Virtual Valerie 1
Roman Bayramdurdiyev
Valerie Jones Taylor has been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award to demonstrate the effectiveness of virtual reality as a training tool to improve interracial interactions and aid in diversifying the STEM pipeline.
Despite rapid workforce growth in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields in the U.S., Black and Latinx workers remain underrepresented, according to a recent Pew Research Center Analysis.
Black workers make up 11% of all employed adults, but only 9% of those in STEM occupations, and just 5% in some fields such as engineering. Latinx workers make up 17% of total employment across all occupations, but just 8% of all STEM workers.
Based on evidence, Taylor believes that the lack of racial and ethnic diversity in STEM could be driven, at least in part, by negative interracial interactions that, over time, erode a sense of belonging among STEM-interested students from underrepresented groups.
Taylor has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER grant to explore the effectiveness of using virtual reality as a tool to combat negative interracial interactions and, ultimately, transform the culture of STEM. Through laboratory experiments and a longitudinal field study, Taylor and her team plan to test the efficacy of examining STEM-related interracial interactions in virtual reality compared to real-life interactions; identify the number and type of virtual reality interracial contact necessary to improve racial attitudes and behavior in STEM; and, examine whether repeated virtual reality interracial contact leads to improved intergroup relations and increased racial and ethnic minority representation in STEM.
The project will focus first on White participants, though this is simply a place to start, not an end point. White students often lack opportunities for interracial contact in STEM contexts, thereby limiting their access to the documented benefits of greater interracial contact, such as reduced interracial anxiety and racial bias.
Research has shown that the more contact people have with individuals who are different from themselves (such as those from other racial/ethnic groups), the less prejudice they will have towards those from different backgrounds, says Taylor. Increased contact also leads to greater empathy and decreased anxiety during interactions with individuals from those groups.
This was compelling to Taylor because the same psychological and physiological markers that clinical psychologists observe in individuals dealing with phobias can be found in individuals during challenging interracial interactions.
Our lab examines three distinct but interrelated issues: how people 1) engage in interracial interactions, 2) experience and perceive race and gender in academic and workplace contexts and in racialized physical spaces, and 3) learn about and engage in social justice action. Across these areas, we examine virtual reality (VR) as a tool to reduce bias and systemic racism in individuals, interracial interactions, and institutions.
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Valerie Baker supports virtual learning and engagement as a Senior Program Coordinator on the Youth Entrepreneurship team at the J. Orin Edson Entrepreneurship + Innovation Institute. She earned a BA in Elementary Education from the University of Arizona and an MS in Special Education from the University of Dayton. Prior to joining ASU, Valerie worked as an Elementary and Special Education teacher in Arizona and Ohio. She created project-based educational resources and curriculum for educators that engaged diverse learning groups.
In her role, Valerie supports both educators and students through the Verizon Innovative learning program. Valerie is passionate about training and providing educators resources and support to engage student learning.
Valerie Wilson Travel successfully held the 5th Annual Suite Access Fair via Zoom. The innovative virtual event featured 110 properties that presented over four days to over 100 VWT Advisors. The digital edition of Suite Access Fair consisted of eight one-hour sessions where suppliers were given 5 minutes to present the best of their property to VWT Advisors. The program started with an opening session to review the Suite Access value proposition and discuss marketing initiatives. VWT Suite Access Fair 2020 concluded with an awards ceremony honoring top Advisors and select hotels.
The National Institutes of Health awarded Valerie Weaver, PhD, Director of the UCSF Center for Bioengineering and Tissue Regeneration and her colleagues a grant for the establishment of a virtual Physical Sciences - Oncology Center for the development of novel approaches to cancer diagnostics, prognosis and therapy. The collaboration is led by Dr. Weaver, and Jan Liphardt, PhD, a world-renowned physicist at the UC Berkeley. The group encompasses the disciplines of physics, bioengineering and bioinformatics, and clinical and biological sciences spanning leading institutions including: UCSF and its Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, UC Berkeley, E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3), Duke University Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast Cancer Program, and NYU Breast Cancer and Translational Cancer Research Program.
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