needs, and generate knowledge that can advance health and wellbeing for the community.

What inspired you to focus on this particular area of research, and what inspires you now?

As a clinician-scientist and practicing developmental pediatrician, I have the privilege of parents entrusting me with the care of their children during some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives. I feel a responsibility to address the pressing issues they entrust to me and my team to help ensure that systems and policies are more responsive to their needs.  

In what ways has your background, culture, and heritage impacted who you are and the research you do?

My parents emigrated from Cuba when they were teenagers, and my sister and I are the first people to graduate from college in our family. They made incredible sacrifices so that I would have the opportunities I have today. I am inspired every day to pay their sacrifices forward and work toward ensuring that others have similar opportunities.

What has your experience been like as a Hispanic/Latinx person working in research or in your field of research?

I feel grateful to have the opportunity to conduct the work that I do and to learn from my mentors, community partners, colleagues, trainees, and students. It's a great privilege that individuals trust me and my team to participate in our studies, and one that we can never take for granted. 

How can diversity and inclusion in academia and within research universities be improved?

I have been extremely fortunate to have mentors who have guided me and supported my career advancement, but I know others have not always been so fortunate. We need more people who are committed to taking that role seriously and sponsoring individuals from underrepresented minority definition (URM) backgrounds so they can advance and succeed.

What do you feel is the most critical issue facing people of Hispanic/Latinx heritage in higher ed, and what do you believe could and/or should be done about it?

As a member of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, I feel strongly that we have a responsibility to open doors of opportunity to our surrounding community and the state more broadly. Children from Hispanic/Latino communities need to be able to look at Rutgers as a place that is committed to helping them achieve their dreams. We need to be working together, across our units and schools, to provide every resource we can to support children and their families from the cradle to career placement.

Ana Laguna, PhD
Professor of Early Modern Spanish Literature;
Director of the Spanish for Health Program;
Creator and Director of the Masters of Teach Spanish Program and Spanish for the Medical Professions Track;
Department of World Languages and Cultures
Rutgers-Camden

What is the focus of your research and its potential impact?

I'm essentially a "twenty-first century" humanist; I use my classical training to tackle pressing, contemporary issues like disinformation, authoritarianism, and human rights. Through my research, teaching, and curriculum design, I aim to connect the past and present in order to address urgent issues of the day (our days), like the eerie similarity between today's book bans and the Inquisitorial or Nazi book burnings.

From my position as a researcher and professor of interdisciplinary cultural studies, I have sought to instill this innovative relationship between past and present and this consciousness of humanity in all the subjects that I have explored and taught, and all the programs I have developed. In my research on the culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, I often explain moments in which this consciousness of humanity has been disrupted by inquisitorial anxieties, social pressure, and political upheaval. In this regard, I define my research on the culture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as one that explores the relationship among literature, politics, and the visual arts, focusing on how literature reflects prominent artistic and socio-political anxieties. As a comparatist critic, I relate visual and verbal domains, multiple national traditions, and disparate chronologies, producing scholarship that introduces new focal points and fertilizes interdisciplinary thought, expanding the scope and impact of Spanish literary study.

What inspired you to focus on this particular area of research, and what inspires you now? What has your experience been like as a Hispanic/Latinx person working in research or in your field of research?

While humanists often look to the past, they're not confined by it. Indeed, understanding the origins of our contemporary challenges, whether deep-rooted or more recent, empowers us to take informed action. Over two decades ago, when I worked as a volunteer interpreter in hospitals, I witnessed firsthand the debilitating communication barriers between Spanish-speaking patients and their healthcare providers. For many, language was not only an impediment to medical equity, but a tool that rendered them invisible. Moved by such revelation, in 2002, I launched the Spanish for Health Professions Program. What began as a solitary course has now flourished into a Certificate in Community Translation that serves not only our pre-med, nursing and health science students (among others) but that also has notably amplified the Latino presence on our campus.

The inclusive focus that led me to create Spanish for Health is responsible for the creation of a Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) in Spanish in 2012. With this program, I wanted to transform the so-called challenges of accommodating Spanish-speaking students in the k12 system into a solid educational opportunity for bilingual instruction. Seeing furthermore that there was a large number of Spanish teachers who were not certified, I decided to provide a path for certification in the MAT. Together with Sara Baker and Ann Heidelberg, the director and coordinator of the Teaching Program, we dedicated a year of weekly meetings to make sure that we designed a masters program that granted aspiring or working teachers the opportunity for professional reinvention.

In what ways has your background, culture, and heritage impacted who you are and the research you do?

As my research and curricular record demonstrates, while I didn't choose to be Spanish, I consciously committed my career to the service of the Latino community. Coming from a theoretical framework like the “Humanism of the 21st century,” I turned the phrase of humanism in community and for the community into a modus operandi, dedicated to improving the inclusion, dignity, and respect of Latino children, teachers, patients, and now clinical and health professionals in the communities of the tri-state area.

How can diversity and inclusion in academia and within research universities be improved?

By truly understanding that diversity is not merely a buzzword but an engine for scholarly inquiry and for serious pedagogical innovation that can result in increased social equity. It is not a quick fix, or a short- term investment, and does not depend on the place of origin of anybody. Here, as the humanist Miguel de Cervantes said, we are the “sons of our own deeds.”

Angelo Soto-Centeno, PhD
Assistant Professor of Evolution,
Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences,
School of Arts and Sciences,
Rutgers-Newark

What is the focus of your research and its potential impact?

My studies fall at the interface of speciation and extinction. They are motivated by my passion for biodiversity, and I try to find answers to two main questions: How are new species formed? Why do some species become extinct, but others survive? We know that there are many species awaiting discovery. Also, we know that species are becoming extinct at an alarmingly fast rate. So, my work is broadly relevant to these issues and has a direct impact on our understanding of this current biodiversity crisis that is mainly caused by human actions.

What inspired you to focus on this particular area of research, and what inspires you now?

At my core, I am inspired by how biodiverse our planet is. I became interested in animals (particularly flying ones) at an early age, and I have retained that passion over the years. This is what really drew me to study evolutionary biology. I believe there are many incredibly intriguing aspects about animals. Like, how many species are there? Or why do they live in the places we see them today? Finding the answers to these types of questions drives my inspiration every day.

In what ways has your background, culture, and heritage impacted who you are and the research you do?

I do see my cultural background and heritage playing a role in shaping my work. I was born and raised in Puerto Rico and did my undergraduate degree there. I am a first-generation college graduate and pretty much all my immediate family still lives on the island. Things were different there when I began doing research. It was very much driven like what we call “ciencia criolla” [a term meaning projects led by Latin American scientists]. This is a bit tough to describe, but maybe you could imagine it as a very hands-on research experience in a makeshift way. This was because many of the resources we needed for doing research were too difficult to attain, so we were forced to wear different hats beyond just being a scientist and find solutions to problems in creative ways. It was an absolute “házlo como puedas, y no te rindas” [do your best, and do not give up] attitude. Today, I bring this same creativity and tireless attitude to all my work.

What has your experience been like as a Hispanic/Latinx person working in research or in your field of research?

When I was an undergrad, there were few students working in the field of ecology and evolution. From the undergraduates participating as research assistants in that cohort, I was the only one making it into academia this far. Even today, in many of the circles I am involved in, I often see myself either being the only Hispanic, or one of a handful of us. Over the years I have seen an increase in Hispanics and Latinx in these fields. Because of this, I have been able to create larger networks of collaborators, and it has allowed me to provide significant opportunities to aspiring scientists of a similar cultural background and heritage to mine. This to me has been one of the most important reasons for staying in academia. I think that has made my experience in this field more welcoming, although I could not say it has been free of challenges.

How can diversity and inclusion in academia and within research universities be improved?

This is a very complex question, and I believe there could be many equally valid ways to improve diversity and inclusion in research and academic settings. One way in which I think this can be improved is by providing equal opportunities to Hispanics and Latinx, and also acknowledging that the challenges we have in our line of work are very different than those experienced by other groups. For example, studies have shown that non-native English-speaking scientists take a considerably longer amount of time to do certain tasks, like reviewing a research manuscript or writing a grant, only because they are doing it in a second language. Providing mentoring and professional development opportunities that are tailored to the specific challenges we face could help improve our productivity, reduce burnout, and/or mental health issues.

What do you feel is the most critical issue facing people of Hispanic/Latinx heritage in higher ed, and what do you believe could and/or should be done about it?

I think a critical issue facing Hispanics and Latinx in the higher ed science field is the lack of appropriate mentors and role models. This affects us at all levels. Recent polls have shown that STEM students associate their lack of connection with these fields to experiences of discouragement or mistreatment in the classroom during college years. These experiences prevent the development of a sense of belonging in STEM communities. Furthermore, pedagogical research has shown that students learn better when taught by someone who shares a similar cultural background and upbringing. Diverse instructors or researchers can thus have a positive impact in the way students perceive STEM fields and in creating environments in which students feel empowered to pursue a career in these fields. Increasing exposure of Hispanics and Latinx mentors in higher ed science may help create opportunities for students to find the appropriate mentors and role models and possibly increase retention in STEM careers.