UC Davis, our department and our lab hinges on a diverse community of researchers composed of individuals having many perspectives, identities, needs and goals. Like for all ecosystems, this diversity is a source of resilience and well-functioning and it has been a major asset for mentoring, research, teaching and impact. We are committed and recognize that to create an inclusive and intellectually vibrant lab, we must value diversity and understand and value both our differences and common ground. The UC Davis Principles of Community is an aspirational statement that embodies this commitment and our lab community agreement reflects the ideals and the practices we seek to uphold as a team.
Second, our lab strives to maintain a climate of equity and inclusion demonstrated by collective actions to build equity (e.g. in funding, knowledge sharing, peer-peer mentoring) and respect for one another in the lab, in the classroom and in our lives. We are kind and supportive of each other, seek dialogue to solve problems and foster mutual understanding. We take pride in each other's achievements and consider supportive mentoring, wellbeing, open science and collaborative and creative team work to be core to success. We confront and reject all manifestations of discrimination, including those based on race, gender and gender expression, age, visible and non-visible disability, nationality, sexual orientation, citizenship status, religious/non-religious, spiritual, or political beliefs or any of the other differences among people. We recognize and cherish this richness.
We acknowledge that academia, and our society at large, carries historical and deeply rooted racism, injustices, barriers and biases. We endeavor to do our share to address some of these systemic barriers, while also recognizing our own contributions to the current system. This is a collective work in progress we are committed to and to which we all contribute ideas, actions and discussions with a problem solving mindset. As individuals and/or as a lab, we demonstrate this commitment in diverse ways such as through community organizing, advocacy, engaging and outreaching to farming communities, mentoring LGBDQIA and BIPOC scholars and participation in various UC programs (ie. McNair Scholars, PEAS, GSoC and PabGAP).
In our research, we engage communities with the science of agricultural ecology by collaborating with and learning from a diverse group of students, growers, farmers, advisors, communities of practice and policy advocates. Although our research mainly focuses on the biophysical aspects of agroecology, we value and consider other academic fields and types of knowledge key to catalyze change and create a safe space for exploration and discussion of agroecology as a practice, science and social movement. We hope that these efforts create awareness and new pathways to higher education and promote (bio)diversity and ultimately engage all parts of society in supporting the socio ecological changes needed to develop more sustainable, resilient and just food systems.