 HBCU digest radio welcome back to our HBCU voices of STEM excellent series lifting up the best and brightest in the sciences technology engineering and mathematics fields at historically black college universities today our distinguished guest is the Dean of the Virginia Union University University College Dr. Carlita Paige Anderson panther alumna by way of graduate training at Wake Forest Johns Hopkins all the way back home to Richmond and a lion sister I believe a one of our previous guests if I'm if I'm not mistaken of that glorious sorority of alpha alpha sorority incorporated so to begin you are an alumna of the Fulbright scholars program which is a huge deal for HBCUs and our round of entrance into that program just be just was announced recently your your term of service was in Indonesia can you talk a little bit about that research because it plays a lot into what you do today but then the excitement that a lot of the young people who are going to be participating this academic year can look forward to as a part of the program absolutely so my appointment as a senior full-bite scholar actually was during the 2014 2015 academic year and so I applied as a faculty member a senior scholar to be considered for and research appointment in Indonesia and I specifically identified that country because my research really starting from my postdoctoral work was on tuberculosis and infectious disease and Indonesia has a high incidence of that and in addition to focusing and recognizing that that was a burden in that country I really wanted to really dig deeper into how the curriculum for undergraduate students was set up in STEM to really introduce how do you start investigating these issues that are highly prevalent in your native land and how do you position yourself to be a contributor to figuring out solutions to some of those problems and so I was actually pleasantly surprised when I found out that I was accepted because you know as you know the full-bite thing as a faculty member at an HPCU is not as common as we'd like for it to be but frankly from Virginia Union I am not aware I won't I won't necessarily say I'm the first yet but I have yet to confirm whether or not a sitting faculty member from Virginia Union University would have such an appointment and so I accepted that that was a heavy responsibility on me to really chart the course for what that would look like as a young black scientist going to the third largest democracy in the world but also you know the largest concentration of Muslims in the world having had a Christian foundation so that experience really was transformative for me. Everything that's going on now in our political landscape yet that that is powerful within itself just to hear that story but let's rewind a little bit talk about those foundations as a child as a budding researcher and an inquisitive scientific mind how did your your your home life and your secondary school and kind of shape your identity around stem and make you interested in it particularly as a black girl and as a black woman and what what led you does a path to follow that dream at Virginia Union. Sure you know growing up I was raised by a single mom who emphasized that I could do anything that I wanted to do she said that all the time and I really believed her and the most impactful experience that I can recall at least the earliest one let me start with that within first grade my first grade teacher I'm a native of DC I went to elementary school that was right across the DC line and Prince George's County my first grade teacher Ms. Collins she made math amazing for me and that alone you know my mom's encouragement that I could do whatever I want to do but then the first grade teacher who really celebrated those small successes that I had really really affirmed me very early on to know that that I could do you know in particular math and so throughout my you know K-12 experience I just had natural inclinations where math and science really quick suffice it to say you know sometimes the the history and and languages humanities they were not as interesting however the math and the science I just had a series of teachers who really you know they didn't pay attention to my background or my race or my gender they just really spoke life into me and that really manifested itself in me wanting to pursue what I thought at the time was that I came to college believing that I was going to be a pediatrician because I loved mine right and so that's all I wanted to do and when I got to Virginia Union the faculty here really emphasize the importance of research we had a mark you star grant from the National Science Foundation and the advisor at the time who much who was identified in in Shanta's my line sister's her talk Dr. Madhu he was really such an inspiration to all of us at that time that we while we were here on campus and he exposed us to research and not having known what it was I was immersed in it as a student I engaged in at least three different summer internships doing research and realized that you know while medical school was really what I thought I wanted it wasn't until I had these intentional exposures to let me know that there was another avenue for me and really studying the crux of the why was really more aligned with what I wanted to do at the time and I just kept going from there talk about that experience at Union because a lot of people even those who are well versed in HBC culture they kind of brand Union you know for it's theological roots right this is the school that makes preachers but Union is spectacular in the end in a lot of academic areas beyond theology particularly in science was it was it that how would you explain it to someone who apparently would not know a lot about Union and how rigorous it can be particularly in preparing you for graduate study absolutely we are this hidden gem in Richmond Virginia where we have amazing faculty that's really what it falls down to we have at Virginia Union a liberal arts curriculum so we prepare students for life and for those students like myself or in others who focused in the STEM disciplines the faculty really poured into us what were those basic skills soft skills that was necessary to be contributors in a diverse array of STEM disciplines but they also provide a very nurturing environment so we see our faculty a family right there they're an extension of who we are and we really believe that through those relationships the students are just frankly inspired and so that's what that's what we get as students the faculty are experts in their own right but they're more committed to advancing students in in allowing students to be contributors to various academic disciplines as opposed to focusing on their own and that's one something that I want to make sure that I highlight is that you know the primary difference between the larger research intensive universities and those that are liberal arts based is that the faculty credentials are synonymous they've all acquired PhDs in their respective areas they all have been contributors to their respective disciplines but the liberal arts environment uniquely at Virginia Union is that the faculty entrusts students to help them be scholars they're not only focused on their own academic success and I really believe that is what you know helps an aide and allows Virginia Union to be this beacon where we can have so many persons come here and be interested in STEM and then go on to truly be successful and that path of success led you to wait for us after your baccalaureate career talk about the transition to advanced masters in doctoral study because a lot of people we've had on the program we always get a variety of reactions to say amen that really kicked my hind parts when you know when I went from my undergrad to my graduate experience and some people say man I was ready you know we were we drew we drilled so hard at the undergrad level that when I got to you know masters in doctoral program I was like this is this is easy this is easy so what which which line did you fall in well that's interesting to frame it that way I think I fall in the line where I'm kind of both and I didn't know how prepared I was let me say that wake for us at the time I'm not sure if they still do it but wake for us at the time we were all admitted as part of a cohort so this biochemistry program we all came in regardless of their background and so there were about ten of us that were admitted to the program schools from all over the country there were only three of us which is actually a high percentage of three of us that were from HBCUs and so of that ten we were really really particularly in biochemistry we were really you know a family well they had this one or two week course I can't remember that was graded but it was intended that regardless of your background regardless of what you were exposed to coming from undergrad research etc this is what we need everyone to know by the time the first semester begins and so it's this two week intensive and during that time everyone felt completely overwhelmed oh my goodness what am I doing I mean all ten of us in this biochemistry program we were just like what's happening well at the end we were successful we finished we had a we we were leading among this cohort of students and our performance and so that two week window was a range of emotion that you've described right at first we're like oh my goodness what's going on is this school how come it's so intense so fast two and two weeks later saying you know what we were given everything that we had or that we needed excuse me and we were able to implement it in a very short window and be successful so it was a both and but I think the unique setup of wake and doing that two week intensive allowed us to have those you know emotional reactions soon enough to almost it was like a shock factor and saying look you're here figure it out right and when you do figure it out I think we had the confidence to just proceed that translates into time at Hopkins research and transition from faculty appointments to executive appointments what was what is the difference there from being in the the academy as a as a professor and advising people to be an administrator where you're you're still doing that but also doing the same for your faculty what was that transition like absolutely so so leaving Hopkins I'll start there I guess why did my postdoctoral work and you know I've always studied infectious disease and so something that I had never considered was well you know not every university can grow these you know pathogenic organisms that cause disease and so when I was looking for faculty appointments I really I really didn't think about that much but I found myself being in an institutional setting where I had to figure out how do I take my research endeavors and make them work as a faculty member averaging a union and so that was the first transition point for me to say or at least recognize that every institution is different and how you view your contribution to the academy meaning the the the the academic arena how you view your competition or your contribution excuse me really depends on where you are and so my first I guess observation was figuring out how do I take this research R1 preparation that I received as a postdoc how do I translate that into a liberal arts environment in a way that doesn't question the integrity and the rigor of my scholarship and so you know through as I as I marched through the tenure ranks I was able to figure that out I was able to be a little bit more reflective and creative if you will in figuring out how do I study these biochemical processes in an institutional setting that was not created for this type of research and I figured some things out and I really believe that you know what I was able to do certainly the the university and the administration over the years have recognized and I certainly appreciate that but I was able to you know navigate that space and what it was very important for me so the work that I do averaging a union because it's personal as an alum it was it is essential for me to always figure out a way how do we recreate these these pockets of opportunities for people to be their best self and so you know as I then transitioned into more of an administrative role with you know our Center for Undergraduate Research it was very important for me to engage with the rest of our faculty members about how do we really adjust and reframe our academic and intellectual pursuits such that we don't find ourselves expecting Virginia Union to be something else how do we adjust our scholarship such that it's just right for where we are and it's still with them with fans of rigor from the broader community and so I was able to do that to some extent with the Center for Undergraduate Research and now it's Dean of our University College I am doing that in a slightly different way right so now it's not about just scholarship and academic pursuits it is now about academic support and really bolstering student success a bit more and so each of those transition points really caused me to really be reflective in understanding who I am right as a professional what the institutional setting demands I don't know that many faculty and or administrators are always intentional about that reflection and then in that process how do you engage multiple persons not just yourself but how do you form those partnerships and collaborations to make sure that everyone is working together to advance the university as a whole and that's what I've tried to do over this time period when you look ahead at the work that the University College which is working with honors and high achieving students at Union and your role that you created it and the personal mission that you have that is intertwined with your alma mater what is there left to be done that you feel institutionally you know there are other steps that have to be taken for us to get there what is the big mission that you have for Union to take that next big jump in research or in culture or in you know community outreach what is that what does that next success look like yeah so the University College that we it started you know last year in the fall of 2018 and it's continued to evolve the under the leadership of our current president dr. Lucas he has really challenged those of us in leadership capacities to really assess via the use of data where we are in terms of our institutional metrics and his philosophy is how do we become best in class and so certainly as we continue to build out the University College that is always at the forefront for myself my personal mission is to always always create learning spaces where everyone is valued as a contributor student and faculty and staff alike I am completely driven and motivated by empowering others to find themselves as being not just consumers of knowledge and information but contributors and so through the University College what we hope to do is start with our students so we work with all students at the University from their initial onboarding during new student orientation all the way through graduation and so we offer those academic support services to help students really master how their development over time and so we work collaboratively certainly with our academic departments and so as the students mature we ask them to be intentional about their own reflection so the same evolution that that I've experienced personally in that reflection moment essentially what we're doing is recreating those moments and allowing students to be okay with the unknown because you know as adults this is what happens we don't know what's going to happen we can have as many plans as we want and we need to be a little bit more flexible in how we adjust ourselves to meet our goals and always understand that it's you know there's more way to get between two points right that the straight line may be the straightest way in the quickest way but everybody's journey is different and so through the University College it is my personal goal to work with all of our campus offices through certainly through the leadership of our provost to make sure that we are helping students understand how to plan and how to reassess that plan and how to reposition themselves and ask themselves questions like when you establish a goal what did you do did you accomplish that goal if you did what were the steps that you made if you didn't accomplish that goal life isn't over let's be reflective and understand what decision making went into that process that may have led to your current situation and how do you then replan and realign so that you can continue to proceed and so how we work through that process over the next year or two or three or however long it takes that's really what I hope we're creating we're creating an environment where students along with faculty are working together to produce high quality high quality achievement on both angles and I really see the University College as integral to that process