Advocate for gender equity in the sciences honored by the Association for Women ...( Bryant became dean of the Schoo...)

Bryant became dean of the School of Biological Sciences in January 2000 -- a year when less than 15 percent of the tenure-track faculty in the School of Biological Sciences were women. The percentage of women recruited in the previous several years also was low. This prompted her to gather a team to apply successfully for a five-year, $3.45 million National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant to bring about institutional transformation in gender equity, making UCI one of only 19 institutions nationwide, and the only one in California, to receive this award. Three years after establishing the program, 44 percent of the tenure-track faculty recruited across campus were women, up from 22 percent before ADVANCE. In the School of Biological Sciences, the percentage of women faculty recruited has risen from 11 percent before ADVANCE to 59 percent last year, raising the total women faculty to 25 percent in the school. Bryant attributes the success of the program to its director, Priscilla Kehoe; the support the program received from the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor; and equity advisors based in the School of Biological Sciences who work with individuals, search committees and department chairs to develop best practices for recruitment and to establish mentoring programs for advancement.

Bryant received her doctorate in developmental biology from the University of London in 1967. In her research career, she has pioneered the development of molecular techniques for studying regeneration and conducted a series of now classic experiments designed to reveal the underlying logic of limb regeneration. She has served as program director of the National Science Foundation Developmental Biology Review Panel. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, she serves on the editorial boards of several journals in her field. Following the state elections last November, she was appointed to California's Independent Citizens Oversight Com
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Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala
iqbal@uci.edu
949-230-8962
University of California - Irvine
21-Feb-2005