Dr. Kristen Harris is a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. She earned her M.S. from the University of Illinois, her Ph.D. from Northeastern Ohio University’s College of Medicine, and did her postdoctoral training at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her laboratory has pursued the understanding of structural synaptic plasticity in the developing and mature nervous system. Dr. Harris was interviewed in honor of Women’s History Month.
What inspired you to become a woman in STEM?
Dr. Harris has loved science since she was in the 8th grade. She also took histology in 8th grade, which made her realize that she loved her science classes’ structure and structural relationships. When Dr. Harris attended a career fair in high school, she realized that she wanted to become a pharmacist. She went home and informed her father of her liking in pharmacy, where he encouraged her to become a doctor instead. When Dr. Harris started her undergraduate career, she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. In the summer of her junior year, she worked and lived at a clinic in Germany. While she was quite good at bedside manner, she realized that she did not enjoy being in the operating room. This was when she realized that medical school was not for her. She quickly realized that she had a passion for the science behind medicine. During her senior year of college, Dr. Harris decided to go to graduate school. Throughout her undergraduate career, Dr. Harris worked on library research projects. She proceeded to work in a soil science laboratory for almost a year before getting into graduate school. Overall, she moved from a childhood interest in science to pursuing pharmacy and medicine, where she realized that she is more interested in understanding mechanisms and discovering the mystery of how the brain works.
You are the first woman neuroscience professor I have had here at UT Austin. Although the STEM field is predominately male, how does it feel to be a woman working in a male-dominated field?
Dr. Harris never viewed herself as a woman working in a male-dominated field. It never occurred to her that she was the only woman in the room. At Harvard and Boston University, she was often among very few women. The difficulties that she ran into were sometimes because she was a woman, but most of the time, they consisted of how it was hard for both males and females to become tenured professors. When she first came to UT Austin, she did not realize how few women were in STEM. She believes that if one has grown up used to making friends and colleagues irrespective of race, sex, color, and orientation, one does not go into a room and say, “I am the only person in the room.” In the past, she has had people dismiss her, whereas she had to speak up and set boundaries. She also believes that it is crucial to have someone more intelligent and talented than herself in the lab. She wanted to build a relationship with people who were more talented than herself so that she could keep learning. From starting in a small school in Ohio to ending up as a post-doc at Harvard, she states that you cannot be afraid. You learn to grow through that fear and reach out to find consensus.
What do you think is the most significant barrier to female leadership?
Firstly, Dr. Harris states that we as women are not trained to be leaders from when we are born. She believes that if you are not surrounded by leaders, it is hard for you to believe that they can take on a leadership role. Second, the inability of women to control their bodies is a significant barrier to female leadership. She emphasized how women are agents of their bodies and get to decide when they want to have children. She states that when culture or laws fail to give women the opportunity to control their bodies, we will see a loss of capacity for leadership. When Dr. Harris took control over her own body, she believed that she would not have become a leader in neuroscience or had a career if she did not take those steps. She states how it is crucial for us as women to have control over our bodies from birth to death. Lastly, she states that the salary structure is also a significant barrier to female leadership, especially if you do not have family wealth.
Who is the most influential woman you know? How does she inspire you?
Dr. Harris sees her talented friend Eve Marder, who has a deep understanding of how hormones and peptides modulate neurotransmission, as an influential woman in her life. She considers her a wonderful person and neuroscientist and a source of friendship and kindness. Dr. Harris also sees Erin Schumann as an influential woman in her life. She considers her a close friend and fantastic neuroscientist who discovered how local protein synthesis regulates synaptic transmission. Lastly, Dr. Harris also views Ruth Bader Ginsburg as an influential woman.
As we know, it is women’s history month. Do you believe we need a special month to honor women?
Dr. Harris does not believe that we need a special month to honor women. Instead, she believes that we should honor women every day and that women should be recognized every day of the year, just like how men are recognized every day.
If you could say one inspiring thing to women worldwide, what would you say?
“Don’t give up!” – Kristen Harris
“Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Mark Twain