Diversity: Region Specific Challenges and Solutions

In this panel discussion, neuroscientists from the United States, South Africa, Korea, Argentina, France, and Croatia share what it will take to counteract bias in their region.

The goals of the discussion are to:

• Determine region-specific challenges in increasing diversity and fighting bias.

• Identify solutions to these challenges that have been implemented or are being implemented.

• Share best practices between regions to create a community and move forward as a global initiative.

Speakers

• Keynote speaker: Tracy L. Bale, University of Maryland, USA - IBRO President & Member of the ALBA Board of Directors

• Africa region: Fleur Howells, University of Cape Town, South Africa

• Asia/Pacific region: Jinju Han, KAIST, Korea

• Latin America region: Amaicha Depino, CONICET-University of Buenos Aires, Argentina - Young IBRO Committee member

• Europe region: Anne Beyeler, University of Bordeaux - INSERM, France - ALBA Ambassador

The event was chaired by Zeljka Krsnik, University of Zagreb School of Medicine, Croatia – Young IBRO Committee Chair & Member of the ALBA Board of Directors

Speakers

Tracy Bale, PhD

Tracy Bale is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the director of the Center for Epigenetic Research in Child Health and Brain Development (CERCH). Bale previously was a professor of neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also co-directed the Penn Center for the Study of Sex and Gender in Behavioral Health and was the director of research for the BIRCWH Faculty Scholars. She is respected for her research on stress as a risk factor for neurodevelopmental disorders and neuropsychiatric disease. She is also the IBRO President and a member of the ALBA Network Board of Directors.

Zeljka Krsnik, PhD

Zeljka Krsnik is associate professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine University of Zagreb and an assistant director of Croatian Institute for Brain Research. Krsnik is the chair of the Young IBRO Committee, a member of IBRO (International Brain Research Organisation) Executive Committee, a board member for “Neuroscience and Brain Disease” at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, and a member of the ALBA Network Board of Directors.

Fleur Howells, PhD

Fleur Howells is an associate professor at the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Her main research focus, in the Translational Neuroscience Group of the department of psychiatry and mental health, is to understand the neurobiology which leads to the presentation of psychosis. She received her undergraduate degree and her PhD in neurophysiology & human biology, and completed her postdoctoral training in neuroscience at University of Cape Town.

Jinju Han, PhD

Jinju Han is a molecular neurobiologist and assistant professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea. She is interested in identifying noncoding RNAs that account for immediate responses of neural cells, which regulates brain function. Han has received numerous fellowships for her identification of mechanisms underlying recognition/maturation of primary microRNAs and their regulatory function in adult neurogenesis. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, in California, United States.

Amaicha Depino, PhD

Amaicha Depino is a researcher at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) at the Institute of Physiology, Molecular Biology and Neurosciences (IFIByNE) of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The main objective of Depino’s group is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying the development of behaviors related to autism. She received her undergraduate degree and PhD from the University of Buenos Aires and completed her postdoctoral training at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Rome, Italy. Depino is also a member of the Young IBRO Committee.

Anna Beyeler, PhD

Anna Beyeler is a researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and team leader at the Neurocentre Magendie of the University of Bordeaux, France. She previously was a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Her research aims at defining the circuit, cellular, and synaptic organization of the insular cortex in healthy conditions using mice models, and to determine whether alterations of this organization is causally linked to pathological level of anxiety. Beyeler is also an ALBA Network Ambassador.