We as Black trainees in neuroscience and co-founders of Black In Neuro wrote this open letter to thank the phenomenal mentors who came before us. We also aim to encourage and give advice to future mentors on how to effectively mentor the next generation of Black researchers.
Your institute does not have access to this article
Access options
Subscribe to Nature+
Get immediate online access to the entire Nature family of 50+ journals
$29.99
monthly
Subscribe to Journal
Get full journal access for 1 year
$59.00
only $4.92 per issue
All prices are NET prices.
VAT will be added later in the checkout.
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.
Buy article
Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.
$32.00
All prices are NET prices.
References
Subbaraman, N. How #BlackInTheIvory put a spotlight on racism in academia. Nature 582, 387 (2020).
Williams, P., Bath, S., Arday, J. & Lewis, C. The broken pipeline: barriers to black PhD students accessing research council funding. Leading Routes https://leadingroutes.org/mdocs-posts/the-broken-pipeline-barriers-to-black-students-accessing-research-council-funding (2019).
Estrada, M., Hernandez, P. R. & Schultz, P. W. A longitudinal study of how quality mentorship and research experience integrate underrepresented minorities into STEM careers. CBE Life Sci. Educ. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.17-04-0066 (2018).
Evans, T., Bira, L., Gastelum, J., Weiss, L. T. & Vanderford, N. L. Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education. Nat. Biotechnol. 36, 282–284 (2018).
Hund, A. K. et al. Transforming mentorship in STEM by training scientists to be better leaders. Ecol. Evol. 8, 9962–9974 (2018).
Johnson, I. R., Pietri, E. S., Fullilove, F. & Mowrer, S. Exploring identity-safety cues and allyship among black women students in STEM environments. Psychol. Women Q. 43, 131–150 (2019).
Bertolero, M. A. et al. Racial and ethnic imbalance in neuroscience reference lists and intersections with gender. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.12.336230 (2020).
Erosheva, E. A. et al. NIH peer review: Criterion scores completely account for racial disparities in overall impact scores. Sci. Adv. 6, eaaz4868 (2020).
Li, D. & Koedel, C. Representation and salary gaps by race-ethnicity and gender at selective public universities. Educ. Res. 46, 343–354 (2017).
Jimenez, M. F. et al. Underrepresented faculty play a disproportionate role in advancing diversity and inclusion. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 1030–1033 (2019).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Related links
Black In Neuro: https://www.blackinneuro.com/
#BlackBirdersWeek, #BlackInNeuro: Black scientists, physicians are using hashtags to uplift: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/2020/08/04/blackinneuro-blackinchem-can-hashtags-help-black-scientists-build-community-spotlight-excellence/5541431002/
Society for Neuroscience, Report of Neuroscience Departments & Programs Survey (Academic Year 2016–2017): https://www.sfn.org/-/media/SfN/Documents/Survey-Reports/NDP-Final-Report.ashx?la=en
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singleton, K.S., Tesfaye, R., Dominguez, E.N. et al. An open letter to past, current and future mentors of Black neuroscientists. Nat Rev Neurosci 22, 71–72 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-00421-9
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-020-00421-9
Further reading
-
Visions by WIMIN: Global Mentorship to Retain Underrepresented Trainees
Molecular Imaging and Biology (2022)