16 August, 2020

$60,000 Goal Met!

Dear ARM Fund donors, 

YOU did it!!! We have reached our $60,000 goal and less than two months from when we started this campaign. This is incredible. More than 600 people have donated from all over the country and even a couple of folks who are overseas!

I have raised the goal to $62,000 because I’m Reviewer #3 – ha ha! Research joke! No, actually I’ve raised it to $62,000 because that extra bit will cover the GoFundMe processing fees and let us give a full $30,000 each to Meharry Medical College and The HBCU Foundation.

So, what happens now? Now we do the work so that the women receiving the funds can do THEIR work. Meharry is already determining how they will distribute their funds so that they can reach the maximum number of eligible women this year. On their campus they have at least 25 women who are in medical/dental/graduate school or postdocs/residents AND are also mothers to children under the age of 4 or up to 12 with special needs. The HBCU Foundation is reaching out to women who are HBCU graduates and in advanced training as academic physicians. The need is GREAT, we do not have enough for everyone who deserves it and all additional funds will go directly to serving these brilliant women.

Speaking of additional funds: We will leave this GoFundMe up for the rest of the year. You can keep donating here, and we will keep giving all of the money this year to Meharry and The HBCU Foundation. BUT – thanks to you there is now another way to give to the ARM Fund. Because of your donations seeding the cause, both Meharry and The HBCU Foundation have now been able to create dedicated ARM Funds at their own institutions! These new funds will be used expressly for the purpose of supporting mothers who are in advanced training in academic research and medicine and we hope they will receive enough support to extend well into the future.

Meharry: Under “Give Now” you can select different ways to give, choose a method that suits you. Select “other” for the designation and in the comments write “ARM Childcare Fund”

The HBCU Foundation: Under “causes” select the ARM Fund and click “Donate”. 

It should be said that these two institutions did not ask for this work. We ‘cold called’ them and they were willing to listen to our story and then pivot to take on more and new work for themselves in the service of women training in academic medicine and research. Special thanks go to Daniel Moss of The HBCU Foundation and Gloria Sanders of Meharry Medical College who patiently and enthusiastically worked with me to establish these grants despite my inexperience and our initial lack of actual money. I am in awe of this openness and generosity, may other academic research institutions follow suit. 

Finally, the ARMs started this fund because we were struggling ourselves with the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns. Our labs were closed, we were unable to collect new data for the grants that fuel our research. The MDs among us were putting in extra-long and risky clinic hours to protect their patients and keep struggling hospitals afloat and all of us were trying to keep our productivity moving from home while simultaneously mothering and schooling our children. Those of us in lower paying training positions were struggling with the cost of additional childcare and the ‘senior’ vs. ‘junior’ divide for financial and career security became very clear. Like everyone, our world shifted suddenly and we were worried about what the long-term effects would be to our families and our careers. Then, in the midst of this ongoing international tragedy, the murder of George Floyd devastated us all again. As our national conversations shifted urgently to the racism embedded within our country, Black mothers in our ARM group who were already of communities hit hardest by the pandemic, were expected to shoulder the burden of expanding conversations about racism and diversity within their respective institutions at the same time that they themselves were grieving…and mothering…and striving for academic excellence. The way forward seemed heavy and far away.

One of our group co-founders (with Dr. Leah Pyter), Dr. Tamar Gur, said “when you don’t know how to help yourself, help others” and that is what we decided to do. Women, and especially Black women, are already underrepresented in research and medicine. This year has shown us (again) that it is critical to have more Black women working and LEADING in our academic medical and research institutions. With the additional burdens this year has placed on trainees who are also Black moms, we focused our efforts on lightening their load with tangible support. Academic Research Moms (and YOU!) working for moms in training to serve in academic research and medicine. We know this is just one small step but we hope we have inspired you to take steps to make changes for good in your own institutions and communities. 

Many hands make light work and in these dark days you have all made this work seem like a source of very beautiful light indeed.

Thank you, 

Mariya and The Academic Research Moms