Center for Professional Development and Inclusive Excellence <->(C-Hub)

C-Hub Visiting Fellow Program

A university that maximally benefits from its diverse community places paramount importance on expanding its insights toward creating inclusive classrooms and research environments. For a creative, courageous institution like OIST, it is crucial for our students, faculty, researchers, and administrators to engage with bold international educators and innovators. C-Hub’s Visiting Fellow Program fosters exchange and synthesis in collaboration with distinguished educators and experts across the world. Visiting Fellows present seminars or workshops, and engage in discussions with the OIST community on topics of relevance to C-Hub’s mission. Visiting Fellows also have the opportunity to collaborate with C-Hub on a project or program that will benefit the OIST community and extend our capacity toward supporting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.

We are pleased to announce our inaugural C-Hub Visiting Fellow, Dr. Taralyn (Tari) Tan.

Inaugural C-Hub Fellow 2024

Dr. Taralyn Tan

Period of stay at OIST: March 4^th-March 29^th

Assistant Dean for Educational Innovation and Scholarship in the Office for Graduate Education at Harvard Medical School

Dr. Taralyn (Tari) Tan serves as the Assistant Dean for Educational Innovation and Scholarship in the Office for Graduate Education at Harvard Medical School, where she is also a Lecturer on Neurobiology. In these roles Dr. Tan leads educational programs including an NIH-funded neuroscience post-baccalaureate program (PiNBAC) and a neuroscience partnership between Harvard Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine, she teaches courses on neuroscience and pedagogy, she engages in education scholarship related to inclusive pedagogy and student metacognition, and she runs a variety of workshops for trainees and faculty to build institutional capacity for effective mentorship and inclusive teaching practices. Dr. Tan earned her PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard University and completed an education-focused postdoctoral program as a Curriculum Fellow at Harvard Medical School. She served as Director of Education, and later Associate Director, of the Harvard PhD Program in Neuroscience prior to beginning her current position. Dr. Tan is passionate about increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM. During her fellowship at C-Hub, she will be collaborating with OIST to develop an innovative course centered on integrating diversity and inclusion into neuroscience curricula, and giving workshops on Designing Inclusive STEM Training Environments, Supporting Women in STEM, and discussions on career pathways.

Events hosted by Dr. Tan

March 12: Designing Inclusive STEM Training Environments (90 min workshop) 10:00 to 11:30 am

This interactive workshop will introduce approaches to facilitate inclusion, equity, and belonging in classroom, laboratory, and institutional training contexts. Workshop attendees will leave this session equipped with knowledge of evidence-based practices to promote equity, inclusion, and belonging and ideas for how to implement some of those practices within their local training environments.

March 22: From Synapses to Students: One Neuroscientist’s Professional Journey Making Connections in STEM (60 min noon brownbag) 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm

During this brownbag session, Dr. Tan will describe her professional journey from graduate school studying neuroscience to her current position in higher education leadership. She will discuss some of the work that she does and will offer advice to trainees interested in further exploring career opportunities in the teaching / higher education administration space. Dr. Tan will be joined by Dr. Ian McLachlan, a Scientist at the Boston area-based Rgenta Therapeutics, who will similarly describe his career trajectory and his work in the biotech industry. Dr. McLachlan earned his PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at MIT before beginning his current role at Rgenta.

March 26: Supporting Women in STEM: Looking Towards the Future (2 hrs with a break in middle) 9:30 to 11:00 am

This interactive workshop will begin by framing the current state of gender equity in STEM, including progress that has been made, challenges that remain, and efforts to support women in STEM. The latter part of the workshop will feature facilitated small group discussions to identify barriers and priorities to support gender equity within the local OIST environment. Workshop participants will leave this session with stronger social and professional connections with colleagues and with greater awareness of local and global challenges and priorities for improving gender equity in STEM.

March 28: Tips and Tricks for Teaching on Zoom (60 min noon brownbag) 12:00 to 1:00 pm

This brownbag session will introduce educators to tools and practical tips for creating effective and engaging online learning environments using the Zoom platform. Attendees will leave this session with actionable suggestions that they can immediately implement into their own online teaching.

Please schedule a consultation to speak with Dr. Tan about one of the areas above or other topics that you think would be beneficial to your development as a professional within and beyond higher education. Use the C-Hub General Inquiries page (link here).