Writing & Project Portfolio

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A collection of blogs, projects, and examples of commissioned work.

Write Your Diversity Statement in Four Steps
Below are four steps that you can use to craft a diversity statement. The first three steps will guide the incorporation of three key components to a compelling statement: your background, what drives your commitment to diversity, and how you demonstrate that commitment. The final step provides resources and suggestions to refine your statement for inclusion in your job packet.
Ada K. Hagan, Ph.D.
Defining and Finding Your Mentor(s)
Mentoring relationships are particularly important for job transitions. While it’s true that advisors may also provide some of these functions, according to Dr. Beronda Montgomery, the key difference between an advisor and a mentor is the specificity of the advice for you.
Ada K. Hagan, Ph.D.
7 Tips for Improving Pay Equity
Here are seven tips to help you decide your worth on the job market and have a better chance at closing the wage gap.
What is Professional Development: A Three-Part Framework
Here is a suggested framework that divides professional development in higher education into three broad areas of focus: the basics of professionalism, improving current weaknesses, and planning for the future.
Opinion: Peer Review Study Compromises Response to Gender Bias
A massive project analyzing the peer-review outcomes of 350,000 manuscripts from 145 journals found no evidence of gender bias following manuscript submission. I published a similar, though smaller-scale, study that analyzed the peer-review outcomes from 108,000 manuscript submissions to 13 ASM journals. Both projects analyzed six years’ worth of submission data but came to different conclusions.
Ada K. Hagan, Ph.D.
Old Wives’ Tales and Garlic as an Antibiotic: Are Microbial Myths Fact or Fiction?
The history of “old wives” and how they supported their communities against disease and infection plus the history and science of garlic as an anti-microbial.
Old Wives’ Tales and Garlic as an Antibiotic: Are Microbial Myths Fact or Fiction?
Altering the Academic Ecosystem: Graduate Education Reports Propose Critical Reforms
To better understand the consensus of graduate education reforms and move forward in redefining the academic ecosystem, this blog will summarize findings of the two reports, note their strengths, and identify next steps to adapt the future of graduate education in microbiology.
Probing the Depths of Life
Microbes at the bottom of the sea don’t have sugar or sunlight. Instead, they harvest their energy from the unique chemistry of hydrothermal vents.
Probing the Depths of Life
How to Train Your T Cell(s): The Hidden World
The prior decades of immunological research developed an array of tools and methods to uncover how our immune system protects against invading microbes. Now, the new wave of immunologists, including Dr. Belkaid, use those tools to uncover how our immune system cooperates with members of our microbiome.
How to Train Your T Cell(s): The Hidden World
A Letter to Research Mentors: How to Support Your Trainee’s Non-academic Career Development
Dear Research Mentor, I’m writing to you on behalf of your trainees (postdocs and graduate students) who aren’t interested in a “traditional” academic career; whether they know it yet or not.