Our Commitment

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE) in the Whiting School of Engineering is committed to developing and maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion that allows its members to achieve and sustain excellence in all areas related to education, research and professional development. We firmly believe that superior achievements in the world of materials scholarship and engineering translation can best be pursued by recruiting and maintaining a diverse group of students, faculty and staff and by developing and preserving a climate of respect that is supportive of their efforts.

Maintaining a Place that Allows Us to Excel

A climate that fosters diversity, inclusion and excellence is essential to advancing the boundaries of scientific and engineering understanding as well as to the creation and dissemination of that knowledge. Taken together, these values are consistent with those of JHU as a whole and DMSE works to make them part of the everyday experience of members of our community. We recognize that the responsibility for maintaining excellence, diversity and inclusion lies with the faculty, staff, and students and we must consistently work together to create an environment that openly displays these values.

 

Diversity and Inclusion Resources

Building Trust and Working Together

We all must work together to reach our goals, and the university maintains a range of forums where issues related to diversity and inclusion are brought to the attention of our community. These include Diversity at JHU (https://diversity.jhu.edu/) and the Diversity Leadership Council (https://diversity.jhu.edu/diversity-leadership-council/). Within DMSE, we have a committee on Diversity and Inclusion that meets regularly to discuss and implement plans to improve the experience members of our community enjoy. The committee is composed of graduate students, staff and faculty who have committed themselves to developing and maintaining a culture of diversity and inclusion in DMSE, but all members of our community are encouraged to contribute. For the 2021-22 AY, the committee includes the following members:

Jim Spicer Committee Chair, DMSE Diversity Champion
Shoji Hall, Diversity Advocate for DMSE
Jeanine Majewski
Ellen Libao
Amy Weldon
Shane Arlington
Alyssa Chuang
Christopher Florencio Aleman
Johndavid Sabedra

Feel free to contact any one of them if you have questions or suggestions. DMSE also maintains an anonymous, online suggestion portal that feeds directly to the DMSE Chair (https://engineering.jhu.edu/materials/suggestions/). We want every member of our department to know that your presence is valued in our community and that your voice and your concerns matter. We hope that with support and concerted effort across our community, we can improve ourselves, our department, and our institution.

A new opportunity is available to prospective PhD students from the Passport to Future Technology Leadership (PFTL) program, led by professor Rebecca Schulman in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Darlene Saporu, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion for the Homewood schools. JHU’s new PFTL program is providing URM PhD students interested in industry science and engineering-related careers with professional development opportunities, mentoring and internships. This program is open to all URM STEM PhD students. See the flyer PDF below for more information and feel free to contact:

Darlene Saporu, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion
Rebecca Schulman, associate professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

PFTL digital flyer

Explore this page for resources compiled by the Whiting School of Engineering, including resource guides, worksheets, training, articles, books, and media related to unconscious bias, interrupting bias, allyship, and the history of race in the U.S.Diversity and Inclusion Resources.