Olivia Lanier, PhD
What is your current role/position?
I am a Provost Early Career Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin. I work on developing oral delivery platforms for patients with autoimmune diseases, as a more accessible alternative to infusion-based therapies, with Dr. Nicholas Peppas. My goal is to design accessible delivery systems for patients, while using inclusive design principles that promote health equity. With Dr. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez, Dr. Gilda Barabino, and Dr. Mykel Green, I created 10 rules for engineers to improve health equity through inclusive design, which are published in PLOS One Computational Biology and fall into three categories: diversifying teams, prioritizing under-researched areas, and considering the community during the design process.
What is it like to be a woman in STEM? Do you feel that your gender gives you a different perspective from your male counterparts?
It is empowering to be a woman in STEM. I love my career and the brilliantly talented people from around the world that I get to work with every day. I also love being able to do work that interests me while also contributing positively to the community. I feel blessed for the educational opportunities I received to get to the place I am at today. I understand that many promising people do not have access to the same opportunities. I have made it my mission to help as many people as possible advance in their lives through education.
My gender, along with many other personal attributes and personal experiences, have provided me with a different perspective than others. Everyone has a unique set of life experiences that contribute to their passions and interests, as well as their blind spots. Only by improving diversity and inclusion in STEM will we be able to create technologies that work for all people and eliminate blind spots in design. In fact, studies have shown that a person’s identity contributes to their research interests. For example, as more women entered the STEM field, more research on women’s health emerged.
The biggest challenge for me as a woman in STEM has been sexism. This has shown up in a variety of ways, including: microaggressions that disregarded my personal successes; people attributing my awards to my gender instead of my ability; and harassment and assault. These experiences led me to want to use my position and voice to create a safe space in STEM for not only all women, but for people from any background, to be able to study what they like and have their ideas heard and celebrated.
Who is another woman in STEM who inspires you, and why?
There is an endless number of women in STEM who inspire me daily; have helped me personally reach the point in my life where I am today; and have dedicated their time to education, research, and outreach efforts that have improved our society. I want to thank all of them for everything they do, and I hope to be able to spend my life doing the same.
My mentoring team at UT Austin includes three women that I look up to very much: Dr. Lydia Contreras (Jim and Barbara Miller Endowed Faculty Fellowship in Chemical Engineering Professor in Chemical Engineering), Dr. Elizabeth Cosgriff-Hernandez (Cullen Trust for Higher Education Endowed Professorship in Engineering #2 Professor in Biomedical Engineering), Dr. Adrianne Rosales (Associate Professor in Chemical Engineering), and Dr. Leah Harris (Chief of Pediatrics). It has been inspiring to be mentored by three amazing women in different stages of their careers, who are all committed to education of the next-generation and performing life-saving work and research.
Another woman who inspires me is Dr. Laura Ensign, the Marcella E. Woll Professor of Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Ensign is a dedicated mentor and revolutionary scientist. She is doing groundbreaking research in the field of women’s health and drug delivery, two areas that I am extremely passionate about. Her recent research study on pre-term birth, which currently has no FDA approved treatment, was innovative and probed mechanisms behind why her nanoparticle therapy was not working correctly, leading her to discover important knowledge about how pre-term birth can be treated. This study is the first in the literature that led to the birth of live neurotypical pups, following treatment for pre-term birth. In addition to this, Dr. Ensign is an excellent science communicator and can explain her research in a riveting manner, both in the oral and written form.
What advice do you have for other women considering or starting a career in STEM?
My advice is to be unapologetically and authentically yourself. Sometimes you may feel the desire to shrink yourself to fit somewhere better or to not step on any toes, but please do not do this. Only by being your true self will you be able to discover your true passions and find your correct path. Your ideas and opinions matter and your life experiences give you a unique perspective that no one else can offer. Never underestimate what you can do. You may have the next idea for a new treatment or technology that will save many lives. Never underestimate what you already have done. Even if you don’t come up with the next life-saving technology, the impact you have on those around you is changing more lives than you may know.
STEM can sometimes be a demanding career path, so my other advice is to always prioritize yourself. Your definition of success and fulfillment may not be the same as someone else’s definition. Prioritize your well-being and health. Take care of your mental and physical health, do not disregard other areas in your life, and nurture connections and activities that contribute to your personal fulfillment.