Since then, he’s moved into a slightly bigger lab at Yale to study telomeres. As a physician scientist and professor of laboratory medicine, pathology and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Chang also serves as the Yale College associate dean for science & quantitative reasoning education. He founded the Science, Technology and Research Scholars program, or STARS, for underrepresented minorities in STEM, revamped STEM recruitment, teaches first year seminars and diagnoses cancer patients as a pathologist, all while running his NIH-funded lab. 

“When I came to Yale, I knew I always wanted to be a scientist, and that passion never changed,” Chang said. 

Chang immigrated to the United States from Taiwan when was seven. Though he grew up eyeing astronomy, molecular biology ultimately hooked him. He was fascinated by rapid advances in cloning research — as if “a new era of biological science was happening.” He came to Yale College for its Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department, where he met a FroCo pursuing an MD/PhD program. Realizing how physician-scientists could bridge research with clinical application, Chang started on the same path. 

After spending his undergraduate days doing research at two Yale labs, Chang went on to receive his PhD in cell biology from Rockefeller University in 1996. A year later, he finished an MD at Cornell University Medical School before a postdoctoral residency in Boston and a medical job at the Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. After 22 years of country-trotting, he found himself back at Yale, recruited as a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, where he then spent his days working toward tenure.

“The academic rat race is getting tenure,” Chang said, with a laugh. “But once I got tenured, I felt like I could now have the ability to do … something else.”

So he expanded beyond working with medical students: he helped teach a first-year seminar called “Perspectives in Biological Research,” which brought in professors from STEM fields to talk to students about their research. Realizing his fondness for interacting with undergraduates — especially as a Yale College alum himself — Chang later went on to direct the class.

But Chang also recognized that the Perspectives class was not accessible to everyone. For one, students had to have high school research experience to secure a spot.

“What if you are a late bloomer, what if you never had the ability to do high school research?” Chang asked. “So I said, ‘why don’t I start a class targeting students who…  may not have any kind of research background?’”

In response, he began the class “Topics in Cancer Biology,” an open first-year seminar in which students learn to read scientific papers and write their own grant proposals. This class marked just the beginning of Chang’s journey toward expanding STEM education at Yale. 

When Chang started his deanship, only 70 undergraduates opted to stay at Yale over the summer to conduct research. Over his tenure, he’s expanded that number to around 300. 

Now, over a hundred of those students come from underrepresented backgrounds. Today, Chang’s STARS program aspires to elevate students from diverse, disadvantaged backgrounds — especially those who have never done research. Through STARS, Chang aims to improve performance and persistence rates of historically represented students in STEM through mentorship, research funding, networking and career planning.

“I think the legacy I would love to leave is that for my short time here, I made Yale undergraduate research much more egalitarian,” Chang said.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, Chang can be found having an 8 a.m. breakfast at Silliman. He might be joined by a student, or multiple, who sit across from him listening to his animated conversation. Hannah Cevasco ’23, one of Chang’s mentees, emphasized his lighthearted humor during these conversations.

“He bought a bearded dragon from someone on Craigslist,” Cevasco said of Chang, “and it reminded me of Hagrid in Harry Potter when he got that dragon from a guy down at the pub.” 

Cevasco recalled how Chang emailed her about his new pet named “Scar” and urged her to pay a visit to see him. Students characterized his mentor-mentee relationship as one marked by  familiarity and friendliness.

“He’s very approachable to students, and I think that’s why they feel very comfortable [around him],” Donalee Slater — assistant director of science and quantitative reasoning — told the News. 

Devin Lin ’24 said he was “very lucky” and “truly honored” to have met and learned from Chang — someone he calls a teacher, friend and mentor — through various courses and programs. 

In spring of 2021, Lin took Chang’s course, Topics in Cancer Biology, before participating in the STARS I program and STARS Summer Program. Eventually, Lin became a STARS Mentor in the STARS I program.

“Dean Chang has left lasting influences on me,” Lin said. “His Topics in Cancer Biology class is still one of my favorite classes that I took at Yale. … He achieved what I called a ‘delicate balance’ as an instructor, being able to challenge us and help the students grow, while simultaneously making sure we are not overwhelmed.”

Lin further described the broader impact Chang has made on the Yale community with regard to the STARS programs. The 2022-23 STARS I cohort, he noted, is 200 students — double the number of students from the 2020-21 cohort.

According to Lin, Chang advocated for the expansion of the program and raised funding. As a result, Chang was able to accept around 95 percent of the applications to the Yale College First-Year Summer Research Fellowship in the Sciences & Engineering — a program that provides first-years funding for a summer of research at Yale.

But Chang’s relationships with his mentees run deeper than classes, research programs and advising meetings. 

“He was the first professor I had at Yale that made an outward effort to really get to know his students beyond just the surface level,” one of his mentees, Caitlin Brown ’25, said.

Cevasco emphasized how Chang invites his students to attend basketball games and to grab dinner at Ezra Stiles, his residential college when he was an undergrad. Chang even knew all the players by name, Cevasco remarked. At games, he transforms “from a super intellectual professor to the loudest fan,” and tells his students to remain standing and cheer until Yale scores. 

He was not always this way — Chang described himself as “a geek” growing up, “antisocial” and buried in his microscopes. But college taught him to embrace both the academic and the fun. Chang reflected fondly on the “amazing dance parties,” which he attended every weekend, hosted by the Asian American Student Alliance.

Today, Chang hopes to enliven the STEM community in the same way. From offering pre-med advice over Whale Tea boba, and to weighing in on students’ aspirations at Geronimo, Chang emphasizes how a simple meal can bring people together. 

In fact, Chang met his wife, Anna, while he was working through his MD/PhD and she was in business school. Set up by a mutual friend, they chatted over dinner and then watched a Chinese movie called “Liang Zhu.” Called “The Butterfly Lovers” in English, it’s the most famous Chinese love story, said Chang.

At Yale, he placed into graduate level Chinese and took a course on Chinese poetry. Chang loved reading Wuxia novels and recalled reading the whole selection of Kung Fu books at Sterling Library.

“[My first year], I was totally burnt out before my final exams, so I bought all these Kung Fu novels,” Chang said. “I said, ‘I’m going to read these during reading period, I’m not going to study.’ So, thank God for my roommate, they hid it and said ‘you better go get your work done.’”

Slater described Chang as one of the “most energetic” people she knew. Slater, who has worked alongside Chang for six years, reiterated his dedication to each student’s journey. 

“Students are always asking him, ‘Can you be my advisor?’” Slater explained. “He just makes a huge investment in every student and wants to help them succeed.”

Chang’s office, where his bearded dragon resides, is located in Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall at 1 Prospect St. 

The post PROFILE: From Taiwan to Yale, Sandy Chang shoots for the STARS appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Welcome to the News’ special issue celebrating Latinx Heritage Month! We are thrilled to showcase content centered on Latinx members of our community — including profiles, spoken word poetry, photography and illustrations.

We hope you enjoy these pieces and share them with your broader communities. The work reflected in this special issue has been produced by people both within and outside of the News, and we would like to offer a special note of thanks to guest contributors who submitted content specifically for this issue: Zenaida Aguirre Gutierrez ’24, Anna Chamberlin ’26, Michelle Foley ’25, Kassie Navarrete ’25 and Luana Prado Oliveira Souza ’26.

As editors of this special issue, we want to acknowledge that this is the first time in recent institutional memory that the Yale Daily News has produced and printed a full special issue for Latinx Heritage Month. There are three primary reasons for this — none of them adequate. 

First, a historical lack of representation of Latinx people in the newsroom contributes to these perspectives often being left out of coverage. But it is not the burden of people of marginalized backgrounds to be the sole voices advocating for their communities — this coverage is long overdue, and it should happen whether or not Latinx individuals in our newsroom decide to do so themselves. 

Second, our Board has historically turned over in the middle of September, right at the start of Latinx Heritage Month. The News has a history of pursuing initiatives related to diversity and inclusion if and when it is convenient for leadership. This is unacceptable, and we strive to make change. 

And third, overall, the News has historically not had the infrastructure, vision or effort dedicated toward appropriately covering marginalized groups, with the attention and care they deserve. As members of the News stepping into new leadership roles, we apologize. The News commits to learning more, working harder and doing better to include more Latinx voices in our paper — both as part of our staff and in the content we produce 

We recognize that significant work still needs to be done toward appropriately uplifting Latinx and representing Latinx voices. This issue, still, is not fully representative, as many Latinx identities and backgrounds are not included. Our coverage of these communities is not, and will not be, restricted to this issue, and we intend to ensure that diverse communities are consistently part of our daily coverage. 

Thank you to the members of the News — including reporters, desk editors, copy editors, production and design editors, audience editors, photographers, illustrators and management — who contributed their time and efforts to the creation of this issue.  

And thank you to you, our audience, for your readership! We welcome any feedback — please feel free to contact us at editor@yaledailynews.com, or to reach out to us individually at the email addresses below. 

Anika Seth ’25 

University staff reporter, Production & Design editor and co-chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the News

Paloma Vigil ’25

University staff reporter and Sports staff reporter

Sophie Wang ’25

Science & Technology editor and co-chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the News

The post Welcome to the Lifting Up Latinx Identity special issue! appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Latinx educators are pushing the bounds of human knowledge while inspiring and guiding students through mentorship in a wide range of roles, from professor to head of college.

Assistant professor Martha Muñoz,  and professors Enrique M. De La Cruz,  Daniel Colón-Ramos are three professors whose identities have been foundational to their research, impacts and future goals. As they continue to conduct groundbreaking research and serve in leadership roles at Yale, they strive to increase diversity and inclusion in academia. 

“[My background] contributes to how I view research and my roles as an academic and a scientist, and it certainly contributes to my dedication and commitment to science and teaching,” De La Cruz said. “I’m well aware that I am lucky to be here … I also recognize that I’m here because of others’ goodwill and … I understand that I am very privileged now, and I intend to use this privilege in a form of service to help others achieve their goals and experience things they may not even be able to imagine because they don’t know what it is.”

Martha Muñoz, assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology

Growing up in a tiny apartment in New York City, Muñoz rarely experienced the natural world. Yet her imagination ran wild during visits to museums, which she saw as magical places. 

“It’s a real act of love for me, the way that collections and museums can stimulate wonder and curiosity in people and connect them to the natural world,” Muñoz said. “[And they] very much fuel the beating heart of science.”

Muñoz also serves as an Assistant Curator at the Yale Peabody Museum, but growing up, she hadn’t known that there were scientists in the museums, seeing scientists as an abstract concept — an “elite group of folks.” 

At her middle school in Queens, she was one of the few Hispanic kids. According to her, it was a burdensome feat to even have access to good schools, especially for those new to the country and trying to escape poverty, as her parents’ generation had. 

“My grandmother never got a break,” Muñoz said. “She went straight from working to the bone to raising both me and my sister. If I had had the privilege I would have given her a much more peaceful retirement.”

In her first year at Boston University, Muñoz discovered “real science” as a work study student in a neurophysiology lab led by Ayako Yamaguchi. Muñoz learned of the struggles Yamaguchi experienced coming to the U.S. and drew parallels to her own Cuban American experience.

“She was just really energetic, surprisingly relatable, surprisingly human,” Muñoz said. “I thought scientists were these superhuman beings who couldn’t possibly be as human as the rest of us.”

Muñoz went on to earn a doctorate degree at Harvard University while working with collections in their Museum of Comparative Zoology.

Now, her research asks how the organisms themselves can influence evolution as it does not proceed evenly, Muñoz explained. Sometimes evolution can be rapid, sometimes there can be lineages with lots of species — and sometimes neither occurs. 

“I knew in particular that I wanted to work in Latin America because I wanted to, in a sense, go home and connect to that part of myself by studying evolution and organisms that were found there,” Muñoz said.

Though now an award-winning biologist with a successful lab under her belt, she had to overcome self-doubt. Muñoz sees imposter syndrome as the natural doubt people experience amplified by societal pressures — such as a “societally induced toxicity” from not seeing anyone who looked like her in a certain space. 

She said to disregard the societal pressures that amplify doubt, but also allow the voice of doubt to ground yourself, while still holding onto the voice of the dreamer who maps out somewhere greater to go. 

“The way I see it, there’s nothing I’ve done or could do with my life that could ever match the sacrifice, commitment and effort of my parents and my grandparents,” Muñoz said. “They were heroes, they went through real struggle.” 

Enrique De La Cruz, professor and chair of the department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry

De La Cruz’s passion for his field of study began when he was an undergraduate studying biology at Rutgers University. 

After taking physical chemistry, he realized that he wanted to work in a chemistry lab and joined the program called the Minority Biomedical Research Support Program, an NIH funded program that helped members of underrepresented groups get lab experience. 

De La Cruz recalled having “very supportive” advisors and the “liberty of having a job,” which made it possible for him to transition from working in a biology laboratory to a chemical one. 

Beginning as a graduate student, De La Cruz has strived to increase diversity in science and in education. As a graduate student, trainee and postdoctoral student, he “focused on teaching and [facilitating] workships.” He also mentored postdoctoral students, other graduate students and even elementary school students.

As a professor, he has continued with those same efforts and has formally mentored members of underrepresented groups in institutions beyond Yale. De La Cruz — who serves as the head of Branford College — noted that, on campus, he has the ability to provide individual attention by mentoring students one-on-one in the lab, classroom or residential college.

“I’ve tried to be active and done what I could along the way … it just seemed natural to care for people who didn’t have the same opportunities,” De La Cruz said. “My family is from Cuba, and I know … the difference when you have the opportunity.”

Last month, De La Cruz and Colón-Ramos were named two of the one hundred most inspiring Hispanic/Latinx scientists in America. 

De La Cruz described his approach to leadership as the same for all his roles, from department chair of molecular biophysics and biochemistry (MB&B) to head of Branford college. He said that “first and foremost, … lose the ego.” In addition, he “strives to be the first among equals,” “lead by example” and to not ask other people to do what he isn’t able or willing to do himself. 

“It’s very important that I do serve as an example for what a scientist looks like and where scientists could come from,” De La Cruz said. 

De La Cruz noted that feeling “unprepared or unqualified” can be a challenge. He mentioned how many people might share this struggle and advises people to be just as fair to themselves as their loved ones would be. 

Daniel Colón-Ramos, Dorys McConnell Duberg professor of neuroscience and cell biology

To Colón-Ramos, science is for the people.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, he derived inspiration from the tropical environment. As an undergraduate at Harvard, he traveled to Central America to work with Indigenous groups living in rainforests. 

His senior thesis explored the use of medicinal plants by Indigenous groups near the watershed area of the Panama Canal. But Colón-Ramos was not satisfied by just knowing the identity of the “invisible [chemical] compounds” in the plants: he realized that his brain naturally wanted to know why the leaves caused the effects described, getting closer to the root of the science. 

He entered a graduate program at Duke University, where his experiences in Central America equipped him to maneuver the research setting and communicate his science. To Colón-Ramos, science is not a solitary process, it relates to “our shared human experience.” 

At Yale, his lab uses the transparent model worm C. elegans to investigate neurons. His lab is able to visualize neurons “talking” to each other. Colón-Ramos is proud to contribute knowledge to better understand the nervous system and how it goes awry in disease.

A committed mentor, Colón-Ramos compared students to “high performing athletes” as they progressed from consuming knowledge to producing it. In his mind, for students to overcome hurdles, they have to find their pace. 

Colón-Ramos has hosted science workshops across the world and collaborated with other scientists in Puerto Rico to spearhead mentoring programs. He helped lead a scientific coalition that advised Puerto Rico’s governor during the process of delivering massive vaccinations during the pandemic. Drawing on his knowledge of scientific findings, he advises policies that affect the lives of millions, which he considers one of the most beautiful experiences he has ever had. 

“I still get letters from people afterwards thanking me for making the information accessible, for being able to explain it,” Colón-Ramos said. “I would have never imagined that the skill sets that I had as a scientist would be valuable in that way.”

The post Latinx professors at Yale break barriers in STEM appeared first on Yale Daily News.

The Elm City Bioscience Center will now house three bioscience companies in new state-of-the-art facilities that officials hope will meet what they say is growing demand for lab space. Located at 55 Church St., the eight-story building joins a host of similar planned facilities in the downtown area that have sprung up in recent years.

A ribbon-cutting event on Sept. 14 brought together community members, scientists and investors dedicated to developing biotechnological drugs and breakthroughs for cancer patients. The biotech organizations — Modifi Biosciences, Siduma Therapeutics and Alphina Therapeutics — are focused on harnessing cutting-edge science and new discoveries to develop clinical treatments for the most aggressive and fatal illnesses. 

“Cancer though, I will tell you today, is a solvable problem,” said Ranjit Bindra, a physician-scientist at Yale School of Medicine. “We can actually figure this out, but it takes these buildings, these people, leadership and people like all of you here today to make this possible.”

The opening of this building comes during a time when New Haven is committing greater efforts to expanding its biotech industry. Many officials believe that the bioscience industry has huge growth potential and could become a crucial part of the city’s economy. 

Alexion Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in New Haven, focuses on developing drugs for treating rare diseases and is seen as an anchor point for a potential hub. The biotechnology company Arvinas has also signed a 10-year lease to occupy space in the tower, while the software imaging company Invicro occupies one floor of the building. 

There have been speed bumps – in a surprise move, Alexion relocated its headquarters from New Haven to Boston in 2018 and was forced to return millions it had received in state aid. Its research operations remained in New Haven at 100 College Street, and the company is planning to expand into a second tower across the street at 101 College, though no specific details have been released about what additional jobs are going to be offered. 

Yale, too, is contributing to these developments geared towards biotech expansion. The University signed a lease for approximately half of the space in the Alexion tower and is financially backing an on-site biotech incubator there.

Bindra highlighted the slow-progression of drug development for cancer patients and his experience with caring for his father when he had cancer, recounting his father’s wish for more advanced cancer drugs to be developed at a faster rate. That propelled Bindra into biotechnology, he said, as a field that could “accelerate something at the speed of light.”

Mayor Justin Elicker praised the new center’s opening and highlighted the work of David Goldbum, whose real estate firm The Hurley Group managed the renovation and development of the space.

Goldbum, principal and chief executive officer of The Hurley Group, was honored for his hard work in establishing this space for the advancement of science and New Haven’s economic development. 

“The type of person [David is] is something we all aspire to be,” said Elicker.  “[He] live[s] [his] life with [his] personal actions but also with a goal to maximize [his] impact.”

Elicker highlighted the Elm City Bioscience center’s contributions to economic and employment growth as well as its invaluable health benefits for the New Haven community and abroad. As someone who “prioritize[s] growth and inclusive growth,” Elicker appeared enthusiastic about the investments in medical research and the New Haven community, along with the growth possibilities following the opening of the Elm City Bioscience Center.

Paul Lafferty, a father whose child was diagnosed with cancer, attended this event as a patient advocate and to highlight how his family has benefited from these scientific discoveries to obtain regression in cancerous tumors. 

“Cancer is scary [and] brain tumors are terrifying,” Lafferty said. “They are in the most precious part of our body — hard to remove and hard to get medicine to and sometimes they can be very aggressive.” 

Lafferty exemplified his greatest appreciation for oncologists at Yale who have been instrumental in assisting his family face this battle against cancer.

In recognizing the privilege and opportunity afforded to Avery, Lafferty’s daughter, to receive specialized treatment and participate in clinical trials for some of the drugs these companies are in the process of developing, Lafferty noted that not every patient has the same medical access. 

“The hard part is not all patients are as lucky as Avery,” Lafferty said. They don’t have time for long big-pharma development cycles. They need innovative approaches to solve these problems. They need development timelines measured in months, not years.” 

Alexion Pharmaceuticals was founded in 1992.

The post New bioscience center opens downtown appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Earlier that day, 23-year-old Billy ingested a “white powder” that was unknowingly laced with fentanyl. Local first-aid responders administered him naloxone and rushed him to the hospital. 

Instead of receiving an additional naloxone dose, however, Billy spent seven hours lying unattended in the ambulance bay of the hospital. Security footage shows people walking by him all night. Around 2 a.m. on May 11, a nurse found that he had been experiencing a cardiac arrest for an unknown period of time. 

Despite bringing his pulse back, medical professionals pronounced Billy brain dead the next day. Billy’s family is now pursuing legal action against YNHH, under the representation of Sean McElligott LAW ’01.

“My son was a victim,” said Billy’s mother, Tina Darnsteadt. 

“When you lose someone, the grieving process is different for everybody. But with the nature of how my brother passed, he didn’t just die — he was killed,” Billy’s sister Rebecca Miller said. 

After Billy was taken to the hospital, Rebecca called three times to check up on him. Every time, she was reassured with “no tone of concern” that he was in an ambulance bay within the hospital — leading her to believe that there was no immediate cause for familial intervention. 

Moreover, earlier that same day, Darnsteadt thought Billy sounded normal on a phone call while in an ambulance on the way to the hospital. He had just been given naloxone, a drug that reverses fentanyl’s potency but is unable to outlive fentanyl in the human body system, thus requiring it to be readministered. 

The miscommunication was not just logistical –– Billy’s family members were not aware of the complicated biological relationship between fentanyl and naloxone. Had they been properly informed by hospital staff, they said, they would have been more vigilant in their pursuit of updates and answers in the hours leading to Billy’s death. Darnsteadt characterized the communication from YNHH as “unacceptable.” 

“Yale New Haven Hospital is aware of this lawsuit and is committed to providing the safest and highest quality of care possible,” YNHH Media Coordinator Mark D’Antonio wrote in a statement. “However, even in the best organizations gaps in care may occur … We have offered our sincere apologies to the family of the patient and are working towards a resolution.”

The Miller family is basing their suit on the grounds of neglect, nontransparent communication between hospital administration and patient family members, as well as the potential overarching stigmas confronting overdose patients at the hospital.

“I can’t understand how it could be acceptable that there could be ‘gaps in care,’ and I think seven hours is a disgusting gap in care,” Darnsteadt said. She described the hospital’s statement as “[not] a sensitive comment to what happened to my son or my family.” 

Despite the lawsuit, Billy’s family said, persistent frustration harbored toward the hospital is not going to alleviate their pain. 

Darnsteadt and Rebecca are focusing their efforts on increasing public advocacy on proper hospital procedures and tackling stigmas surrounding drug addiction. Darnsteadt said she plans to distribute literature that encourages seeing “addiction as a disease” and providing suggestions as to how family members can inquire about a hospitalized loved one’s status. The family also hopes to raise medical, public and legislative awareness of the importance of unbiased medical practice and Fentanyl-testing strips.

The family is in the early stages of determining how they can push existing legislation to include fentanyl toxicity occurrence and combat medical malpractice surrounding addiction amid an ongoing national fentanyl epidemic and opioid crisis. 

“We truly don’t know how many other victims there just might be and why,” said Darnsteadt. “You’re in a hospital to feel safe. My son wanted to be there. He didn’t lose his patience … and he was scared that it happened to him but he felt that it was okay. It’s an absolute nightmare.” 

Darnsteadt said that all of Billy’s organs were viable and donated. One of his kidneys even happened to be a perfect match for a family friend. 

“He saved lives, and we’re gonna just keep his name going and advocate and educate,” said Darnsteadt. “It is emotional … [he] saved li[ves], but my son should be here today.” 

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline is 1-800-662-4357. 

The post “It’s an absolute nightmare”: Family of deceased son sues YNHH for neglect appeared first on Yale Daily News.

Emme Magliato ’23, executive director, and Krishna Koka, a junior at the University of Michigan and CEO of PPE4ALL, started the organization in Poughkeepsie, NY. Since the organization’s founding, the team has distributed 566 separate donations of PPE, such as face masks, face shields, hand sanitizer, gloves, gowns and alcohol wipes to 399 different communities in the U.S. These recipients have included free clinics, homeless shelters, food pantries, mental health centers, community centers, schools, hospitals and people in low-income housing. 

“The work that we’re doing now is on a national scale, and it’s one that incorporates a lot of different people and students alike,” Magliato said. “Our focus is to bring PPE completely for free to folks who are most in need and to those who are most marginalized and at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic … [and that] is a value that we have carried on to this day.”

When students were sent home from campus at the start of the pandemic, Koka noticed that New York was especially affected and that supply chains for PPE were down. As a result, he and Magliato began to partner with architectural firms in the city to 3D print face shields. Once the supply chain slowly began to recover, the organization moved to rely more on PPE donations from companies. 

Tenzin Dhondup ’26, the outreach director of PPE4ALL, explained that the organization sources donors such as private companies that can provide large amounts of PPE. To identify communities most in need, the organization notes the average cases per 100,000 people in each county nationally to determine the counties that have the highest transmission and case rates. 

After identifying those counties, the team researches specific locations that might be most in need of PPE, such as homeless shelters and low-income housing. The team also serves members who directly request PPE from PPE4ALL.

Magliato highlighted a collaboration with Bona Fide Masks that began a few months ago, which features a 100,000 mask donation program. According to Magliato, these masks will be donated to and distributed by non-profit organizations all over the nation, including Impact Services in Philadelphia and NorCal Resist in Sacramento.

“I’m really grateful to be in the position that I’m in where I get to interact with so many people, and we are the only folks that are supporting them in this way,” Magliato said. “The relationships we’ve been able to build, both as a team, but then also with the people that we serve, are the things that keep me going every day when things are hard.”

In terms of future work, the team noted that it wishes to focus on the sustainability of the organization, specifically in terms of sponsorship and funding. 

“Our goal is pushing forward, knowing that while COVID-19 is disappearing from the news and being talked about less, there are so many communities that are still actively being harmed by COVID-19,” said Dhondup. “There’s always going to be a need for [PPE] … and PPE is still in demand based on the fact that we get daily requests from individuals, community members and nonprofits.” 

Koka noted that when in-person events resumed, he was concerned that the organization would not survive the transition. However, he found that this was not the case.

Magliato said that many other PPE distribution organizations stopped their services before the outbreak of the Omicron variant, but that PPE4ALL has continued. 

According to the CDC COVID Data Tracker, on Sep. 1, there were 85,761 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. 

The post Student volunteer-run organization donates nearly 200,000 pieces of PPE across the U.S. appeared first on Yale Daily News.

A team at the Yale School of Public Health used publicly-available satellite imagery and open-source information to document possible crimes in eastern Ukraine and provide situational awareness for civilians on the ground, humanitarian organizations and international actors attempting to assist those affected by the invasion — in near real time. 

“This is all about accountability,” said Kaveh Khoshnood, a YSPH associate professor and faculty director for the Humanitarian Research Lab. “Governments make these terrible decisions of bombing hospitals, schools, train stations et cetera, and these are gross violations. This can’t just happen.”

Their findings, the latest in a series of three reports, were first revealed by the New York Times last week. The research is part of a partnership between Yale and the U.S. Department of State’s Conflict Observatory program, and concludes that the Russian military or pro-Russia militias have gradually systematized the registration, interrogation and detainment of prisoners since March, soon after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In some cases, individuals are deported back to Russia. The satellite images also found evidence of disturbed earth that appears consistent with mass graves. This evidence is consistent with the testimony of a released prisoner who claimed that their cellmate participated in a grave digging operation.

The U.S. Department of State issued a statement alongside the report calling for Russia to “immediately halt” its filtration system.

Khoshnood said that the team’s role is to provide “strong and accurate” evidence that international humanitarian law experts can use. This way, the proof cannot be easily denied, he said.

Because the project uses only publicly available information, findings can be more easily verified. And though intelligence agencies may have access to higher-resolution images or other advanced technologies, the YSPH report doesn’t undergo the lengthy declassification process that many government reports are subject to, making it more useful to those on the ground in the short-term.

“We are having real impact in that we are presenting information that traditionally would not be available to the public in this way,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director at the YSPH Humanitarian Research Lab. “[We are] ensuring that [the data is] collected through sources and methods that are entirely open-source and reproducible.”

The research is made possible by the commercial satellite imagery industry’s establishment over the two decades, operations director Caitlin Howarth added. Howard explained that ‘very high-resolution’ images being analyzed were obtained from three private companies and purchased by the Department of State.

Similar analysis is being conducted by other organizations to aid victims of record flooding in Pakistan.

The team’s membership and size is being kept confidential to protect individual researchers and avoid compromising its operations, Howarth said.

“As public health professionals, we don’t have the power and the tools to end conflicts, but there’s plenty that we can do,” Khoshnood said. “We have skills to offer to help strengthen the humanitarian response to people affected by conflict.”

The Russian embassy in the United States described the report as “fake news.” 

Raymond challenged the embassy’s statement, arguing that if the report is “absolutely fabricated,” then Russia should open up the camps and allow the Red Cross and other humanitarian programs to come in and prove that the report is wrong. The United States and Albania have also called a United Nations Security Council meeting to discuss the report on Sep. 6.

The research, Khoshnood said, is part of an increased discussion on the role of academics in armed conflicts.

The team will continue to analyze data and look at other international humanitarian law violations and will release its next report in two weeks.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. 

Correction, Sept. 1: A previous version of this article included an incorrect last name for Howarth.

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Chun — a professor of psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science — is the first Asian American Dean of Yale College. He joined Yale as a faculty member in 2003, and from 2007-2016, he served as the head of Berkeley College. His term as Yale College Dean will officially end on June 30, and he plans to return to a full-time teaching and research position.

“I feel really good about what my team — my colleagues, the faculty, the students — what we’ve all accomplished across the duration of my term,” Chun said. “I feel very good about what has been achieved … including getting through this pandemic.”

When University President Peter Salovey announced Chun’s appointment in April of 2017, Chun noted that he felt “confident” in his goal of making Yale the “research university most committed to teaching and learning.” He outlined several key principles, which included reinforcing residential colleges as places where “students should feel at home” and also learn new perspectives. Chun emphasized that “diversity is not a trade-off with quality.”

One of Chun’s accomplishments is expansions to financial aid. He oversaw initiatives to increase financial aid packages, eliminate parental tuition for families that make less than $75,000 per year and create better aid and benefits for Eli Whitney students. In collaboration with students and faculty, Chun worked on the creation of the Summer Experience Award and Yale Safety Net, along with the the expansion of the Science, Technology and Research Scholars  and First-Year Scholars programs. 

In addition, Chun highlighted Yale’s certificate programs and said he is excited for the University to create more of those certificates in the future.

Another academic policy Chun particularly wanted to reform was the Credit/D/Fail, or CDF, option. Over the years of his term as dean, the CDF option guidelines underwent many major changes, such as extending the CDF deadline to later in the term instead of having students decide whether to take a class CDF or for a letter grade before finalizing their schedule. Currently, students have until the final day of classes to change a class to CDF, a decision which is not reversible. However, as of Dec. 2021, Chun still wanted to push the CDF deadline later. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in classes shifting to remote learning, Chun administered the adoption of a universal pass/fail grading policy for the spring 2020 semester. In order to facilitate a “thorough and inclusive discussion” before revealing this decision, Chun announced the decision a couple of days later than he intended to. 

“It’s incredibly encouraging that both the student body and Yale faculty ultimately came together in order to make an equitable decision that prioritizes tangible wellness and safety over arbitrary grades,” Sarah Pitafi ’22 wrote in an email to the News.

Chun also introduced Yale College Community Cares, or YC3, in April 2021. The Program expanded the mental health services offered at the University by providing short-term term treatment with psychologists, licensed social workers and community wellness specialists.

In addition to his policy work, Chun created memorable and fun events for students, such as the Bulldog Bash and the Sophomore Brunch.

“I definitely see him as someone who cared a lot about students, and at least wanted to try to listen to students as much as possible,” Mahesh Agarwal ’24 said.

Chun’s leadership as an Asian American has also impacted many. For some like Joliana Yee, an assistant dean of Yale College and the director of the Asian American Cultural Center, Chun’s appointment and role reminds people that Asian Americans are effective leaders at institutions like Yale.

“It is important to have expansive representation in positions of leadership at Yale so that the heterogeneity of perspectives, lived experiences, history and cultures within the Asian diaspora can permeate and shape the institution,” Yee said. 

Furthermore, Chun’s personality and work ethic left a strong impression on his colleagues. According to Senior Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Communications Paul McKinley, Chun was a “great dean,” and people will feel “very sentimental and really regret seeing him go.”

Yee mentioned that Chun had an open-door policy, which demonstrated his support for the students and his colleagues. According to her, he responded to invitations, new ideas and questions with enthusiasm and always brought lots of energy to the room.

“The institution has given me so much, and maybe as dean, I was able to give back a little, but I think I still got more from Yale than I’m able to give back,” Chun said. “I love all the people here, and that’s why I’m not thinking of leaving the place. I look forward to engaging with students and my colleagues in different ways, especially back in the classroom.”

Chun has published over a hundred articles about his research.

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This was one of many hate comments I received as a high schooler from readers responding to an article I wrote in 2020 about the cultural appropriation of the fox-eye trend. I had noticed a lack of Asian news stories in the general media and wondered why writing one might have caused this kind of reaction. Having been told that I am un-oppressed, I reflected on the role Asian Americans have in journalism at the Yale Daily News. 

For a while, I didn’t realize how impactful my identity as an Asian American was in shaping my journalism until I found myself in a space that intentionally centered it. When I attended the first AAPI affinity group meeting in February, I felt grateful for the conversations around inclusion in the newsroom and related to other Asian journalists’ triumphs and struggles. I appreciated that there was a community within the News who cared about my racial identity and experiences. For this article, I decided to have more in-depth conversations with some of those people about the role that Asians have in the YDN newsroom.

According to the News’ most recent demographic survey results conducted in the fall of 2021 — which 100 of about 300 staff members filled out — Asians accounted for 36 percent of total staff, down slightly from 37.3 the previous year.

In the 2019-2020 school year, 20.8 percent of all Yale students identified as Asian. Nationally, across newsrooms in 2021, 7.7 percent of staffers were Asian journalists.

At the News, Asian students also are more likely to have roles outside of the newsroom. The most recent demographic survey results indicated that Asians accounted for 44 percent of non-newsroom staff, a category that includes photo, video, data, podcast and illustrations; production jobs which include copy editing and production and design; and long-term project work which include business, tech and human resources. 

However, for written content — reporting and opinion — Asians made up around 31% of newsroom staff. Currently, there aren’t any staff members who identify as Pacific Islanders. 

Asian reporters are here to share their community’s stories and also to improve inclusion in stories that have traditionally not showcased their voices. Compared to national newsrooms, the News and other college newspapers such as The Crimson have a high concentration of Asian Americans on staff, giving us a unique opportunity to reflect on our roles as journalists.

I spoke to Brian Zhang ’25, who said that his Asian American identity has made him “more conscious” of the stories he writes. He noted that he has an interest in centralizing his work around Asian American Pacific Islander, or AAPI, achievements and challenges. Although he has not faced “many challenges” as an Asian American writer, he believes that there can be more Asian American representation in the media industry.

Staff photographer Tenzin Jordan ’25 said that having come from an immigrant background, he was taught important family values which included “be[ing] aware of your surroundings” and “know[ing] when to speak up [and] when to listen.” He’s also applied these key lessons in his photography.

“[Photography] is a weird intersection between an art form, but also a form of recording and reporting,” said Jordan. “There’s an obvious gap between my experiences and the experiences of the older generation … like people who are my grandparents … so being able to stop, listen and evaluate the stories around you and then convey that in a medium is very important.”

One of the reasons behind my decision to write for the Sci-Tech desk was the editors, Anjali Mangla ’24 and Nicole Rodriguez ’24. As women of color, they understand the importance of comprehensive reporting and encourage me to cover a diverse range of topics and to source multiple perspectives. 

Mangla has started various initiatives to increase diversity coverage at the News. As a reporter last year, she created her own beat called science and social justice because she wanted to address “what it’s like to be in science and have a different identity” and to investigate how race and health intersect.

She also noted that she has had to advocate for greater South Asian representation in coverage and in sourcing. According to Mangla, most of the Asian coverage had involved events that focused on East Asian identities. 

“I feel like just being a woman of color in general, I try to source pitches or general assignments and encourage reporters to cover stories about marginalized communities who normally don’t have a voice,” Mangla said. “I think with my Asian identity and just being a South Asian woman at Yale, I feel so much more cognizant of it than I do normally … That informs what I pitch and how I want the desk to write.”

Together with Isaac Yu ’24, Mangla created the News’ AAPI affinity group to connect people of similar identities. They hoped that members could share resources and information, along with “being there for each other” because of a shared sense of background. 

Yu noted that very few publications have the access and resources that the News has in regard to Asian voices, so it is important to “platform those voices.” For him, “representation is not the endgame.”

“We need to make sure the space not only represents Asian people on campus but includes them and values their work and cherishes them,” said Yu. 

Yu mentioned that he took an active interest in Asian and Asian American politics in his journalism, which is one way he has tried to bring his identity to his work. In addition, he noted that being able to speak in Chinese and having the experience of being an Asian American in the States has “made it more effective” for him to report on people in his community and to ensure that topics that might not be covered are reported on.

Having Asian Americans in leadership positions, within the News and at Yale, has played an instrumental role in inspiring journalists. In this paper’s 144 year history, there have been only two Asian editors-in-chief: Vivian Yee ’11 and Sammy Westfall ’21. There have been a number of Asian managing editors — including current editors Ryan Chiao ’23 and Natalie Kainz ’23 — that identified as Asian, as well as more than ten Asian publishers. 

Sarah Feng ’25 described that “a certain level of Asian American leadership has been encouraging,” as she discussed Yu’s presence at the YDN and the friendships she’s formed from writing for the Yale Daily News Magazine. Hamera Shabbir ’24, a reporter on the sports desk, noted that she appreciates writing about sports in a time when Victoria M. Chun, the first Asian American to serve as the Thomas A. Beckett Director of Athletics, serves in leadership along with other “diverse and representative members of athletics.” Chun’s leadership reassures Shabbir that “the school, the sports, and the people participating in them are continuously striving for equality and for diversity.”

Shabbir explained that although some sports have historically catered towards white audiences, her experience with writing for the sports desk has been very “positive” because there is a big community within sports and the News has “extremely supportive people” who never made her “feel singled out for her identity.”

Feng mentioned that conducting interviews with Asian American subjects sometimes becomes more of a conversation because they share experiences she can empathize with, and these interviews are some of the “most effective and the most enlightening” ones for her. She recalled interviewing someone who described having to “straddle the line between being too meek and too aggressive,” which she related to and enjoyed “explor[ing] the interview .. and deepen[ing] it.”

As a staff reporter for the city desk, Zhang noted that New Haven’s Asian population is low compared to Yale’s, making up just 5.6 percent of the city’s population. According to Zhang, these residents may struggle with finding a news source they can read that represents their own stories, so having a news outlet that covers stories relevant to their cultures and perspectives is “important.”

“I think especially the Asian American experience is one that doesn’t receive a ton of coverage, and only recently, people are starting to feel more comfortable speaking out about it,” said Feng. “I feel lucky to be at a publication in the school that encourages that sort of coverage.”

Yet, reporters at the News still feel that more can be done about increasing diversity and inclusion. 

Feng described the affinity groups as “comforting” since she knows that they are there if she “ever need[s] a support system.” But beyond being “a support network,” she does not feel that the News has so far “really cultivated that into a full community.” She noted that having the AAPI affinity group host more talks, readings, AAPI speakers in journalism and workshops for covering Asian American topics could help.

Shabbir recalled having to advocate for a reporter to cover a show that the South Asian Society, or SAS, hosted, which sold out tickets within 12 hours. She recognized that she had started pushing for SAS coverage because of her role as the SAS communications chair, but the fact she even had to do so in the first place was “just a bit confusing.” According to her, the institution claims to be “dedicated towards student life and student coverage,” but needs to “expand on its definition of student life to incorporate … groups and events that are significant to students.” 

She noted that a part of this problem might be a lack of diversity in sourcing and perspectives being put into stories. 

“A lot of times, I read stories [that are] definitely showing only one socio-economic, class, racial and gender experience,” Shabbir said. “Moving forward, YDN can do a better job of sourcing and considering what it thinks is newsworthy, given that there are a lot of stories that go uncovered that should be covered because they do have significance to the larger population and spark discussions outside of the YDN.”

In a similar vein, Yu mentioned that diversity work at the News is often seen as a “side thing that’s to be performed out by people of color.” According to him, other barriers might include not fitting the stereotype of what the typical journalist looks like, especially given that very few of the “star journalists” from the News who end up working at the Washington Post or the New York Times are Asian.

Yu noted that even in pop culture, most people in the newsroom are white journalists. For example, in the TV show Gilmore Girls, the characters Rory Gilmore, Paris Geller, Doyle McMaster and Logan Huntzberger all are reporters at the News and all are white people. However, the Asian character Lane Kim, who did not attend Yale, was not a journalist.

“Could Lane have been a journalist? We will never know,” said Yu. “In popular narratives, we just haven’t been journalists. To be fair, there have been increases in diversity at the News … I think maybe part of [the issue] is linked to the News’ wider problem of being over competitive. And competition that’s limited to very few people often leads to the same kinds of identities being represented.”

Overall, though, Yu and Shabbir both emphasized that there is a great community in the News of Asian American and Asian journalists that help each other out with sourcing and editing, along with internships and professional opportunities.

“My experience with my identity and the YDN intersecting has been an experience of personal growth and professional growth at the same time, while also building a strong network and hoping to hold the door open for other people down the line,” said Shabbir.

What the News has currently done in its efforts to increase diversity, equity and inclusion have made profound impacts in the institution. However, we still need to put more deliberate effort into ensuring that more groups across campus are covered and that articles have diverse sourcing. This burden does not lie with people of color. We have put in the effort. 

As I continue to explore my identity in college, reporting for the News has helped me become more aware of my surroundings and find ways to increase diversity and inclusion in my stories whether through sourcing or content coverage — and my identity as an Asian woman influences that experience. But clearly, more work needs to be done, and I hope to be a part of that change as I continue as a member of the News. 

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