Maria Valadez Ingersoll 
2nd-year Ph.D. Candidate in Molecular Cell Biology
Hometown: Corvallis, Oregon
What has been your journey of becoming a scientist?
“In a lot of senses, I still think of myself as a small child. I don’t think of myself as a Ph.D. student because I still see myself as very curious and in the same mindset I was growing up. I think I’m really lucky in that I was exposed to both a lot of communities and a lot of different environmental ecosystems growing up. My dad works for the national forest service for the department of agriculture so that’s the reason why we moved around so much while I was growing up… whenever he got promotion through the forest service we would have to move to a different location. So I was constantly being exposed to nature and the power of the environment and the importance of the environment and protection.
I am also very privileged in that I have a lot of academics in my family. Science has always been around me and this environment of questioning and thinking and forming hypotheses has been part of my upbringing. But I definitely wanted to make that journey for myself and not just take for granted that education is this formative part of everybody’s lives because it’s not and I’m very lucky that I have the privilege that came with that family. And also to understand the different aspects of pedagogy and equity and inequity in education that came along with all of that.
I think one of the main things I want to do with my Ph.D. is to work with underprivileged communities. I’m part of a program at BU called BU Urban that does a lot of work in urban communities and understanding environmental justice in those urban communities. Doing a Ph.D. is allowing me to step outside of just the comfort zone of being a scientist and being a researcher and being in education, to actually understand what has allowed me to get to where I am and what prevents other people from having the same opportunities.”
What has been your favorite moment or experience at BU?
“At BU I became a certified scientific diver. I’m part of the AAUS, which is the American Academy for Underwater Sciences and that has just been absolutely incredible. It’s allowing me to extend my research from just being a lab-based researcher to actually being able to do fieldwork, and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do– to do research underwater and now I can use those skills and take it back to the lab.”
What has your experience as a woman in science been like? What advice would you give to other women and girls who are interested in science and want to enter the field?
“I think that there definitely have been challenges. I think one of them is not being taken seriously. And I think this comes, especially, as a young woman scientist. A couple of moments stand out to me: when I was doing my interviews for grad schools, all of the prospective students gathered at a bar and got to know each other and I was talking to some other men that were in the prospective grad student group– and I had my hair in braids. It was very casual. I looked like I was 22, which was the age I was. I was talking to this guy, chatting for a long time about our research, and then the next day at interviews he was like ‘oh I didn’t know you were a prospective graduate student. I thought you were just hanging out!’ and I was like ‘no, I’m part of this cohort, and you should treat me the same as you would treat anybody. Just because I have my hair in braids and look younger doesn’t mean that I’m any less deserving to be here than you.’ And that’s just like a funny little anecdote…
But I think what happens more on a day-to-day basis is my opinions not being taken seriously or my knowledge being taken seriously. This hasn’t happened at BU, but I think in day to day life people know I’m a molecular biologist and that I’m getting my Ph.D., but still, my basic knowledge on biology and science is questioned a lot and whether that’s because I’m a woman or other reasons, I don’t know, but it happens. And I think the advice I would give is to know that you belong and be confident in your knowledge and don’t be afraid to remind people of your status. If people start mansplaining, call them out on it… You belong where you are because you’ve gotten to where you are, and that is proof enough.”
What advice would you give to your younger self?
“I went through a lot of mental health struggles in high school and college. I think a lot of those stems from my idea that I wasn’t good enough, smart enough, or perfect enough in whatever regard. And I would tell myself that I am enough and also that however hard I feel like I need to work, that’s how hard I need to work. Don’t listen to outside opinions that might be trying to knock down your own confidence…”
What is your hope for the future?
“I think we are commonly pushing increasing women in science, but I think we can’t achieve equality and equity without bringing everybody along with us. We can’t just finish when we have 50/50 men and women, we have to make sure that we increase diversity across the entire spectrum. And what I hope to see and hope to contribute to is really increasing that diversity and not just diversity in race, gender, and sexuality, but background. Make sure we’re promoting low-income students from all backgrounds. Make sure we’re giving people with disabilities the same support that we’re giving able-bodied people. And I really think that we can’t achieve equality and equity without bringing everybody along.”