Feb 6, 2025 / Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice, SAFS News, Student Spotlight

Embracing community, mentorship and interdisciplinary science during Black History Month

By: Niamh Owen-McLaughlin

Interdisciplinary. Providing mentorship. Community-focused. These are just some of the terms that come to mind for Chris when she describes what it means to be a Black scientist. “When we think about being a non-majority community in STEM – and in this instance Black in STEM – we are tasked with a three-pronged responsibility because this is a lived experience for so many of us: being inherently interdisciplinary, mentoring others, focusing on your community”. Chris Mantegna is currently a graduate student at SAFS, after earning her bachelor’s degree in UW Marine Biology in 2021.

Chris Mantegna, wearing a yellow rain jacket and holding a blue clipboard, stands on a rocky outcropping with a body of water and another island behind her. A blue sky with white clouds is above.
University of Washington
Chris Mantegna on Yellow Island during her 2024 mentorship program.

She is also a founding board member of BWEEMS (Black Women in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Science) and created their first foundational mentorship program, has been a part of BIMS (Black in Marine Science) since its beginnings as a tweet in 2020, and collaborates with many other BIPOC-focused organizations such as Sea Potential and NABS (National Association of Black Scuba Divers). “One of the many things I love about the Black community in marine science is we’re all connected. So many organizations and groups work together – be it Sea Potential, BIMS or BWEEMS – because our numbers are so small, and water touches all of it,” Chris said.

The experience of being an excellent scientist while also shouldering the responsibility of enhancing representation and uplifting others in your community can be a challenge, but a rewarding one. “The experience of trying to be the best, while walking into a space which doesn’t always value the experience, knowledge, and lessons you’re bringing, is tough. I love Black excellence, but we also need to give ourselves the space to make excellence whatever we want,” Chris shared.

A key part of Chris’ mentorship programs, such as the Yellow Island NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergrads-Blinks internship, is to highlight that each student brings a different lived experience and view of science to the table. “A lot of us are navigating the different environments in which we grew up in, or currently live and work in, and therefore bring a different understanding to science and research,” she said.

Chris Mantegna
Chris with her 2024 Yellow Island summer interns. L-R: Benjamin Brown, Galen June, Darian Pierre, Chris Mantegna, Kai Miller, Noah Krebs and Luis Hurtado.

Marine and aquatic science has been filled with pioneering contributions from Black scientists – from the first Black marine biologist, Ernest Everett Just, who pioneered understanding of cell physiology, embryonic development and fertilization, to Joan Murrell Owens, who shed light on the evolutionary relationships of corals.

This legacy continues but there is a lot of work to be done to continue the effort to increase representation in STEM and create a space where Black and other minority groups feel welcome, valued, and safe in the spaces where science is conducted: both inside and in the outdoors. “We can’t recruit students to a place that isn’t ready for them, so we should look to retain and support the students who are here,” Chris shared. “Retention starts with representation across all departmental levels and course content coupled with action-oriented allies.”

Learn more about Chris’ Yellow Island mentorship program 

We asked Chris what a more inclusive future would look like? “I would love to see syllabi changed at the university level to include more Black scientists – be they from the US or from the Global South,” Chris said. “We need to change the way we teach to encourage more young Black scientists, and make sure the pipelines are in place from middle-school and even earlier, as that’s one place where we’re losing our future scientists”. Building community partnerships is a crucial aspect of this change that Chris would like the future to hold. “Our communities have a different lived experience, and I would like to see that acknowledged, celebrated, and brought into research and science in ways where students can see knowledge coming from the communities that resemble them”.

A global syllabus, more interrogation of teaching styles to demonstrate it can be done differently, embracing creativity around scientific the process, including community, art, and geography – these are all actionable ways that Chris shared that can make science more inclusive.

This Black History Month, Chris is sharing an important message: “Give yourself time to rest and rejuvenate. Revisit some of our strongest, most creative, or marginalized thinkers, such as Tricia Hersey (Rest is Resistance) and the writings of Octavia Butler, June Jordan and Audrey Lorde to support our imaginations in creating what can be. For more marine related writing – Pauline Alexis Gumbs and Jasmin Graham. And remember: let’s be gentler with ourselves in 2025”.

Want to learn more about some local and national organizations dedicated to celebrating and amplifying the work of Black scientists in marine and freshwater science this Black History Month? Visit:

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