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Maya Rossin-Slater was presented with a 2021 Faculty Women's Forum award in June for her work to push for more diversity and her support of other women at ��ɫ��Ӱ through mentorship.

"It's a wonderful honor to be recognized by the  and to be included among an inspiring group of faculty who support women at ��ɫ��Ӱ," said Rossin-Slater, a health economist and a senior fellow at the ��ɫ��Ӱ Institute for Economic and Policy Research (SIEPR). "I am lucky to have had incredible mentors throughout my career so far — I wouldn't be where I am without them. I hope I can have even a small fraction of the impact that they have had on me, on others; that's my way of paying it forward."

Rossin-Slater received “The Outstanding Sponsor Award,” which recognizes faculty members who have consistently created opportunities for the academic advancement of women at ��ɫ��Ӱ.

An associate professor of medicine at ��ɫ��Ӱ Health Policy (SHP), Rossin-Slater advises multiple PhD students in both health policy and economics. She is also a co-chair of a new committee to ensure justice, equality, diversity and inclusivity at SHP, and has led two annual mentorship conferences for women pursuing their PhDs in economics and related fields, in which women are in the gender minority.

She thanked several of her mentors during an awards' ceremony on June 14, including SHP's , who nominated Rossin-Slater. 

"Mentoring and sponsoring other women has been such an integral part of my career — and I always feel like I’m following in the footsteps of giants," Rossin-Slater said.

"We need a diverse set of scholars, researchers, and policymakers to be able to make progress on the many issues facing our society today," she said. "Academia is an environment that generates deep expertise on many complex issues, but its lack of diversity hinders that progress. And if we don't take action, if we are not intentional about it, then we will continue to be roadblocked by this lack of diverse voices. Mentoring is critical for making the academic environment more welcoming and more conducive to success, especially for groups that have been historically under-represented in academic circles, and this will ultimately benefit us all."

A version of this story was by ��ɫ��Ӱ Health Policy.