Me in the middle, Vera Rubin to my immediate rightI recently attended the Women in Astronomy Conference that NASA hosted at the University of Maryland, College Park. It was a fantastic experience. As part of the conference, a delegation of ( mostly) young researchers (48 women and 2 men) went to the White House. The above photo has me in the center, walking with other PhD students in Astronomy. To my right is Vera Rubin, veteran astronomer and the discoverer of dark matter. We toured the White House before briefing Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office for Public Engagement and the White House Council on Women and Girls. We briefed her on a range of topics, from the need for improved health care and family leave to stamping out conscious and unconscious bias. I talked about the need to learn best practices in mentoring from Historically Black Colleges and Universities:

Me, briefing Tina Tchen, who is sitting next to Anne Kinney, Astronomer and NASA Administrator

Overall, I think it was a positive experience. There were a lot of frustrating moments though. For example, what’s this women and minorities bullshit. Ain’t I a woman? Where do women of color come in?