Community Philosophies
We are creating spaces, in our lab and our broader communities, that promote inclusivity, safety, respect, support, sustainability, and productivity.
Our lab is structured on community-oriented principles and liberatory practices, and we work to actively support each other and our communities.
We are committed to doing, thinking, learning, and talking about science in ways that meaningfully integrate diverse perspectives and communities. Our mentorship, education, and service philosophies, as detailed in our lab handbook (link coming soon), reflect these commitments.
Val’s Lens and Roles
As individuals, we all bring intersectional identities to how we work together and the science we do as a collective. My environments and experiences shape the lenses through which I understand and interact with others. My philosophies and contributions to inclusion excellence are integral to how I pay it forward in science.
Schematic of Val’s lenses and memberships (left), and how she views her roles to shape personal and group dynamics together with her team (right). Adapted from and inspired by Curry et al., 2012, Greco 2016, Greco et al., 2022, Scott K 2019.
My role is to build environments and foster systems, in and outside our lab, that cultivate excellence and challenge mutually exclusive ideals about what “excellence” entails.
Centering “Servingness” as a lab at a future Hispanic Serving Institution
Our lab found its home here in part due to UCLA’s investment to become a federally-designated Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by 2025. You can read more about the HSI Infrastructure Initiative here.
Our lab centers “servingness” towards equity, justice, and belonging in our mission.
This means we intentionally aim for liberatory practices and outcomes, including academic, non-academic, and experiential outcomes, towards personal growth and scientific discovery.
We share and cultivate an abundance mindset.
We strive for inclusive excellence. Practices that lead towards a more equitable, inclusive, and accessible academia benefit everyone.
In practice, this means that we work to:
know and serve members well: we all come from different personal, cultural, and academic backgrounds. We aim to meet lab members where they are and create an environment where we can achieve rigorous standards together; understand members through strengths-based lenses; approach our science through their social implications and applications; and uphold a member-centered culture so we can proactively support one another. Additionally, we hold a yearly “Culture Fest”, and we invite family members and support staff to join our research team for a yearly state-of-the-lab meeting, to include our collective support systems in our work.
be receptive to learning and improving: our lab humbly acknowledges that we are always learning. Through weekly check-in meetings and yearly bi-directional reviews, we learn together how to best work together. The template for our year reviews is available here.
be dedicated to access and community: we aim to inform and openly share our work through multilingual and accessible public engagement, open-access science communication including preprinting and publications, and working directly with community partners. Lab members play an active role in deciding and executing this work.
Our lab is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Tongva (Gabrieleno). As a land grant institution, UCLA acknowledges the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as the traditional land caretakers of Tovaangar (Los Angeles basin, So. Channel Islands) and are grateful to have the opportunity to work for the taraaxotam (Indigenous peoples) in this place. We pay our respects to Honuukvetam (Ancestors), elders, and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
For more information and references for how we are building our philosophies and praxis, please visit our Resources page.