Women Scientists Advisors (WSA)

Please see our website at https://sigs.nih.gov/wsa (external link) for more information about the Women Scientists Advisors.

The WSA committee (external link) was formed in 1993 in response to recommendations of a task force established by Dr. Bernadine Healy, then Director of NIH, to examine the status of intramural women scientists. The Task Force, which included about 15 intramural scientists and was chaired by Dr. Hynda Kleinman, issued a final report in November 1992. Among the recommendations was that each IC should have a Woman Scientist Advisor (WSA). These recommendations were unanimously approved by the Scientific Directors at their meeting of November 4, 1992.

Duties and Activities of a WSA

1. Hold regular meetings with her Scientific Director in order to advise him/her about issues relevant to women scientists. Attend Lab/Branch Chief meetings to serve as a representative of women scientists.
2. Inform the Institute’s women scientists on issues which will affect them (ie, tenure track and staff scientist policy decisions) and solicit their opinions.
3. Organize meetings for the women scientists, to discuss issues of general concern, or to present programs of general interest.
4. Attend WSA committee meetings where issues of concern to all NIH women scientists are discussed. Examples include: pay equity, resource allocations/their impact on productivity and work and family life issues.

For more information, please refer to our website at https://sigs.nih.gov/wsa (external link).

If you are not a WSA representative, but would like to help with the efforts of the WSA, please join the WSA interest group mailing list, WSAINTEREST (external link).

Chair

• Mary Kearney, Ph.D. (external link), NCI

Advisors

• Nina Schor, M.D., Ph.D., OD
• Roland Owens, Ph.D. (email), OD

Women Scientists Advisors (WSA) site (external link)