Lauren Ragle

[Image Description]: Lauren is smiling at the camera, wearing sunglasses and a bright floral shirt without sleeves. Her hair is light brown and curly, shining in the sun.

[Image Description]: Lauren is wearing a bright floral shirt and a periodic table printed lanyard, with sunglasses and a black mask. The photo is captioned with a reminder to wear masks to protect those who are immunocompromised!

I’m a bio-organic chemist advocating for my students, and for accessibility for all -  especially in higher education and pre-medical education.

Tell us about your STEM? What do you do, what do you love about it, what brought you to the field?

I’m a bio-organic chemist advocating for my students, and for accessibility for all - especially in higher education and pre-medical education.

When I was in undergraduate and in graduate school, I was focused on a protein called autotaxin. It’s involved in cancers and a lot of inflammatory diseases. My project, as an organic chemist, was trying to create new small organic molecules (that contain carbon) that would hopefully be new treatments that we could potentially give to patients. It was definitely a fun project, and I learned a lot. When I was looking for my postgraduate job, I was applying for things everywhere from medicinal chemistry (making molecules), to modeling things on a computer, to doing assays in the lab. I had all kinds of different skills I could apply in different positions.

But I really wanted to learn more about the biology side. When I was in graduate school I had a class about receptors, proteins and signals in people, and what happens when these signals go awry. I loved that class. I loved my other graduate level classes. And I thought, maybe I need to know more about biology, and maybe I can apply some of my chemical knowledge to biology and get some new skills.

After that I was in a lab where we worked with mice, doing microsurgeries where we could insert different cancer treatments and see what would happen in families of mice that always get tumors. I learned a lot about animal husbandry. I learned some surgical skills which was really cool, and I was excited about where I could go from there.

But during my time there I was also able to teach part-time, and I was able to take some classes about teaching. I was like, no, I really want to teach. I've had fun doing things. I've learned a lot of things, read a lot of fun things. But I want to take those examples into the classroom to get students excited.

Now I'm paid to teach, not to do bench research. So now, my research is more around trying to be the best for my students, and to try and make things better for my students.

What inspired your strong advocacy for your students?

I wasn’t diagnosed until I moved to the DC area (my doctor back home figured I was just a bit bendy, even though I've had multiple types of medical issues my entire life). As soon as I took myself to a doctor in the DC area, he looked at my entire chart, and went through my history, and told me about Ehlers Danlos syndrome. He had me write it down and look it up because he's like, you're a researcher. Go research it! And I did, and it just clicked. That's me, that's my life.

And so discovering that alongside realizing my passion for teaching, is what initially sparked this idea of being an advocate for my students and trying to make sure we know about accessibility in the classroom.

What accommodations allow you to thrive? Are there any tips, tricks, or hacks that work for you?

We can do things to make the learning experience more accessible and to help support you, and make it more equitable and actually support students. We need to take care of our students, because if one in four adults are disabled, then how many students are disabled, and perhaps don't know it? Or don't have the words to advocate for themselves? Maybe they don't know what things could help. So just have little things built in.

The desks that we have provided are all swivel desks- a rolling chair with a small table on top. If you're left handed, you can swivel to the left hand position and vice versa. I've got some students who don't like sitting for a 3h lecture, so I also have a standing desk podium that you can move around. I had a student use that all last year - he didn't have any formal accommodations, that's just what he preferred. That was fine.

I always make sure there is a standalone desk that's at an appropriate height for a wheelchair user if they need it. I also always make sure there's an unattached seat, as I know, especially for some larger shaped folks, that having a seat attached to your desk can be very difficult to use.

I also usually have an extra chair for me, so that as I'm lecturing, if I need to sit down in a chair as well, I can.

I also try to make sure if we're on the second floor that the elevator is working, because I'm not doing stairs.

There’s also safety in a laboratory setting - you also need to make sure you have a chemical fume hood that doesn't have anything under it. Then, if there's someone in a wheelchair, they can roll up under it and use it as well.

These things are usually in place on my campus, but at the start of the semester, and throughout term I'm always the first one in the classroom looking around, making sure.

I'm trying to use some of the built-in tools that technology is giving us for free. I’ve started recording all my lectures, so people can go back and re-watch them with subtitles. I have students all the time who tell me it's such a great aid for them, even if they don't technically have written accommodations. Anything you build in, both accessible and universal design, it can really help everybody at the end of the day.

What do you want people to know about being disabled in STEM? What advice would you give to someone with a disability looking to enter the STEM world?

There's a lot of us out here who are disabled!. In academia in general, you see this rise of ‘EDI’ (equity, disability, inclusion) talk. Who's the group they always forget about? The disabled community. That’s the one group anyone can join anytime.

I think if I could go back in time, I would have gotten some diagnoses, and would like to have had some accommodations for more time on exams. My reading comprehension scores are always in the trash can - now I understand why. And I've got some coping mechanisms. I know there's testing aids you can use to help with reading, even a ruler, or something to follow along. If I could go back, I’d use those tools sooner.

And just because I might need to do something different doesn't mean I can't do it. Just because it might look different when I try, it doesn't mean I can't try the same exact thing. After one of my major knee surgeries, I had two titanium screws put into my leg. At the time I worked with an NMR machine, which is essentially a giant fancy magnet. It's an MRI for molecules. And they're like, Oh, Lauren, don't go near the NMR anymore. What? Titanium is non-magnetic, we're organic chemists, you should know this from general chemistry.

Are there any realms of the STEM world you still struggle to navigate?

It seems like we're trying to do more for mental health difficulties (which is great) with testing aids, and extra testing time. But it seems like we're forgetting about the physical side of things. Not everyone can do stairs! Sometimes doors are heavy, and every once in a while, for whatever reason, they turn off the handicap door, and if you push the button it won't open (but if you can figure out how to get the door open, there's usually a switch, you can switch it back on!)

There's a lot of times where I wear masks (which I wore even before the pandemic), and people make fun of me. There's still people nowadays who are immunocompromised, and shouldn’t be made fun of for wearing masks. There’s the issue of people being too close together, and the classroom where I've been teaching this summer is very squished together. Shoulders are barely a couple feet apart, and I’m like, that’s not safe, okay?

Our ramp - we did have a ramp in my building at my alma mater, but it was extremely steep. At first after a knee surgery, my sister was having to push me up in a wheelchair. Then afterwards, when I transferred over to my walker, I could get up there, but it was a hike. So when people build ramps, can people actually get up and down it?