How do you think you’ve made a difference as a woman in your field?

I think women in the field often migrate to other women. We’ve published together, we’ve presented at national meetings together—I have more of a collaborative approach to teaching where I anticipate that when my students graduate we will be collaborators. It’s not just a student/faculty relationship. I expect them to transcend me and go on to greater things but at the same time be colleagues when they’re finished.

I think my lab might be a little more difficult than a lot of other labs because I don’t tell my students what to do and how to think—they have to develop their own projects within this realm of evolutionary biology and fishes or lower vertebrates, and then I mentor them through their project. It really becomes their project and they take ownership of that project. I believe we should teach students how to be scientists, how to be independent researchers, and most importantly, how to be critical thinkers.

Why is it important to encourage more women to enter the STEM fields?

It’s important because there are so few. I think we’re gaining traction, but so many women are undergraduates in science and then some decide they don’t want to pursue it as a career. We have to move women into higher positions because women give a different perspective on things, and they won’t be taken seriously until they’re among the people who are making decisions, making policy, and promoting other women. It’s not easy being in this field—it’s not easy getting grants, constantly publishing, trying to balance all of this stuff, including home life.

Has it been difficult to have a work-life balance?

Yes. I have all of these toys in my office because when my kids were out of school, they came here. They didn’t go with my husband, they came here. I was the one who picked them up, I was the one who rearranged the schedule. Plus, trying to get tenure—even under the best conditions when you have a fantastic partner, it is hard. When my kids were in grammar school around 2 p.m., I’d start worrying—was it my day to pick them up from school? If it wasn’t, are they going to get picked up on time? It was fantastic being here at Loyola because the schedule was flexible as a professor.

What do you envision for the future of women in STEM at Loyola and beyond?

I think things are getting better but I think there’s a ways to go. That’s why we’re pushing so hard and can’t give up. My two daughters, for example, don’t understand. I’ll say something and they’ll say “Oh ma you’re such a feminist.” And it’s almost as if it was an insult. They didn’t have to worry about the things that I had to worry about.

When I started off as an assistant professor or in graduate school, I would never wear nail polish because it would be considered feminine and not serious. Now I wear nail polish, but I wouldn’t do anything like that back then. It was “if you want to move into science you couldn’t be feminine because you wouldn’t be taken seriously.” There were a lot of obstacles back then but it’s getting better. We need to always remember where we’ve been, and continue to push the boundaries to move forward.