Puerto Rican scientist Greetchen Díaz Muñoz is part of #IfThenSheCan: The Exhibit.
By Liz Yanira Del Valle
Collaborator
She stands firm and carries her inseparable microscope in hand. She is not alone. She is joined by 124 other female monuments standing in the garden and interiors of the NorthPark Center mall in Dallas, Texas. It is the 3D statue of one of Sagrado’s Board of Trustees, Dr. Greetchen Díaz Muñoz, director of the Science Education Program and Community Alliances of Puerto Rico.
Díaz Muñoz was selected as an ambassador for IF/THEN, an initiative of Lyda Hill Philanthropies designed to galvanize cultural change among girls and young women and motivate them to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
#IfThenSheCan: The Exhibit, which features 125 statues of outstanding women in STEM careers, opened recently with the support of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Each piece has a QR Code, which allows the viewer to read about the scientist’s biography, education, and professional contributions.
“This is like a door. I see it as an opportunity to represent Puerto Rico and the work of its scientists; in addition to contributing to the most significant project of my life, which is to empower, inspire, and educate future science professionals who are just girls now,” said the founder of Semillas de Triunfo (Seeds of Success), a program that promotes getting women acquainted with science, as well as developing their leadership skills through a community component that enables young women to generate projects with an impact in their communities.
According to this biologist, the experience with the exhibit was quite a surprise with adventurous nuances. “I went into a booth where they had a 360-degree camera and I did not leave the microscope, since they gave us the option of carrying a symbol with which we identified ourselves,” she recalled.
Another objective of said educational art event is to emphasize the topic of gender equity. “In the United States, for every ten monuments erected to men there is only one that highlights a woman,” she added.
Two other Puerto Rican scientists were honored along with Sagrado’s trustee: Dr. Roselin Rosario Meléndez, a chemist that works in the cosmetics industry, and Dr. Minerva Cordero Braña, Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington.