Bling for Women of Hopkins!

Dominic and I have received the awesome news that the Women of Hopkins project will be recognized by a 2017 Diversity Leadership Council Award. We are humbled and thrilled by this recognition because it shines light on the true heroines in our community: the Women of Hopkins.

This art exhibit created by three engineers and a biophysicist grew out of a desire to expand the images about who we are and who we can become. Pictures can be remarkably persuasive in challenging entrenched stereotypes and can expand the dreams we all carry for ourselves and others. The accomplishments of the Women of Hopkins are models for us all because the barriers faced by many of these women were huge and could easily have prevented their success.

Yet they persisted.

We hope this award will inspire similar persistence and confidence in women at all stages in the pursuits of their goals.  Our challenge to all the young women as they pass by the exhibit in the Mattin Courtyard: will you be among the next Women of Hopkins?

Now for some kudos! An effort like this takes a village of people to make it happen, and thanks goes out to everyone who contributed:

 Our team!  Special recognition goes out to Professor Jeff Gray and graduate student Anna Coughlin from the Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, who actively participated in assembling and culling the list of distinguished candidates for inclusion in the first exhibition.

The DLC: Johns Hopkins Diversity Leadership Council, who funded our Diversity Innovation Grant that made Women of Hopkins a reality.

The Prez: President Daniel’s office, who has been overwhelmingly supportive.

The folks at the Mattin Center, who host the actual exhibit.

Jeanine Heynes, Director of Gender Equity – Johns Hopkins is lucky to have such a thoughtful and proactive person in this role.

Valerie Hartman, JHMI instructional designer, who edited each and every biography.

Women of Hopkins biography writers. Thank you all!! We crowd sourced this part of our exhibit to facilitate greater inclusion in our project. Many of our biographers were extraordinarily passionate about their chosen heroine. We encourage you all to peruse their stories.

Jim Stimpert and Jenny Kinniff of the Sheridan Library Special Collections and Timothy Wisniewski of the Chesney Medial archives, who helped us research the Women of Hopkins.

When & Where: The awards ceremony will take place Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 3:30 in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus. It is open to the public. Come celebrate with us!

Advertisement

High Table Happenings & Hopes

Our team members are busy getting some Women of Hopkins portraits ready for the Johns Hopkins High Table event. This is a first-year undergraduate experience in which the students join the deans and professors for a formal “Harry Potter” type dinner. Read about last year’s event here.

It’s cool. The Rec Center is transformed for an evening into a medieval-like banquet hall. Fancy gold plated dishes and flatware placed along long, stately tables are the settings for this sit down dinner. The walls are covered with formal curtains that give the feel of velvet drapes, and the faculty, deans and the JHU president march in all decked out in their academic robes. It doesn’t hurt that the president’s robe is a brilliant Hopkins gold. If you’ve ever been in any of the dining halls of Cambridge or Oxford, you’d have to agree that the organizers do a great job of capturing this ambiance.

I have been a participating professor at this dinner for several years. It has a super fun feel and comes at a good time when the semester is gaining full steam whilst the students are still somewhat rested. But one thing always bugged me about it. As a female faculty member marching in, I passed by numerous ornately framed portraits of (presumably) the luminaries of Hopkins past. Although I’m sure these past leaders were better than Moaning Myrtle, what struck me immediately is that there were no portraits of women. Only men.

Really? No women?

This realization was one of the motivators for our Women of Hopkins exhibit. And I’m pleased that our Diversity Innovation Grant funded not only the main art show but also enabled us to add women to the portraits that students and professors will pass by on the procession into this Hopkins Harry Potter banquet. After all, 49% of the undergraduate students at Hopkins are women. I’m hoping that these images will be noticed by the young women students. I’m hoping it will spark a recognition that female luminaries can lead the way. And I’m hoping that these heroines of Hopkins will inspire confidence in the students to become the next generation of scholars, doctors, business women, leaders, engineers, writers and scientists of prominence and brilliance.

@WomenofHopkins in The Newsletter

Another nice write up of the Women of Hopkins Ribbon Cutting from the JHU student newspaper.

http://www.jhunewsletter.com/2016/10/20/hopkins-honors-legacy-of-its-notable-women/

In the Hub!

Thanks to the @HubJHU for a nice write up of the ribbon cutting for our Women of Hopkins DIG project!

Women of Hopkins Ribbon Cutting Party Today 4:30pm, Mattin Center

Join us today for the official launch of the Women of Hopkins portrait gallery at 4:30 pm in the Mattin Center.

The agenda is
4:30-4:35pm, Introduction from Erin Gleeson of the Diversity Leadership Council
4:35-4:40pm, Preliminary remarks from Predident Daniels
4:40-4:50pm, Outline of the project by Professor Karen Fleming
4:50-5:00pm, Closing remarks from Jeannine Heynes, Director of the Office of Gender Equity.
5:00-5:30 Refreshments and mingling

We are delighted to have Gail Kelly in attendance. Gail is one of Hopkins’ first three female African American undergraduates, and is one of the Women of Hopkins honorees.

Come meet Gail and support the project!

Sneak Peek 2

We are awaiting fasteners, but here’s what they’ll really look like when installed.
Ribbon Cutting on Tuesday.

 

Sneak Peek: Women of Hopkins panels have arrived!

The panels are here, and they look gorgeous.

Here is a sneak peek of Bonnie Bassler‘s panel.

We’ll be installing them over the next few days in preparation for the official Ribbon Cutting, which will take place in the Mattin Courtyard on Tuesday, Oct 18 at 4:30 PM. Open to the public.

See the full digital site at women.jhu.edu

You are invited: Women of Hopkins Ribbon Cutting

Thank you all for supporting our grassroots gender equity initiatives!

 

You are invited to attend the ribbon cutting party for the Women of Hopkins portrait gallery on October 18th from 4:30-5:30pm at the Mattin Center.

 

The tentative agenda is:

4:30-4:35 Introduction from the Diversity Leadership Council.

4:35-4:45 A few words from our grassroots team leader Professor Karen Fleming.

4:45-4:55 A few words from Jeannine Heynes of the Office of Gender Equity.

4:55-5:00 Closing remarks from President Daniels.

5:00-5:30 Refreshments and mingling.

 

The details are also available at women.jhu.edu/ribbon. We hope you are able to join us!

Handelsman Seminar

We have the details worked out for the upcoming seminar by Dr. Jo Handelsman entitled “The Fallacy of Fairness: Confronting bias in academic science”. The talk will take place on Tuesday March 8, 2016 at 4pm in the Mason Hall Auditorium. Feel free to share the flyer with anyone who is interested.

DLC Capstone Event March 8, 2016

Mark your calendars for the afternoon of March 8, 2016!

Our Hopkins group is sponsoring a seminar visit by Professor Jo Handelsman on the topic of overcoming bias and barriers to the advancement of women in science. Professor Handelsman is the senior author on a seminal study published in PNAS that demonstrated science faculty’s gender biases favor male students. Everyone is invited to be part of this discussion.

Time and Location TBD.

See the paper here:

http://www.pnas.org/content/109/41/16474.abstract