Effective & Inclusive Session Training

Written By Joanna Friesner, NAASC Executive Director

This Effective & Inclusive Sessions slide deck was developed by Joanna Friesner (NAASC Executive Director) for session organizer training for the 34th International Conference on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR) - July 15-19 2024 in San Diego, California, USA.

The goal of this short training is to facilitate Effective & Inclusive sessions

  • View in “slideshow mode” to properly view transitions.

  • The second to last slide is to be displayed as the session’s opening slide.

  • The slides can be downloaded as a Powerpoint file or saved to your Google Drive

  • We may update the slides based on community input & feedback

Session organizers will attend a short training to discuss their roles in leading their session and setting session expectations including effective timekeeping to ensure each speaker receives their allotted time, and managing the speakers and participants to ensure respectful interactions. [The slides will include the relevant reporting information in the event inappropriate behavior occurs.]

This free to download, re-use, and edit (with attribution*) slide deck includes:

  1. Setting the stage: Expectations (timing, behavior)

  2. Session timekeeping (includes example responses)

  3. Examples of bullying & harassment in sessions (includes example responses)

  4. Microaggressions (includes examples at conferences & seminars)

  5. Outcomes of bullying, harassment, and microaggressions

  6. Intervention in sessions: session chairs/organizer roles, approaches, example responses

  7. Session leaders should be informed of available reporting at the conference/location

  8. Summary slide for session chairs/organizers to project at the start of their session

  9. Bonus slide: Additional information & reference list by Mary Williams, ASPB and Root & Shoot NSF RCN co-PI

Re-use and Reference: We encourage you to download and use these slides (you may edit, & reuse) with inclusion of this reference:

*Reference: Developed by J. Friesner (North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee) drawing on resources developed by ADVANCEGeo Partnership

Contact for feedback/comments on the training slide: arabidopsiscconference@gmail.com

As part of a 7 plant biology society collaboration led by the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB), the Root & Shoot RCN held several Bystander Training workshops by AdvanceGeoPartnership. NAASC Executive Director Joanna Friesner attended a workshop and added slides to her session training resource on microaggressions and Bystander Training inspired by, and drawing from, the AdvanceGeoPartnership presentation.

Joanna Friesner, NAASC Executive Director

Current Position: Executive Director, North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC)

Education: PhD in Genetics, University of California, Davis

I completed a PhD in Genetics at UC Davis, USA, where I conducted early research into mechanisms of DNA double-strand break repair in Arabidopsis thaliana. Following this (2006) I began supporting the Arabidopsis community first as the Coordinator of the Multinational Arabidopsis Steering Committee (MASC), and then as the Executive Director of the North American Arabidopsis Steering Committee (NAASC), a non-profit charity registered in the US. Since 2006, I have led and supported various community activities via my support of the elected members of NAASC including serving as lead organizer for seven International Conferences on Arabidopsis Research (ICAR), and developing and implementing numerous NAASC activities (e.g., the International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium, workshops, seminars, publications.) Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the plant sciences has long been a key NAASC objective, with increased focus in the last 8 years, particularly due to support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF*) via the award “Research Coordination Network: Arabidopsis Research and Training for the 21st Century (ART-21)”.  NAASC has enabled participation in ICARs and other activities by about 100 members of under-represented groups in US STEM and 400+ early career researchers; organized more than a dozen professional and career development workshops, and led the writing of several publications, including this most recent guide on broadening impacts of plant science. Several years ago, I co-founded (with NAASC members Jennifer Nemhauser and Liz Haswell) the DiversifyPlantSci database (https://rdale1.shinyapps.io/diversifyplantsci/) to highlight diversity in the plant sciences community and to further increase diversity and inclusion. Recently I led organization of the first online ICAR (ICAR 2021-Virtual), postponed from 2020-Seattle due to Covid-19, and work with NAASC to develop plans for new activities to support the Arabidopsis community. I am now planning ICAR 2024-UC San Diego.

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