Namandjé Bumpus, director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland.
As a Black woman who is the chair of a university science department, people have questioned my right to exist at every stage.
Why did we let you in, then?” That was what a white colleague in a scientific society asked me when I declined to lead a new diversity initiative. I am the first Black woman to chair a department at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and the only one currently leading a department of pharmacology at any US medical school. All through my career, from grade school onwards, teachers, colleagues and leaders have challenged my place in science. When my appointment as chair was announced, I received a racist backlash through Twitter and e-mail.