“Having dedicated time to think through, and a cohort of colleagues to hone my short- and long-term goals, helped prepare me for this role at Siteman where I serve as an intermediary between Siteman investigators and the community members it serves.”

“I’ve always believed that one way to strengthen community is to have more people sharing their stories and being authentic with each other. So my goal is to listen to the stories of students who may not be sure how to deal with a place that is so different from home.”

“We all know through the news that veterans face many barriers to success like PTSD and substance abuse, but they also bring a lot of strengths that we value on a college campus, such as the ability to work as a team and to persevere.”

WashU’s post-baccalaureate program gave Martinez a whole new understanding of what it means to be a woman of science. Not only was she exposed to a new academic environment, she has also had opportunities to join on- and off-campus organizations to help students who face similar challenges.

“I’ve had the opportunity to meet people from across campus with different backgrounds and identities different from mine. That matters to me because I want to support people and connect with people in ways that are meaningful.”

“There are a lot of excellent underrepresented minority students who do not necessarily consider our program when they are looking at graduate training. I am looking for ways to identify such students and encourage them to come to St. Louis.”

“Those of us who are lucky to have the ability to play a sport, I want us to be three-dimensional: To be leaders in the classroom; to be competitors in the sports that we love; and then to be engaged in the campus community, as well as in the surrounding community.”

“With time, I started to grow into the role and understand my responsibility as a minority in the fight for racial equality. I became the president of the Graduate Association of Latin American Students (GALAS) in the university’s Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS).”

“Universities and academic health centers have an understanding that diversity and inclusion are more than something we need to talk about. They are something we need to do.”

“To me fostering a diverse and inclusive environment on our campus means that people…have the ability to be whoever they want to be and say whatever they want to say without fear of being put down.”