Dr. Peggy Fong is passionate about diversity - both in ecosystems and in the human scientific community.
Believing that the most effective way of ensuring success for underrepresented groups is by engaging all
students in scientific research, she is involved with two UCLA programs:
Center for Academic Research Excellence
(CARE) and
Minority Access to Research Careers
(MARC). Both are federally funded programs with a goal to increase diversity through fellowships and
enrichment training.
Peggy has served in a variety of roles within these programs. She has been on the Board of Advisors for
both, has been a faculty liaison, and is also an active mentor. Peggy has had several students from
these programs doing research in her lab. Each summer she and her graduate students mentor students from
CARE, and she has mentored three MARC students. This is a two-year commitment for each MARC student, with
the objective of helping them to become more competitive for graduate school. Her first MARC student,
Vanessa Gonzalez, is now completing her Ph.D. at Harvard University.
"We need to create that pipeline for a diverse scientific community." |
At one point in Peggy's career she came to the realization that starting with undergraduates may be too
late for a majority of underrepresented groups, and with the help of COSEE West, is committed to
developing innovative and transferable approaches to ocean education across all age levels. She also
has served on her department's Diversity Committee as well as the
Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need
(GAANN) Steering Committee.
