May 19, 2006
Clifton Poodry, Ph.D.
Minority Opportunities in Research Division
NIGMS/NIH
Thank you all very much. And thank you Dean Calarco and the wonderful faculty for inviting me to be part of this special moment – the first commencement in this lovely new Community Center Building. I’m humbled to be surrounded by such esteemed researchers – world-renowned leaders in the study of oncogenes, prions, and AIDS, to name a few. And it’s certainly an honor to be here among the world’s brightest graduate students. Congratulations to you all – and to the parents and friends who are with us as well. Graduates, this is a time of great joy for you: A time to bask in your accomplishments, a time to look ahead with great anticipation.
All commencement speakers want to say something memorable. We labor over these speeches day and night hoping you will remember for many years your commencement and the wisdom that was dispensed. I’m a realist. I’ll be happy if you still remember me come lunchtime. I want to try something my seven year old son told me. Knock knock. (response, Who’s there?) Ah you’ve forgotten me already. But I do hope to leave you with some memorable insights and perhaps some inspiration based on my own experiences.
As a former graduate student myself, I’ve walked the path you are on now. My journey was different from yours, just as your journey has been different from the person seated next to you. But that, as they say, is what makes the world go around. In fact, our differences are what I’d like to focus on here today. They become all the more evident, and all the more important, as you pass through each of the four Pillars of Education. These pillars were described by Jacques Delors in a forward looking UNESCO report on education for the 21st century. And they hold a lot of meaning for me.
During your early education – at home, in school, and as undergrads – you all went through the first pillar, called Learning to Know. You learned how to memorize, how to analyze, how to think, how to concentrate, and even how to communicate. Put simply, you learned how to learn, and you laid a foundation you will use for life.
Here in graduate school, you focused on the second pillar – Learning to Do. You applied your analytical skills to develop new knowledge, to discover, and innovate. You experienced the profound joy of discovery, the value of research – what you can accomplish given the proper tools and guidance. But there are other elements to Learning to Do: Non-scientific factors that involve the values of research. These include developing personal taste and judgment. They bring your unique experience and perspective to a project, working alongside your sharp analytical skills. They show themselves in pivotal values-driven questions, like which projects are most important? Why do we work on some things and not others?
The values of research live in the human decision-making that is guided not just by lectures and textbooks, but also by the value systems of your professors and mentors. And by your own value system that you apply to other areas of life. The values, beliefs, and perspectives of individuals enrich the processes of discovery and understanding. By increasing the variety of individuals involved in the process, we enhance our wealth of collective wisdom. In other words, representation, inclusion, and diversity matter. This human element is too often forgotten in research science; but it is critical. It is inescapable. And it leads to the next pillar, Learning to Live Together.
I don’t mean figuring out the dishwashing schedule or who owes what for the cable bill. I’m talking about the discovery of other people and other cultures, of empathy, of variety in perspectives and different values. When you’re Learning to Live Together, you’re realizing that people from different backgrounds bring different thinking to a problem – and that different thinking is good.
As American writer Walter Lippmann once said, “When we all think alike, no one has to think at all.” And that’s a pretty scary prospect in the research world. Our understanding of the world around us, even our interpretation of data, is constrained by our experience and by our beliefs. Diversity expands our collective experience. In the news just this last week, there were reports on the finding that climate changes caused the demise of the mammoths – not overkill by early Native Americans. The article said that scientists, versus archeologists, still favor the overkill hypothesis. It makes one wonder if scientific opinion is influenced by which cause we want to champion – extinction by climate change or by non-ecological Indians.
The ethics of research on human subjects is one arena that allows for a wide range of opinions based on different beliefs. Let me give you one example. For the majority in this country, the autonomy of the individual in agreeing or not agreeing to participate as a research subject is paramount. But for some communities, and I’m thinking specifically of American Indian tribes, autonomy of the group takes precedence. Researchers need to understand the values of the communities they wish to engage. We recognize the positive results of diverse thinking. Yet there is still insufficient diversity in the research workforce today. And the repercussions are troubling.
Many disparities exist in the health outcomes of minority groups in this country. To make matters worse, many minority communities are reluctant to participate in biomedical research, including clinical trials. Research on people from these groups is hampered by distrust. It is common for people in all elements of our society to distrust authority. When authority figures, or researchers in our case, don’t reflect the minority communities or their value systems, a vast chasm of distrust forms – one that’s difficult to bridge. It’s clear one way to reduce disparities is to establish trust – by making representation, inclusion, and diversity matter.
This is a hefty challenge as you move into the final pillar of education, which is Learning to Be. This pillar is all about applying your education to solve your own problems, find your own directions, and shoulder your own responsibilities. Learning to Be is letting your individuality flourish. Setting your priorities. Applying your values to all that you do.
I implore you never to lose your individuality, your imagination, or your creativity. These are what set you apart. They are the sources of solutions. And the 21st century will need your unique talents and personalities even more than it will need exceptionally gifted intellectuals. The Learning to Be pillar is never-ending. Starting tomorrow, you will Learn to Be a person who is no longer in grad school. You will learn to develop your career. I’m happy to say you have a few advantages on your side: An exceptional education, marketable skills, and an outstanding job market. But you will have to go to where the jobs are. And I don’t want to build your hopes up too high – you don’t always get every job you shoot for. I know that from experience.
I grew up on a Seneca Indian reservation in a very poor family. Getting a good job was a priority. As a teenager, I had my eye on a terrific job: Holding the Stop/Slow sign for the highway road crew. It paid a whopping $1.56 an hour! I didn’t get it. As a college senior I applied for a job as a technician in a nuclear fuel recycling plant – think Homer Simpson. I didn’t get that job either. There but for the grace of God go I.
I actually went to graduate school to earn a master’s degree so I could teach high school – and be a football coach. Well, those are two more dreams yet to be fulfilled. Occupational fate works the other way, too. Some jobs you can’t imagine liking. I distained the idea of being a Department Chair. But it turns out that was one of the best jobs I ever had. And in 1994, I was totally uninterested in my current position at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. I couldn’t imagine leaving my position as a professor at lovely UC Santa Cruz to move to hot and steamy D.C. of all places. I only applied to appease a friend, Luther Williams. But as I prepared for my interview, I came to see a real chance to make a difference.
At NIH, I get to use all of my imagination and skills from my past life as a researcher and professor. Every day I guide, motivate, and implement activities that will help remedy the severe underrepresentation of minority groups and others in the biomedical research workforce. I practice what I preach – that representation, inclusion, and diversity matter. And besides, I get to meet people like you.
But I’m still Learning to Be. Every day, I’m finding out who I am and what I can do. I hope you will do the same. As if Learning to Be isn’t hard enough, you may find yourself Learning to Be – something else – something you never before imagined. Some of you will continue research in the general area of your graduate thesis. But even still, you will be delving deeper, asking new questions. Some of you may do a complete 180 and explore new career possibilities. You’ll find yourselves revisiting the Learning to Do pillar, this time to pick up skills that are critical to your new profession.
I’m sure all of you will find yourselves working with new people in other groups and other contexts, once again Learning to Live Together. Maybe you’ll help others, your children, your neighbor’s children, students or interns, as they Learn to Know, to Do, and to Live Together. For them, you will be heroes. And you should not take the role lightly. Nor should you ever lower your standards. After all, we’re here to celebrate the excellence of your research over the past several years. While I’m on the subject of excellence, let me say that institutions deserve that term only when they fulfill their mission in all of its dimensions. An institution such as this exists to serve the needs of the nation and the global biomedical research community. It also serves the needs of this state, a state with a very diverse population. The role of the faculty is to seek out and cultivate the talent that is present in all segments of the population. UCSF is to be commended on its efforts to train a significant and growing number of individuals from underrepresented groups. Of course, there is always room for improvement. This is an institution that receives a great many resources. As the prophet said: Of those who receive, much shall be expected.
Your individual quests for excellence will no doubt land many of you in positions of leadership. Yes, there will be stumbling blocks along the way. And they don’t stop coming once you assume a leadership role, trust me. But you have a solid foundation to acquire all the skills you’ll need. I’m sure you’ll relish the challenges. To paraphrase John Gardner, an authority on leadership, don’t pray for the day when we finally solve our problems. Pray that we have the freedom (or the NIH funding) to continue working on problems the future will certainly put before us.
As leaders, as researchers, as heroes, as scientists, as citizens, I urge you all going forward to shape your own parameters for excellence. By this I mean never be afraid to challenge the consensus, to question the status quo, and never blindly accept best practices as your only standard. I say if rules were meant to be broken, then best practices were made to be made even better. You and your faculty here at UCSF would have never achieved all that you have if you limited yourselves if you worked strictly within someone else’s standards or best practices.
My fond wish for all of you in this class is that you continue to experience the joy of discovery and know the joy of lifelong learning. And as you Learn to Know, Learn to Do, Learn to Live Together, and Learn to Be, I hope you use the skills and insights you gained here to make a difference for the common good, to improve the world around you. And perhaps you can help others to recognize that representation, inclusion, and diversity matter.
Now, I know without a doubt you will all remember me and everything I’ve said here until well after lunchtime, right? Knock Knock. Thank you all again. Good luck, and Ot-goh-noh-nyoh, which, in the language of my tribe, means I honor you.
