Fátima Sancheznieto, PhD (She/her; Founder and Editor): I started this website after having long discussions with colleagues about the state of trainees in science. After having received some training in peer support through the counseling center at my university and taking an online course in positive psychology and happiness, I began to realize just how badly we are trained to deal with emotional and human problems in the sciences. Issues of mental health, abuse and harassment, and overall lack of life-satisfaction are present in all institutes, to varying degrees.

Since graduating with my PhD from Oxford University in Biomedical Sciences, I undertook postdoctoral training in training and intervention studies at the University of Winsconsin – Madison. As an assistant researcher, my focus has turned my PhD side hobby into a full time career, developing, evaluating, and implementing interventions that enact departmental and institutional change for the improvement of early career researcher training environments. As president of the nonprofit organization, Future of Research, my advocacy and research mutually inform each other. My main area of interest and focus is in intentionally challenging and working towards the deconstruction of white supremacist and capitalistic structures and culture of academic science in favor of more equitable, inclusive, collective, and anti-racist training environments. I value personal and institutional accountability as an important part of this work.

If you have stories to tell about your time in academia, good, bad, or ugly, or just want to chat about something you are currently going through, please reach out. You can also use the link to email if you are interested in having me come facilitate a workshop or give a talk at your next event. Together, we can empower early career researchers and challenge leadership to transform our training environments.

In Solidarity,

Fatu

Disclaimer: The views, ideas, and opinions expressed in my posts and talks are informed by my experience and the research I have undertaken, as well as learning from the radical activist elders in my communities: Latinx, disabled, trans and queer. These views do not reflect the views of my employer, the University of Wisconsin – Madison, nor of Future of Research, Inc. unless explicitly stated.