How a Librarian Landed the Cover of a Chemistry Journal
Librarians know a lot about a wide variety of topics. But Lisa Villa, M.L.I.S 鈥�95, took her polymath tendencies to the next level. The English major/librarian got published in a chemistry journal鈥攁s a writer AND an illustrator. Her topic? The underrepresentation of Native American talent in STEM fields.
Lisa Villa, M.L.I.S. 鈥�95, is a digital scholarship librarian at the College of the Holy Cross’ Dinand Library. She was the featured cover illustrator and author of an accompanying editorial for the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. One of Villa鈥檚 colleagues spotted the call for entries and Lisa saw an opportunity to showcase Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous chemists, something she鈥檚 interested in both personally and professionally. She was honored to have her cover and editorial featured.
Villa’s cover illustration. Clockwise from top right: Joslyn Lee, Fort Lewis College; Dawn Pratt, askenootow STEM Enterprise Inc.; Naomi Lee, and Jani Ingram, Northern Arizona University; Erik Sorensen, Princeton University
鈥淪everal prominent chemists who are also strong advocates for increasing the number of Native American/First Nation scientists, are working diligently to raise awareness of these issues and attract interest in scientific fields among members of their community.鈥�Lisa Villa, M.L.I.S. 鈥�95
To create the illustration, Villa used a design tool called Canva. She obtained digital photos of the chemists depicted and composed her cover illustration using Canva and its editing features.
鈥淪everal prominent chemists,鈥� says Villa, 鈥渨ho are also strong advocates for increasing the number of Native American/First Nation scientists, are working diligently to raise awareness of these issues and attract interest in scientific fields among members of their community. They acknowledge how cultural beliefs may often be in contention with scientific conversations and have been working to engage and encourage Native American talent in the STEM fields.鈥� Villa adds, 鈥淭here are many people who deserve to be showcased, but for this cover design, time, space, and available photos limited the selection.鈥�
Villa is working with one of her colleagues to create a display featuring biographies and scholarly articles by the scientists depicted on her cover. The display will also include articles about the lack of representation of Native Americans in STEM, along with names of scholarly professional associations for Native Americans in STEM. They are also proposing a presentation with the same theme.
Villa hopes that her work will help get recognition for these chemists and other Native scientists, as well as raise awareness of professional societies and the growing body of literature specifically addressing issues of Native American/First Nation/Indigenous representation in scientific fields.
Villa notes, 鈥淚 guess it is a testament to my liberal arts undergraduate and 溏心vlog免费B站 GSLIS education that an English-major-turned-librarian is published in a chemistry journal.鈥�
鈥擝arbara Caron
Read Villa鈥檚 article, 鈥淐elebrating Native Chemists and Encouraging More Native Talent in STEM鈥� at .