Access to Advancement, Part 2: Angela Foreman
Allison Dunne: Dr. Angela Lee Foreman would like to see more inclusive workplaces, especially science labs. She says it's important for not only a person with a disability applying for a position to ask for any accommodations, but for the employer to offer.
Angela Foreman: Everybody's different. Everybody has a unique talent that they could bring to the lab, or the workplace. And these unique talents will help improve the bottom line of the lab, or the company, or the university. And we cannot afford to overlook these unique talents, skills.
Allison Dunne: She believes asking potential employees what accommodations are needed is key to accessing those talents. For example, when Dr. Foreman, who is deaf, was working as a regulatory affairs officer for Antibodies Incorporated - a biotech company in Davis, California - her boss understood the type of accommodations she needed - sign-language interpreters.
Those interpreters helped her during meetings, audits, and client visits. She said her boss, the CEO of the company, was highly responsive to this need. For the six years she held the position, Dr. Foreman says she was able to successfully demonstrate her capabilities. She said she did not need interpreters all the time, as she was able to communicate in a one-on-one setting by lip-reading and speaking for herself.
But, Dr. Foreman can also provide examples of some not-so-positive experiences. She says deaf scientists often are discouraged after applying for positions in labs. One employer assumed Foreman would find it difficult to communicate with her co-workers because her hands would be busy doing the lab procedure, and her eyes would be focusing on the procedure as well. If a co-worker wanted to communicate with her, she was told, it would be difficult.
Angela Foreman: That was the reason that was given to me why I did not get that job position awhile back. And I remember that was a very frustrating experience for me, and I did not let that stop me.
Allison Dunne: Dr. Foreman said the person interviewing her incorrectly thought that obstacles faced by his son, who is also deaf, were the same obstacles for her.
Angela Foreman: The guy that was interviewing me, he had a deaf son. And he saw the challenge and the obstacles that his deaf son has faced in the lab. So he thought that I had the exactly same obstacles.
Allison Dunne: Dr. Foreman is an assistant professor of biology in the science and mathematics department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, or NTID, a college at Rochester Institute of Technology, in New York.
Dr. Foreman's discouraging experiences in applying for lab positions did not stop her from advancing in her science career.
Angela Foreman: I just kept on doing what I was doing, which was continuing with my education, and continuing to communicate with my family and my peers and my mentors.
Allison Dunne: Foreman says mentors and role models have been important throughout her life. Her role models are members of her family; people at her prior university employer; people she's met at scientific conferences; and colleagues at her current job at NTID.
Dr. Foreman is a mentor to not only students at Rochester-based NTID and RIT, but to middle-school girls who attend a weeklong summer camp at the college called TechGirlz. She remembers how difficult it was to find a mentor in the sciences who was not only a woman, but a woman who was deaf.
Angela Foreman: I remember one of my obstacles was the lack of female mentors in the sciences, and I'm hoping that I can fulfill that role with these girls.
Allison Dunne: Dr. Foreman hopes these girls she mentors will, in turn, become mentors to a new generation of aspiring female scientists who are deaf or hard-of hearing.
Foreman says she aims to teach the students at TechGirlz problem-solving skills, skills that apply both inside the classroom and out, through hands-on activities.
Dr. Foreman earned her bachelor's degree in biological sciences from the University of California, Davis. She then received her Ph.D. in immunology from the University's School of Medicine. Her biomedical research focuses on the antibody response in the immune system, and its role in clearing infections.
Dr. Foreman has some advice for young women with disabilities looking to pursue STEM - or science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers: communicate...and don't give up.
Angela Foreman: It's very, very important to communicate with your peers, and your colleagues, and to communicate with other people exactly what you need that will help you to be very, very successful. And my advice is to keep on moving forward; don't give up. And keep your eye on the goal; keep your eye on the prize. And think about what you want and how to get there.
Allison Dunne: What is success for you?
Angela Foreman: Success to me is the fulfillment of the inner self, so I would feel like a whole person and I feel like I could grow and continue on growing, and using all of my talents and skills to the fullest. And I feel full and happy and content in what I'm doing, and be able to give back to the community.
Allison Dunne: And Dr. Foreman attributes her success to hard work and determination.
For 51%, I'm Allison Dunne.
Access to Advancement is made possible by the National Science Foundation Research in Disabilities Education Program.