Biophysical Society Bulletin | May 2021

Inclusion and Diversity

Officers President Frances Separovic President-Elect Gail Robertson Past-President Catherine A. Royer Secretary Erin Sheets Treasurer Kalina Hristova Council Henry Colecraft Michelle A. Digman Erin C. Dueber Marta Filizola Gilad Haran Kumiko Hayashi Francesca Marassi

Christopher Bassey , Walter J. Chazin , Samuel S. Cho , Stephen D. Jett , Nagarajan Vaidehi , Carlos A. Villalba-Galea , and Lynn Zechiedrich , represent- ing the Committee for Inclusion and Diversity and the Committee for Professional Opportu-

Just acknowledging bias helps to blunt it (Régner et al. 2019). We must keep talking and writing about bias. If you do not speak up, or do not report bias, you are inadvertent- ly condoning, sustaining, and amplifying it (Merrill 2017). If you need suggestions on how to speak up, there are excellent tools avail- able online, including Willoughby et al. (2018). Be aware of the extent of harassment and discrimination our marginalized communities may have already endured (Moss-Racusin et al. 2012; Pickett 2019). The importance of diversity and inclusion extends beyond ensuring fair and equal repre- sentation; diverse teams are better performing teams. The positive performance effects are seen in terms of both financial and innovation gain. For example, companies with racially and ethnically diverse employees see increased financial performance, pre-tax and interest earnings increase linearly for organizations with increased senior management diversity, and companies with at least one woman board member enjoy higher net income growth than those with no women board members (Hunt et al. 2015). Increased diversity also leads to in- creased innovation (Hofstra 2020). Companies that have teams with more women members and more racially diverse members bring more innovations to market (Díaz-García 2013; Lee 2015). Consequently, revenue from new inno- vations is also higher for diverse companies (Lorenzo et al. 2018). Keep making it clear to everyone that bias is pervasive (Iverson 2013; Moss-Racusin et al. 2012; NAS Report 2018; Oliveira et al. 2019). Bias holds back innovation, and society loses out. If you are not part of a marginalized group, use your authority to open doors for others. If you are part of a marginalized group, you can relate to others and find common ground for lifting them up, too. Together, let’s strive to allow individuals, no matter their gender, sex, race, color, culture, sexual orientation, disability, country of origin, state in which they live, or institution in which they work, to be free to do do their best work for the best of our society. As summarized by a poll respondent, “Don’t be discouraged, don’t quit, and don’t let others get you down.”

nities for Women References Cited

Díaz-García, C., A. González-Moreno, and F. J. Sáez-Martínez. 2013. Gender diversity within R&D teams: its impact on radicalness of innovation. Innovation 15:149–160. Hofstra, B., V. V. Kulkarni, S. Munoz-Najar Galvez, B. He, D. Jurafsky, and D. A. McFarland. 2020. The diversity-innovation paradox in science. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci . USA 117:9284–9291. Hunt, V., D. Layton, and S. Prince. 2015. Why diversity matters, https:/www. mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/why-diversi- ty-matters#, April 9, 2021. Lee, N. 2015. Migrant and ethnic diversity, cities and innovation: firm effects or city effects? J. Econ. Geogr . 15:769–796. Lorenzo, R., N. Voigt, M. Tsusaka, M. Krentz, and K. Abouzahr. 2018. How diverse leadership teams boost innovation, https:/www.bcg.com/publica- tions/2018/how-diverse-leadership-teams-boost-innovation, April 9, 2021. Merrill, D. G. 2017. Speak up. JAMA 317:2373–2374. Moss-Racusin, C. A., J. F. Dovidio, V. L. Brescoll, M. J. Graham, and J. Handels- man. 2012. Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 109:16474–16479. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Policy and Global Affairs, Committee on Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and Committee on the Impacts of Sexual Harassment in Academia. 2018. Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The National Academies Press, Wash- ington, DC. Oliveira, D. F. M., Y. Ma, T. K. Woodruff, and B. Uzzi. 2019. Comparison of National Institutes of Health grant amounts to first-time male and female principal investigators. JAMA 321:898–900. Pickett, M. 2019. I want what my male colleague has, and that will cost a few million dollars. The New York Times Magazine , April 18, 2019. https:/www. nytimes.com/2019/04/18/magazine/salk-institute-discrimination-science. html. Régner, I., C. Thinus-Blanc, A. Netter, T. Schmader, and P. Huguet. 2019. Com- mittees with implicit biases promote fewer women when they do not believe gender bias exists. Nat. Hum. Behav. 3:1171–1179. Willoughby, B., N. Brakke, and V. D’Egidio. 2018. Speak up at school: how to respond to everyday prejudice, bias, and stereotypes (A Teaching Tolerance Publication, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center), https:/www. learningforjustice.org/sites/default/files/2019-04/TT-Speak-Up-Guide.pdf, April 9, 2021.

Susan Marqusee Joseph A. Mindell Carolyn A. Moores Kandice Tanner Biophysical Journal Jane Dyson Editor-in-Chief The Biophysicist Sam Safran Editor-in-Chief Biophysical Reports

Jörg Enderlein Editor-in-Chief

Society Office Jennifer Pesanelli Executive Officer Newsletter Executive Editor Jennifer Pesanelli Managing Editor John Long

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