March 21, 2022

I am delighted to announce the appointment of Latishya Steele, PhD, as Stanford School of Medicine’s Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Diversity. From November until starting her new role on March 1, Dr. Steele had served as interim Associate Dean for Graduate and Career Education and Diversity.

Since joining the School of Medicine’s Office of Graduate Education in 2015, Dr. Steele has excelled as an educator and mentor while leading initiatives that have supported and diversified graduate research. As Director of the Biosciences Programs and Curriculum for nearly four years, she partnered with faculty, staff, and senior leadership within and beyond the School of Medicine to articulate graduate research training goals, as well as define trainee and mentor expectations. She also created, evaluated, and enhanced programs and curricula that support research training.

Among many notable accomplishments, Dr. Steele launched and taught the Responsible Conduct of Research curriculum; established and standardized course goals and evaluation strategy for the BIOS 200 Foundations in Experimental Biology first-year graduate course; and developed a mentoring 360 assessment tool that has been broadly adopted by the school.

Dr. Steele co-leads the Biosciences Diversity Advisory Council and helped create a workshop for faculty on valuing belonging as a means for empowering trainees in academia. She has had a valuable presence on the Diversity and Societal Citizenship Task Force, helping to advance diversity in the School of Medicine. Additionally, she co-developed the Propel Postdoctoral Scholars Program to advance diversity in academia.

Throughout her undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral experiences, Dr. Steele saw few people who looked like her or held roles to which she aspired. She credits this lack of representation as a driving force behind her efforts to reduce similar experiences for future generations, ensure that those from marginalized groups can thrive in the biosciences, and promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

Please join me in warmly welcoming Dr. Steele to her new leadership role.

Sheri M. Krams, PhD
Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs