Ubuntu
Ubuntu is a concept that is integral to our understanding of what it means to be human.
The late Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that ubuntu means that, “My humanity is caught up in yours. I am fully me if you are all you can be.”
Mungi Ngomane, Tutu’s granddaughter, teaches that ubuntu requires one to choose to see the wider perspective, have dignity and respect for yourself and others, listen so you can hear, see yourself in other people, find strength in unity, and seek ways to connect.
Our Team
We are an engaged group of scientists and clinicians, and we each bring different life experiences, interests, goals and skills to our lab community. Although we have different backgrounds and aspirations, we share a common goal – to do clinically meaningful and rigorous science, and, more broadly, to do things that challenge us and improve the lives of others.
Our Focus
Our research focuses are 1) understanding the underlying mechanisms of dizziness and balance disorders and 2) improving the health outcomes for people affected by vestibular dysfunction. To those ends, we use a combination of physiological, behavioral, and perceptual methods to answer questions related to how the vestibular system works and to develop or test novel interventions for dizziness and imbalance.
Lab Compact
Fundamental Principles
We are a community, and we take care of each other.
Sometimes, science is perceived as being a solitary endeavor. Doing good team science requires collaboration and support at each step. We need to show empathy and compassion towards one another. We take care of each other, help each other when we can and provide support when we cannot.
We ask questions.
Everyone needs to ask questions about what we observe, how we do things and where we should be headed. In science, it is better to ask how to do something than to guess and do it wrong.
We try to be resilient.
Team science is hard. Often, things do not work the first time, or the second, or the fourteenth. To be productive, we must get our work critiqued, and we must accept failure when it happens. We recognize that this is a part of science, and we move forward shaped by our experiences.
We are human.
Although we try not to do so, making mistakes is inevitable. Rather than hide or feel shame, we are committed to recognizing when we should have done something differently, and we are willing to learn from that to do better in the future.
We must care for ourselves first to be able to care for others.
At times, science is all-consuming, and discovery can be exhilarating. However, good team science requires creativity and commitment that only comes if we are healthy and well. This requires reflection on our own needs and occasionally stepping back from our work to give ourselves space to take care of ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, or spiritually.
Commitment to Belonging
A person’s identity includes how they define themselves but also how they are viewed by the world. Identities are complex, intertwined and dynamic. Some identities are visible and others are not. You may define your identity based on your race, age, ability, ethnicity, level of education, career stage, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, gender, religious beliefs, family status and more. Although we come from different places and are at different stages of our careers, you are in the lab because you also have a science identity, meaning that you identify, at least to some extent, as a scientist. This does not necessarily mean that you want to have a career as a scientist, but, right now, you want to contribute to science and to learn. We support each member of the lab as they build the skills and confidence to solidify and define their science identity. However, our science identities are just part of who we are, and we support each other as whole human beings.
We acknowledge our biases.
We all have biases, many of which come from a lack of understanding of people with identities of which we are not closely familiar. Some biases are unconscious. We each do our best to recognize our biases and go beyond them to support one another. We also recognize that, beyond the walls of our lab, our lab members may face challenges in science and in society because they are marginalized. We will support them and work to help remove barriers to their success.
Health, Well-Being and Work-Life Balance:
Work-Life Balance:
We have lives and commitments outside of our lab. Whether these commitments are classes, volunteering, hobbies or relationships, they are an important part of our humanness. For your science to come to fruition, for your thesis to be completed, for your grant to get submitted, for your career to develop, you will have weeks that require a lot of work. Because of the nature of school (or work) and of science, some periods require substantial time investment. Think of balancing everything as something that happens over longer time scales (months, years) rather than shorter time scales (days, weeks). Burn out does not happen over the course of days but over these longer time scales. You need to be cognizant of balancing those times when you are working long hours with times of less work so that you do not burn out.
Sometimes science takes a lot of time, but you are not a better scientist just because you put more time into it. So, do not judge your success, productivity or commitment by the number of hours that you are in the lab. Instead, consider what you have accomplished and what commitment you are demonstrating through your work.
Time working on projects and writing outside the lab can be extremely productive and important. Time in the lab, however, is important to move forward on research, to receive help from the lab and to be part of the lab community. You will need to find the right balance of time in and out of the lab, but you need to be in the lab enough, during normal working hours, to interact with our community. In general, you should be on campus during business hours. However necessary and important, time outside the lab affects your science.
In general, graduate students, fellows and staff should be working about forty hours a week on their research project(s) (and, as grad students, taking classes required for their scientific and professional development). This includes time reading, writing and mentoring others. It also includes time helping with other lab commitments (e.g., lab maintenance, outreach, attending seminars and lab meetings). Because of the nature of science, some weeks will be a lot more than this. Others, therefore, may be a little less.
In general, undergraduates must commit to working on their research projects a minimum of 8 hours a week. If conducting research for credit, you are required to work on your project 12 to 16 hours a week. Initially, this time will need to overlap with the working hours of those training you. Eventually, you will have more flexibility as you gain greater scientific independence.
Take time off! Do not feel guilty about taking a vacation or going to see family. These breaks should be planned and coordinated with your mentors and me. Oddly, there is no clear standard in academia, but two weeks is probably a good target and is aligned with vacation time in other professions. This includes time away over Emory’s winter break.
Mental and Physical Well Being:
Chronic illness, whether mental or physical, is a struggle that many scientists face at some point during their academic and professional careers. If you are struggling and need help, ask for it. We may not be able to provide the direct help that you need, but we can work to help you identify what resources are available for you. If you recognize a change in someone that may reflect a change in their well-being, talk to them about it, or, if you are not comfortable with that, tell me.
Mentoring
Mentoring is a collaborative (two-way) learning relationship. The primary goal is to help mentees acquire and develop the essential skills needed for their chosen professional path. Mentoring is shaped by one’s experiences. Each mentee has unique needs, which will vary based on the nature of the relationship and on individual differences. Mentees will require different things at different times, and mentors will vary in their capacity to meet these needs. A successful mentor-mentee relationship is dynamic and reflective.
Mentoring happens at many levels in the lab. As PI, ultimately, I am a mentor to everyone. Many undergraduates also work with highly committed graduate students, research specialists and fellows.
Here are components of what I, and other mentors in the lab, will try to provide. We will…
- help you define your goals at the outset and at regular intervals throughout your training
- guide you as you take on new challenges
- talk with you about career goals and support your professional development to meet these goals
- listen to you about new ideas and possible directions
- provide constructive and timely feedback on your work
- provide support when you are struggling
- help you meet other scientists and professionals
- promote and acknowledge your contributions to our research
Effective mentoring requires good communication.
Mentoring requires active communication on both the part of the mentor and the mentee. Each mentor in the lab must strive to build a relationship that allows a mentee to feel comfortable expressing their needs. Each mentee must be willing to articulate what they need help with and what challenges they are facing. Regular meetings are important for communication. I am committed to ensuring that everyone in the lab meets with at least one mentor regularly. These meetings should be grounded in two-way communication.
My Commitment to You:
I have many personal commitments to family, friends, and other organizations. Although I also have responsibilities to teach and serve within the Emory University, the profession of Physical Therapy, and the broader scientific community, my biggest professional commitment is to our lab. With this in mind, I want to support you to the best of my ability.
I care about each member of our team; however, I may not always know what to say or what to do, even when I know something is wrong. I also may not recognize that you need something unless you ask.
I commit to:
- help you define goals at the outset and at regular intervals throughout your training
- guide you as you take on new challenges
- provide, to the best of my ability, constructive and timely feedback on your work
- communicate with you openly and kindly about your strengths and weaknesses and my own
- meet with you at least once a week when I am in Atlanta
- help you meet other scientists and professionals
- promote and acknowledge your contributions to research
- listen to what you need and, as I am able, assist you in meeting your needs
- support you or help you find support when you are struggling
- to the best of my ability, do what I say that I am going to do
Your Path:
There are many tracks to a successful career. Your career path does not need to, nor will it likely, resemble mine. Regardless of what you want to do next or whether you know what you want to do next, I will support your professional development to the best of my ability. Although I cannot give you all my time, and sometimes, I will not have all the time that you need, I will do my best to accommodate your needs.
Your Commitment:
My expectations for students and trainees are that you will…
- complete and maintain all necessary regulatory training and competencies
- remain in compliance with all University, local, state, and federal requirements
- be intellectually invested in your research
- ask questions and strive to place your work in a broader context
- take increasing responsibility for defining questions and goals as you develop as a scientist
- work hard towards your professional goals while also trying to maintain a sustainable balance of commitment to science and to your life outside science
- commit to communicating with me openly and kindly, about your strengths and weaknesses and my own
- talk to me if something is not working for you
- be compassionate and respectful towards all members of the lab, recognizing that peers, mentors or I may be facing challenges that you cannot see
- try hard things
- hold yourself to a high standard
- to the best of your ability, be on time and respectful of other’s time
- openly communicate when you think you have made a mistake
- commit to not being careless with our lab’s human, financial, space, hardware, and software resources
- to the best of your ability, do what you say you are going to do
- follow all safety precautions and applicable standard operating procedures
- recommend changes to policies, procedures, and methods that will improve our workflows
- keep our lab spaces clean and organized, cleaning up after yourself and others as needed
- be fully present, active and engaged in lab meetings and discussions and, at the same time, make space for others to do the same
- maintain the highest level of precision related to data collection
- to the best of your ability, keep the lab free of distraction during data collection and analysis
- treat our equipment like you would treat a family heirloom
- take care of each piece of data like it is a piece of gold
- treat human participants with kindness and respect
- maintain the confidentiality of our human participants, always using appropriate safeguards for protected health and identifying information
- report any possible unexpected findings, adverse events, serious adverse events, non-compliance, breach of confidentiality or research misconduct
- complete any work necessary to facilitate the dissemination of research to which you are a contributing author, regardless of whether you are still in the lab or have moved on
- read and abide by the Grove Lab (AVPL) Compact