Molecular Virologist

So, well, back to--now, in the world of microbiology. Now, were you poised to go to graduate school when you were a senior [at Howard University, Washington, District of Columbia]?$$No, I was not, at all. Sad to say, I was like the rest of my fellow female students at the time. I was going to get married. That was all that was important. And of course, several friends had already identified their wedding dates. And I was going to be in a wedding in July. So, this guy, the law school graduate who was graduating from law school, you know, he really cared about me. And I kind of forced him into agreeing that we would get married. But he kept telling me that he would probably be drafted, and which he was. And so, we got engaged. He bought me a ring before I left, before he left. But I wanted to get married right then, you know. I couldn't understand why we couldn't get married, and then he would go to Vietnam. And so, I was probably very, very upset about that, that I couldn't get married. And he was trying to, he was a very logical person, you know. "We'll get married, we'll come back." So I said, "What am I supposed to do, just stay here and wait?" He said, "No, you can go out and have friends." I said, "I can go out with other people?" Well, he was kind of stupid, too, because he said, "Yes." So, that's what I did. And when I did that, I realized I was not ready to get married. And so, being the honest person that I was, I had to write and tell him. Of course, he was in Vietnam. So, I got my phone call to say, "Just put that ring back on, and forget you ever told me this." So, anyway he came home, and so it was a real big breakup. No--but, so when he decided, when he--when I realized I wasn't going to get married and he was going to Vietnam, I decided I was going to stay at Howard and work on a master's degree. So, that's how I ended up going to graduate school.$$Okay. So did they, was cost a factor? Were you, did you get a scholarship?$$I got a small scholarship. But, and I should say--I had, I had several job offers. I often tell the young people today, being a microbiology major with a B.S. degree--I had two government job offers--Food and Drug [Administration, FDA], [U.S.] Department of Agriculture [DOA]. I had a job offer with Bristol Laboratories.$$This was just with a B.S.?$$Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They had actually flown me and my girlfriend up there for an interview. My girlfriend, Brenda, the one who has Alzheimers, she was a microbiology major, too. We did the same thing. We were really close friends. She ended up going to work for Food and Drug. And I went to graduate school.$$Okay.$$To work on a master's.$Well, tell us about Minority Women in Science. And what--now, when was it founded and who--$$So, it was founded in, I think it was 1978. And it really came out of the work of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS. The Directorate for Education in Human Resources, which was and is still headed--Do you know Shirley Malcolm [also a HistoryMaker; science education advocate]? Did you do Shirley--$$Yes.$$Okay, okay. So, at that time it was headed by Shirley Malcolm. And Shirley's division was interested in increasing opportunities for minorities, women and the disabled. And so, she put together a group of women--she and Yolanda George--put together women to look at the participation of minority women. She, she wrote 'Double Bind.' I don't know if you, do you remember that? She wrote 'The Double Bind', okay.$$Just, just tell anyone watching. What is the "Double Bind?"$$So, the Double Bind was a document that Shirley Malcolm put together, along with some assistance from AAAS, to talk about the barriers that prevented minority women from excelling in science. And so, that it was not just the gender issue, being a female, but it was also--well, it's--works both ways. It's not just being a minority, but it's also being a woman. And before that time it was like well, you know, women have these issues, and minorities have these issues. And so, for the first time, it was really focused on the fact that minority women are in a double bind. They have the race and the gender issue. And an interesting side note to that, is that working with Shirley and being president of Minority Women in Science, I got a chance to go around the country and talk a lot. In fact, that's how I met Mary Frances Berry. We were on the same panel here, at UNC [University of North Carolina] Chapel Hill. And I know at that time--well, she hasn't seen me since, but I was probably identified by Mary Frances Berry--because you know how she is--as just a lame brain in terms of what was really going on. Because at the same time that we were there for that panel, the students at UNC [University of North Carolina] had erected these shanty towns--these, they called them shanty towns. And they were living in the middle of campus in these housing units that resembled, I guess the houses in South Africa, because they were protesting against apartheid. So, Mary--so, the people that told us about it--because that was going on--and so Mary Berry said, "Well, let's go over there." And of course, at the time I really didn't know what was going on, because I was a bit a naive. And I sort of paved along behind her, and she was doing all the talking. And I'm sure she just thought I was just a, you know, just not--very ignorant about issues. That was one reason why I said I wanted to send her a note and tell her thank you for that book. She probably won't remember the time that we were on the panel together. But in any event--So, that's how I got involved with Minority Women in Science. And we started--the first that I know of--at that time in 1979, we had science discovery days on a Saturday, on Saturdays, for district resident middle school students. And we brought them in and had them attend these workshops where various scientists engaged in hands-on activities. Of course, the idea was to introduce them to what we now call STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] careers, at a very early age. But this was the very beginning of this whole--what we do now--when we talk about engaging students at a very early age. Because with this focus that we had at UDC [University of the District of Columbia, Washington, District of Columbia] on engaging minority students, it then became an issue of engaging women at an early age. And so now, I mean that's the buzz word, you know, engaging students.$$And this was in the early '80s [1980s]? This is--$$It was, this was 1979--$$1979, okay.$$--when we had our first Science Discovery Day.$$Okay, okay.$$Now the organization is not as active. I think they still have the Science Discovery Days, but it's not as active. In my estimation, it doesn't make the same impact as it did then, because there's so many different organizations now doing the same thing.