Hello! We would like to tell you about MetroAWIS’ activities of last fall and to let you know about our exciting upcoming programs and events. 

This spring we have decided on a change from the ITLAG career day (Is There Life After Graduate School) that we organize each year.  Instead, MetroAWIS will participate in the Biotech job fair that is organized by NYBA - the New York Biotechnology Association.
If you are interested in a job –this event is for you!

       No Registration Fee, Your current resume is your Ticket!
       Be sure to bring 40 extra resumes to distribute.
       Allow time to speak with all the exhibitors in which you are interested.
       Dress for success, look like the outstanding candidate you are.
       Prepare to talk about your goals, skills and achievements.

On March 27th, Dr. Hiroko I. Karan, Dean , School of Science, Health and 
Technology,Medgar Evers College/CUNY received an award for "Brooklyn Women of Essence". This honor was given by Con Edison of Brooklyn in recognition of women's History month. Five women of Booklyn were honored for their outstanding service to the community. Dr. Karan's contribution was recognized for her service to Science and Education at her college located in Brooklyn.

On February 1, the Women in Science Section of the New York Academy of Sciences (WIS) held its second annual networking dinner and forum which was co-sponsored by the Metro-NY Chapter of the Association for Women in Science and the MetroWomen Chemists Topical Group of the New York and North Jersey Sections of the American Chemical Society.  The topic was Women in Science: Balancing Acts, a forum on meeting the demands of professional and personal lives.  About 50 women and 1 man attended. To prepare for the meeting, each attendee had been asked to think about the following questions: 
How much time do you spend per week on career and professional activities, and how much time do you allocate as "personal time," whether for family-related activities or other interests? 
How much time would you like to spend on each type of activity? 
What strategies do you employ to try to maintain a balance among different facets of your life? 
What challenges are particular to balancing family demands with your career? 
What  challenges are particular to balancing other types of activities and demands with your career? 
Are the days of the "24/7" scientist waning or over? 
Are some of these challenges unique to scientific careers?

A reception for informal networking was followed by a buffet dinner and facilitated discussion.  The attendees were seated on the outside of four long tables, forming a square so that everyone faced each other. Nancy Tooney, Chair of WIS welcomed everyone and provided us with background material.  The discussion was led by Nancy Steinberg, Vice-chair of WIS with some assistance from Alice Deutsch, Member and former Chair of WIS. The attendees introduced themselves with their professional affiliations; they were from academia, industry, government and non-profit organizations.  (17% from industry, 59% from academia, 13% from non-profits and 11% from other sectors or information not available).

To kick off the discussion, four speakers described the challenges they face in managing their time.  Cheryl Agris, a self-employed patent attorney, has flexible hours and works nights and mornings, carving out family time for her children.  She also has time to belong to a book club.  She said that it takes lots of planning to achieve this 'free' time. 
Anne McElroy is a professor at the Marine Sciences Research Center of SUNY Stony Brook, an academic scientist married to an academic scientist.  She started her family late in life and has two children.  Time is a problem for Anne; she is constantly juggling time and admitted that she doesn't feel that she can do anything well because she can't devote enough time to it.  A crisis occurs when a child is sick, as this throws off her schedule. 

Karen MacDonald, an occupational therapist, is a survivor of a 1992 motor vehicle accident with traumatic brain injury. She formerly worked 50-60 hours per week and now feels lucky when she has 5 to 6 hours a week at peak ability. She shared her insights and suggestions about multi-tasking and juggling the assorted roles of a person like herself. Her suggestions included determining what one's core values are in order to prioritize tasks and structuring one's time carefully. (See attachment for full text.) 

Finally, we heard from Nancy Tooney, an administrator at a university who has moved away from academia. She is single with no children and said that being single gives everyone else the illusion that she has free time. This means she has more demands from family and friends who consider her 'available.'   She sees herself as multitasking.  She talked about the importance of setting aside time each day to reflect.  Her nonprofessional activities are playing the recorder, an interest in early music, and doing volunteer work for the blind.  She says the key is to stay balanced between all the different demands on her time.

During the discussion, the following points that were made.
Who makes more money in a relationship should not determine who spends more time running the household and family and less time on a career.  Most of the women made less money than their husbands.  It was pointed out that the husband should be 'reeducated' if necessary because the goal is to share responsibilities equally. 
Maternity leave while on tenure track is an important issue.  Different people had different strategies.  One had two children during graduate school, whereas another talked about how impossible it is to have children until you have finished  your formal training.  Several older academics said that when they were younger and their children were sick, they had to say that they themselves were sick since it was not acceptable to take time off to attend a sick child.  And of course this is still usually the mother's responsibility. 
It is important to have friends and to spend quality time with them even when you don't have much time away from your career.  A network of friends can help you manage your daily life, especially with a child or children, and give a sense of balance to your life. 
A question that was only partly answered was why we pursue a career in science although it is not a very lucrative profession. One answer is that perhaps science is a religion and we are its devotees.  As professionals we don't punch a time clock and so we expect to put in more time on this 'labor of love.' 

Nearly everyone had a chance to speak at least once.  After the lively round-table discussion ended, some of the most interesting discussion occurred in the ladies room-- sound familiar?  Three graduate students were talking about having children. One thought everyone should have the right to have children-- that it shouldn't be an impossibility. Another wanted to know why have children if someone else is going to care for the child?  Other post-discussion questions dealt with maternity leave.  “They give me 3 months.  Is this enough?”  “Will it negatively affect my career?” 

A significant comment was that it was very valuable for graduate students to hear how the older, more established women scientists manage their time.

The Ecology and Environment students and the public were invited to listen to three speakers at St. Francis College (SFC) who were part of the March Mondays Women Ecologists program.  These three March Mondays, complete with bagels and coffee, were sponsored by the SFC Biology and Public Relations Departments. 
Helena Andreyko, a fisheries biologist from the Hudson River Foundation (HRF) spoke to the group about the striped bass tagging program.  The Hudson River Foundation , which originated in 1981 as the result of a lawsuit against the utilities for damage caused to fish from power plants, is dedicated to funding grants pertaining to research and education about the Hudson River.  For a time, Con Edison funded a hatchery program for striped bass, until it was ascertained that it was no longer necessary.  Results from a fish tagging and release program depicted that hatchery fish were contributing only a small fraction to the total river population.  Since then, HRF personnel have taken over the tagging program.  Why would one tag fish and then offer a monetary reward for a return of these spaghetti-like strips containing numbers (the tags)?  Fisheries biologists are interested in where the fish migrate, and by comparing the percentage of fish tagged to the percentage of returns, information about relative abundance and survival is gained.   The website for the HRF is:  http://www.hudsonriver.org. 

Varuni Kulasekera, Ph.D., who works for the New York City Department of Health on the West Nile Virus (WNV) project, spoke about her work.  Varuni is an expert on the “lower flies”, the group of insects in which mosquitoes are categorized.  Currently, many people have tested positively serologically to WNV, but have not developed symptoms.  She is responsible for collecting mosquito larvae from various areas containing standing water.  Lately she has focussed on Staten Island, both because there of the large number of crows, partially because of the landfill (crows also succumb to WNV) and because this borough contains large swatches of marshes.  DNA from the mosquito larvae, the birds, and the virus will be sequenced in an attempt to understand evolution of the DNA molecule over time, as well as relationships among these three organisms and others.  For more information on the encephalitis that can be caused by WNV, as well as information about what are thought to be  safer pesticides made with two Bacillus spp. (bacteria), consult the New York City Department of Health web site at:  http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/doh/. 

 Leon Tulton, a research assistant for Luz Claudio, Ph.D., represented the latter in a presentation titled “Asthma and New York City Children”.   Luz works at the Mt. Sinai College of Medicine, and was coincidentally honored in the Metro-AWIS Outstanding Women Scientists Awards Ceremony in November 1999. 
There is a high correlation between hospitalization rates for asthma and socioeconomic factors.  Leon showed us colorful maps that depicted New York City regions and incidents of asthma, that were positively correlated with air pollution, low income level and the number of children.  The highest number of asthma cases that required hospitalization was in the Bronx; the lowest were in Staten Island.  He suggested that in the case of poorer neighborhoods, “environmental justice” is often violated, as these communities have greater concentrations of bus depots, waste transfer stations and power generating plants.  One proposal to address bus fumes is to use natural gas as fuel, or to use a new hybrid bus that utilizes natural gas and electricity.

 The Science Society at St. Francis College organized an event in which two women scientists described their work.  A luncheon followed. 
 The first speaker, Cheryl Agris, holds both a Ph.D. and a law degree.  She spoke about her career as a patent attorney for biotechnology inventions.  She was trained as a cell biologist, but decided to pursue this field.  She differentiated between a patent agent and a patent attorney, and gave a description of what a typical day was like in the life of each.  She included a list of web sites from which to obtain more information about “intellectual property” or IP.

Cheryl had also spoken at the Metro-AWIS “Is There Life After Graduate School?  Yes!” symposium that was held last spring at New York University.  She believes that giving occasional talks to students lies within the realm of community service.
Barbara Osborne, M.D, recounted her story of how she arrived at becoming a radiologist.  She said that she was fascinated by x-rays and the stories they tell, and applauded new technologies that enable us to see inside the body.  She said that this was a perfect field for those who might prefer a more “hands off” approach to medicine.

 My contribution as a woman scientist during Women’s History Month was to appear as a guest speaker in Suzanne Forsberg’s (Ph.D.) honors course titled, “Women in the Arts and Sciences”. Suzanne is a music professor at SFC.   I told the class that there was no right route to take to becoming a scientist, and that there can be obstacles, such as family, that might hold one back.  “We should think of the obstacles as detours, and get on with our lives,” I told them.  One of the scientists we focussed on was Nancy Hopkins, the recent crusader for women’s rights at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  Many students were amazed that there were still prejudices today against women, but a small percentage felt that they had experienced discrimination in some fashion.

Over sixty people attended the Metro AWIS Outstanding Women Scientist Award Ceremony on November 9, 2000.   This auspicious event was held at the New York Academy of Sciences, and was co-sponsored by the Women’s Section of the NYAS and the American Chemical Society.  After a social hour in which students (and others) had a chance to meet and talk to the awardees, the latter were introduced to the group and delivered short talks.  The awardees included Karen Hubbard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology at the City College of New York, Kathleen McKeown, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Computer Sciences at Columbia University, and Tamar Schlick, Ph.D. Professor of Chemistry, Mathematics, Computer Science and Biochemistry at New York University. (For photos of the awardees see the Metro New York AWIS website listed above and click on “news”.)
The three women were chosen not only because of their many accomplishments, awards and publications, but because of their mentoring of women.   As the awardees are all professors, much of their mentoring takes the form of guiding graduate students and post-doctoral fellows.  Each awardee told a story that included why she went into science, obstacles she surmounted, and current mentoring activities. 
Karen Hubbard mentors her students in her research involving the regulation of gene expression in cellular senescence.  She is part of a research team of scientists at the Center for the Study of the Cellular and Molecular Basis of Development at City College. She has recently contributed a chapter to a book titled Cell Growth, Differentiation and Senescence, A Practical Approach, edited by Studzinski and published by Oxford Press.(2000).  She was appointed as a linkage fellow on the American Society for Cell Biology Minority Affairs Committee.  This committee seeks to help students from underrepresented groups “successfully negotiate the science career ladder”.  Besides working with graduate students, she also mentors undergraduates.  She is currently helping them publish a journal of their research.
Kathleen McKeown is the chair of computer science at Columbia University. She has combined her love for languages and science and is now working in the field of natural language processing and generation.  She is currently part of a group that is a recipient of a grant at Columbia University to develop faster ways of retrieving health information from the Internet.  Kathy is especially needed as a role model for young female students today, because of the dearth of women in the computer science arena.  To reach her homepage,see:  http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~kathy/.
Tamar Schlick’s expertise lies in biomolecular modeling.  A look at the website http://monod.biomath.nyu.edu contains a snapshot of her surrounded by students and postdocs, several of whom are women.  She has mentored many women and men over the years.  This website contains much information and many colorful drawings of biomolecules.  For example the link titled “chromatin folding” included a simulation of a chromatin fiber.   This website included many full-text articles as well. 
After the awardee presentations, discussions and networking were continued over coffee and cookies. In all, it was a very up-beat evening.  Metro NY AWIS looks forward to continuing to host this very popular annual event.  Please be thinking about nominations for next November!

The Awards Committee is seeking your help in selecting women scientists in the Metropolitan New York Area to honor.  We are looking for women who have not only made significant contributions in their chosen field, but who have also supported and worked to encourage and promote women in the sciences.  We are particularly interested in women who have made outstanding contributions in encouraging and promoting women scientists in the New York Area.
Please send your nomination with a curriculum vitae and letter of nomination by August. 25, 2001 to the Committee chair. The letter of nomination must also note contributions, support, and promotion of women in the sciences. Previous nominations will automatically be reentered and submitted to the selection committee.

You can access a list of our past awardees at our website
http://sites.netscape.net/metronyawis/html.index
 

ATTACHMENT: 
WOMEN IN SCIENCE:  BALANCING ACTS (NYAS)

The following is the presentation given by Dr. Karen Macdonald at the New York Academy of Sciences, for the forum on Balancing the Demands of Personal and Professional Lives held on February 1, 2001.

I worked at a Jewish Home in Connecticut for 15 years and one of the favorite Yiddish expressions I learned is translated as:

“You can’t go to two weddings with only one behind!”

The point being, there is only one of YOU.

As professional women, we try to squeeze in so much:
“never say no”... “do it all”... Anyone like that here?

We become experts in multitasking and juggling assorted roles.

As a person with a disability (or as we prefer to say, different ability), I find the challenges of functioning in multiple roles to be magnified.

I’m a survivor of a 1992 Motor Vehicle Accident, with traumatic brain injury.  Since the accident, along with steps for rehabilitation and recovery, I got married and completed a Ph.D. at New York University in Occupational Therapy. 

 The dissertation described my qualitative research on women’s adaptation to adult onset of physical disability.

Where I used to easily work 50-60 hours per week, now I am lucky when I have 5 to 6 hours per week of peak ability.  I’ve become very expert in understanding and respecting the need to balance all ability and activity.  I will be sharing insights and suggestions, both from the research and my own experience.

I’ve devised an acronym for this talk about maximizing balance and ability, which covers my main points and that is V.I.S.T.A. (symbolizing the panorama or landscape of our lives).

V = Values
I = I/me/self
S = Structure
T = Time
A = Assistance
 V = VALUES

This reflects the importance of knowing yourself. 
What do you value most in life?  How does that affect your personal priorities and then choices for action?
I feel like we are socialized to:  want it all/have it all/do it all!
But what would your Core values be?
This ties into the next:

“I = “I”, your self, your unique set of roles and responsibilities.

If there was a generic pie chart of how life could be divided for balancing time and energy, a pie chart for the “ideal” equally balanced generic life would look like:
 
 

I think however a typical real chart for American working women would look more like:
 
 

Whatever your chart would look like, it’s fine, as long as it reflects balancing your values and the needs of significant others in your life.

S = STRUCTURE, and routine.  This is more about techniques.

When I was testing my abilities to see if I could continue with Ph.D. efforts, I consulted on a research project about women and time management.  They consistently reported the value of routine.  The more familiar, and repeated, the more was accomplished, and with greater satisfaction.
Then, from my own research, the participants confirmed that, and s hared additional strategies.  These included: 

 - Establish a daily written, “must do” list.
 - Plan ahead, anticipate needs.
 - Perform activities in a consistent sequence.
- Create a system of balancing simple and difficult tasks to coincide 
 with cycles of ability during the day.
- Avoid overlapping.  Finish one thing before beginning another.  I call 
 that RTB = Return to Baseline.

To summarize, organize activities encourage predictability, and simplify any “clutter” of life.

As much as possible, allow for “sub-cortical” functioning or automatic pilot, which then leads to an increased sense of control, and then further accomplishment of new added goals.

If yourself was a project that you had to best manage for peak efficiency, what would you need to change to promote structure and routine?

T = TIME

This overlaps with structure, with a big focus on scheduling.  This included pacing, and my participants found this especially challenging.  They were now using adapted techniques, and things took much longer to do, which affected the quantity of total activities.

They discovered that an important temporal dimension was within any activity, and it included 5 steps to consider.

I’ll review the five steps using an example of meal preparation, to demonstrate the time required in a process task. 

1. Analysis of needs: Time to check required items, devise shopping list.

2. Preparation Time for shipping, setting out cooking utensils and ingredients, allow for rests.

3. Performance (actual task): Time for setting table, actual cooking, supervising any assistants.

4. Follow-up: Time for clearing table, putting away leftovers, doing dishes.

5. Evaluation: Allow time periodically to stop and assess:  are there any changes needed to simplify or improve my approaches? 
 

The point being, the many steps of any activity all require time to be balanced throughout the day.

With disability, much attention was also given to scheduling the required time for rest, which had to be respected, or else all other efforts for balance would deteriorate.  This allowed for “changing channels” from maximum effort, and re-charging of batteries.

They also found a strong need to make time for purposeful pleasure.

How do you do with balancing time for steps of your “must do’s” with pleasure and rest?

A = ASSISTANCE

Is there anyone here like me?  I’d rather do it myself, and get it done, they way I want?

Asking for, needing, and accepting assistance can be a difficult thing.  But with disability, we need to realize that you can’t do it all, with A+ quality, alone.  To prevent living in a state of maximum active symptoms, assistance may be required.  Delegating becomes one critical approach.

This is not just “dumping” things onto family or co-workers, but sharing aspects of responsibilities and encouraging new roles, for instance, having your children help with laundry.

What are your expectations of assistance?  Clear communication is required, some teaching of technique, and careful expression of needs.  For example, there is a big difference between:
 “Could you take out the garbage?” and
 “You could take out the garbage!”

So many interpersonal dynamics come into play, including that a person assisting you with a task may not do it in exactly your method.

Assistance through task sharing can even be a part of quality time connection, like when my husband and I cook together.

Responsibility issues also come in, for myself, I am fiercely independent, and can even resent offers of help.  However, I needed to learn that I can actually achieve much more when welcoming appropriate assistance, such as my typist, who truly made completion of my dissertation by difficult deadlines possible.

Assistance can be a valuable means to adapt to challenges in functioning, and enable maximum accomplishment.

Who are your support systems?  Are you also a support to them?  How do you do t hat?  How can you best allow them to also support you?  How can you balance that?

CONCLUSION:

I’ve covered 5 issues of consideration in balancing personal and professional roles, especially with disability, using the acronym of V.I.S.T.A., meaning Values, “I”, Structure, Time and Assistance.

Which of these areas might need some attention or change in your life?

As women in Science, we have chosen demanding and active careers, and there are choices we can make to modulate the pace and amount of our commitments; to prevent life from being one big blur.  I think we’d like to savor the steps along the journey.

After a difficult day last week, my husband took me out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner.  The fortune cookie read “Be satisfied with one chapter at a time.”

That seemed to summarize some of what I’m trying to say, and reminded me that this talk would be a wonderful chapter for me - my first attempt at public speaking again!  Thank you.

Karen Crane Macdonald, Ph.D., OTR/L
1 Davenport Street
Norwalk, CT.  06851
(203)847-4631
genokaren@aol.com