Sheila Jaswal

I carry a potpourri of identities that continue to shape my experience and my reception by others in the different communities I inhabit: native-Nebraskan; third-generation of college educated women on my mother’s side; biracial daughter of an immigrant with accented English; member of an adoptive family in my family of origin and chosen family; married to a 4th generation Anglo New Englander who works for a national labor union; mother of brown children; German-speaking scientist; professor. And the list goes on…  

Since attending Mills College, a women’s college in Oakland, California, I have been interested in the intersection of identity with educational access and outcomes.  As a graduate student at UCSF I ran a mentoring program for the Women in Life Sciences, co-led a middle school girls’ science club that incorporated active learning, diverse role models, and strategies to combat our own implicit gender bias, and was active in the LGBT community. Since coming to Amherst and forming close relationships with my students, I’ve realized that the road bumps I’ve encountered during my own STEM journey are not unique to my life–rather, they quite widespread within the field as a whole. With that in mind, I’m absolutely thrilled to be working with a group of students who are passionate about making STEM a better place for all.