Our Work
The Microbiology Leaders Evolving and Accountable to Progress (MicroBio-LEAP) project is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). MicroBio-LEAP will train leaders to embody inclusive diversity with equity, access and accountability (IDEAA) and promote sustained cultural change in the microbial sciences to make the field more welcoming of individuals belonging to historically excluded groups (HEGs).
Our Mission: Training Leaders to Leverage Influence for Inclusive Diversity
Given their high-level positions, microbiology leaders have the capability to influence policies and practices that affect the culture of their workplaces and organizations. The ToL Scholars Program will give leaders the knowledge and skills necessary to take action toward cultural change. ToL scholars will:
- Challenge their unconscious biases.
- Increase their intercultural awareness and skillset.
- Learn how to create a psychologically safe working environment, which encourages diversity and inclusion.
At the program’s conclusion, the scholars will hold the strategies and skills necessary to operate as IDEAA champions and foster inclusive environments across the field.
MicroBio-LEAP's Theory of Change
ASM’s existing IDEAA efforts focus on supporting and uplifting HEGs from the microbial sciences. The Training of Leaders (ToL) Scholars Program focuses on individuals on the opposite end of the spectrum to enact change: those in leadership positions.
Leaders can function as cultural change agents within the microbial sciences, as they possess influence to incorporate IDEAA into their workplaces’ policies and practices. The goal of the MicroBio-LEAP program is that, as leaders’ workplaces embrace IDEAA, the microbial sciences will experience a cultural paradigm shift, one that creates a more welcoming environment and an enhanced sense of belonging for HEGs.
