National Postdoctoral Association

The NPA Diversity Statement

The National Postdoctoral Association seeks to promote diversity and ensure equal opportunity and inclusion for all postdocs in the membership, leadership and activities of the National Postdoctoral Association regardless of race, ethnicity, sex, disability, national origin, socio-economic status, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

The NPA Diversity Officer

The NPA is committed to addressing the diversity issues in the postdoc community.  To assist in this effort, the NPA created the position of Diversity Officer.  The Diversity Officer serves as the public face of Diversity Postdoc issues for the NPA and is the primary resource and expert advisor for the NPA Board of Directors, the staff, and committees.

The specific responsibilities of the NPA Diversity Officer include the following:

• Assist in the development and maintenance of NPA resources on diversity.
• Advocate for increased diversity among postdoctoral scholars, ensuring the needs of under-represented groups are addressed.
• Maintain and expand relationships with federal agencies and national organizations that have an interest in diversity issues and policies.
• Monitor external policies and developments on diversity issues.
• Address public inquiries on the NPA policies and recommended practices on increasing and maintaining diversity within the postdoc community.

Meet Our Diversity Officers

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, Ph.D.
(Contact)

Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, Ph.D., serves as director of Postdoctoral Affairs in the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She brings more than 15 years experience in higher education administration. Her expertise is in serving and supporting the success of international, women and underrepresented racial and ethnic students and postdoctoral scholars. Previously, she served as assistant dean of Students and Assistant Dean in the Office of Student Academic Counseling at North Carolina. In addition, she served as an associate dean of student affairs at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. Prior to her return to North Carolina, she served as a clinical faculty member in education and dean of advising at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia. Thompkins has been an active member of the NPA serving on the Diversity Committee and as the NPA's first Diversity Officer. Presently, she serves on the UNC Provost's Committees on the Diversity Pipeline and LBGTQ Life, the Advisory Board of the UNC School of Medicine's Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD) Program, the Advisory Group for the NPA ADVANCE Project (From Postdoc to Faculty: Transition Issues for Women Scientists) and the Postdoctoral Committee on Science, Engineering and Public Policy of the National Academies charged with reporting the State of the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers Revisited.

Thompkins completed her Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University (GSU). Additionally, she holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in Communication Studies from Carolina and a master's degree in Educational Research (Ethnography and Qualitative Methods) from GSU.

Alexandra Corrales, Ph.D.
(Contact)

Alexandra Corrales, Ph.D., completed her undergraduate training in Biology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Bogota, and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology from Stony Brook University (SBU), NY in 2009.  She is currently the NSF-AGEP postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Inclusive Education in Stony Brook University where she has dedicated her time to the evaluation of the SUNY AGEP program.  The goal of this evaluation project is to analyze the conditions required for the institutionalization of the most effective policies and practices that emerged through the Alliance for the Graduate Education and de Professoriate in NY State.  Since 2010 she participates in the Stony Brook University Assessment Subcommittee who is developing a university plan to guide academic program-level assessment.  Her current interest is to obtain experience with scholarly activities designed to facilitate research and professional development experiences for underrepresented minority and disadvantaged students; specifically research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation.