Haley Branch
[Image Description]: Haley is smiling at the camera, wearing a scarf and a nose ring. She is crouched in front of a rock cave with yellow flowers growing out front.
[Image Description]: Haley sticks her tongue out at the camera while crouching in front of a desert ecosystem and wearing a baseball hat with a lizard on it.
I am a post-doctoral researcher and plant evolutionary ecologist whose research centres around traits associated with stress responses.
What amazes you about STEM?
I love that I have the opportunity to look at nature and ask questions. That it is a never-ending story that I get to keep exploring. It doesn't frustrate me that we will never have all the answers, but rather makes me feel excited.
What tools help you thrive in STEM?
I need a lot of breaks and particularly on comfortable surfaces. Community is definitely important. I require assistance for certain tasks, which often comes in the form of my friends helping out. I am just about to start my molecular wet lab journey, so I am not sure what tools I will need yet!
What tools do you wish were made available to you?
I wish fellowship funds could go toward hiring labour. This has been the biggest hurdle for me. I study plants and this means that most of my work has intense periods of data collection (I can't tell the plants when to pause growing), but all of the grants that I have applied for explicitly state that the funds cannot be used to hire assistants. This is a huge barrier for me and has caused me to injure myself on numerous occasions.
What do you wish other people in STEM knew about being disabled in the field?
That it can be really isolating and incredibly frustrating when you are unable to keep the pace that you would like to because you physically/biologically are unable to. That I do work hard even if you see me resting and that some things might take longer to produce. We are all unique and therefore even if one is slower to get a specific milestone it doesn't mean that the work isn't as valuable and that the individual isn't as great a scientist.
Do you have any tips or techniques to share for other people in STEM With Disabilities to help navigate the field?
Seek out accommodations as soon as possible. Reach out to the accessibility centre prior to even arriving. It will likely be frustrating and I am so sorry that you have to do more work than many others prior to even beginning your research, but starting the process early helps. This is true even if you don't need anything at the start. You don't know when you will and having all the paperwork etc. completed will help reduce delays in getting you the resources you need when you actually need them.
Personal website: haleyabranch.weebly.com
