Philosophy

…if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. –Toni Morrison (from The Truest Eye)

Never pass judgment or put anger on someone too quickly or harshly, because I guarantee you that person is fighting a battle that you know nothing about. –U.S. Army Specialist Douglas Jay Green

• Everyone is an equally valuable member of our team. We respect and support each other’s science and wellbeing. We carry each other through challenges and celebrate each other’s accomplishments. We are curious and enthusiastic about each other’s work. We are all here to learn from one another.
• Transparency is the key to building trust. We share our expectations, our priorities, our work and communication styles, and our goals. We are honest about our challenges and our data, especially when it doesn’t match our hypotheses. We ask for help proactively.
• We assume the best in everyone. We are patient, thoughtful, and understanding. We do our best to work within everyone’s personal work and communication styles. We respect each other’s goals, values, and priorities. We actively listen.
• Everyone contributes to tending the lab ‘garden’. We strive to work collaboratively and mentor others wherever we can. We share our resources and skills to benefit others. We actively contribute to the shared knowledge of the lab. We share our code and data when we publish and release our work as preprints.
• Your time is valuable. There are an infinite number of questions and tasks to pursue and a finite number of hours in your day. I will never ask you to do work that I don’t think would benefit you. I encourage you to say no to me and to other requests when they don’t meet your priorities. We will consider how to use your time in lab as effectively as possible so you have ample time to enjoy your life outside of lab.
• Staying organized to manage your experiments, time, supplies, and resources is critical to great science. We will keep shared resources organized. We will keep our data, records, and samples organized such that our mentees and co-authors can work with us effectively.
• Science goes beyond the bench. We are lifelong learners and will make time for professional development training that meets our needs. We will volunteer for outreach, especially to historically marginalized groups. We will contribute to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts.
• We take caution and consideration with our experiments. We question each element of our experiments to make sure they’re the most appropriate to test our hypotheses. We think critically about the background literature and data the supports our hypotheses. We design the strongest experiment before diving into data collection. We pause to do intermediate analyses before collecting additional data. We seek feedback early, often, and from many viewpoints.
• We value failure as part of learning. I invite everyone to take risks and will commend you even if it fails. We value the process over the product and resilience over results.
• We build bridges, not fences. We bring everyone into science. Our job is not to gatekeep people or their science from progressing. Our job is to see the best in every person and project and raise them up to their highest potential.