Established in 2016, the Underrepresented Postdocs group at Columbia University (URPostdocs) seeks to unite underrepresented postdocs (Women, Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, and persons with disabilities, etc.) into one group. Despite the diverse background of the members, the mission of the group is to form a cohesive network that will work together to highlight URPostdocs distinct contributions, promote awareness of issues that are important to all URPostdocs and encourage participation and recruitment of new members. The group is committed to advocate and find means to improve recruitment, retention and mentoring of URPostdocs to aid in the development of successful careers both in academic and non-academic settings. With the same commitment that URPostdocs seeks to educate within the Columbia community, the group also seeks to educate the public through outreach activities. An important goal of the URPostdocs group is to provide a platform for the participating members to develop a variety of skills crucial in any career, such as confidence, leadership, teamwork, communication, teaching and networking among others.
