Unpacking STEM careers: Her Voice in Science
Posted on: 11 February 2025 by Rebecca Derrick in LONGEVITY Blog
Some people may be aware that 11 February is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 2025 is a particularly special year as it’s the tenth anniversary of this United Nations (UN) observed day.
A significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. - UN
The day is implemented by UNESCO to recognise the critical role women and girls have in the world’s science and technology. Even though STEM is known to be essential to national economies, most countries no matter their income do not have STEM gender equality.
163 member states have committed to the work, 395 scholarships have been granted and over 155,000 events have taken place in the ten years the awareness day has been running. This has supported 3,279 girls in science, but with a target of achieving “equality in science, technology, and innovation for Socio-Economic Sustainable Development by 2030 and beyond” (Royal Academy of Science International Trust), there are many more to reach.
The theme of this year’s UNESCO International Day of Women and Girls in Science meeting is ‘Unpacking STEM Careers: Her Voice in Science’. So, we’re talking to Professor Kim Scarsi from the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Who is Professor Kim Scarsi?
Kim is a key researcher within the LONGEVITY project consortium funded by global health agency Unitaid. While LONGEVITY is hosted by the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT), it is a partnership of 8 international organisations. Each brings special expertise to create long-acting versions of existing hepatitis C virus, malaria and tuberculosis medications for low- and middle- income countries. The consortium spans the journey from concept to clinical trial; this includes chemistry, to manufacturing, preclinical trials, to modelling, patent and licencing, and public engagement.
Kim researches in Professor Sue Swindell’s team and she oversees the LONGEVITY public engagement work. It is key within the research as we need to know that what we think is needed aligns with what patients and healthcare providers in low- and middle- income countries want. However, this is only a small part of what Kim does.
Why are we highlighting Kim for ‘Her Voice in Science’?
Kim has recently been promoted to Department Chair of Pharmacy Practice and Science in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The UK equivalent to this is a Head of Department. While this deserved accolade is a big responsibility, Kim is determined to keep researching and teaching alongside.
The reason we’re highlighting this promotion today is because Kim is the first female Chair in her College. Previously, Kim was the first female professor with tenure in her Department. In the United States higher education system, tenure provides additional job security from your work contract ending without cause.
While there are some other female identifying Chairs in the wider University system, proportionally most are white men.
Does this imbalance reflect what Kim sees in the classroom?
In the pharmacy professional program in the US, more than 50% of students are women. However, in the 11 years Kim has worked at the University of Nebraska, she can only recall one female Class President in her college. This is unexpected in a programme with a predominantly female population.
This continues in pharmacy academia, where there’s an exodus of women after graduation. There are many reasons, but there is a real distinction with the direction students want to go with their qualification. Female graduates are taking their degrees more to clinical care settings, while their male counterparts are more likely to move towards research and academia.
This then initiates the chain of less and less women in higher research positions. Within the American University system, the promotion steps are Assistant, Associate, and Professor, and there are smaller and smaller numbers of women at each step. This becomes even more pronounced in leadership positions, including Department Chairs and College Deans, with only 40% of Department Chairs and 25% of College Deans being female.
This could potentially be due to women not seeing women in those higher roles, even in those teaching them. While female pharmacy students don’t see themselves in the classroom, they do see themselves as the caregivers in clinical settings.
However, Kim does see change emerging, as there is already another female Professor in Kim’s college since her promotion.
So, did Kim always want to be a Professor?
A while ago, Kim would have said she didn’t want to be a Chair. There’s a lot of administration, such as budgets and overseeing workloads, but there is also leadership and mentorship in helping team members reach their goals. There is room to bring a new perspective to the role, and it peaked Kim’s interest as someone not reflective of other people she commonly saw in the role .
When Kim was younger, she didn’t appreciate why being ambitious as a woman would be important. She didn’t feel like her gender was holding her back when she was starting out. It was only as she grew that she appreciated the impact of representation and balance would have on people’s decisions for their own lives. Kim sees more of that understanding much earlier in the young women she works with now.
How did Kim find her way to university research?
Kim started out wanting to be a clinician. She likes people, being around them and caring for them. For the first 5-6 years of her career, Kim only worked in clinical settings. The only teaching elements within this was working with student trainees on their clinical rotations.
Her time in hospitals led to a specialism in general infectious diseases and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). From this, Kim realised the HIV aspects of her work were what she was passionate about. One of the physicians Kim worked with received an opportunity to collaborate with the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Program in Nigeria. The program was designed to support implementation of care and treatment programs in the 15 countries hardest hit by the AIDS epidemic. That was Kim’s first experience of academia, moving from hospital to university staff.
Kim found she loved working to build health organisations’ capacity to help those in need. Starting this work in the 1990s, she got to see the huge difference new medications were making to people living with HIV. But it was just as important to have worked in countries where these medications were not as widely available. Perspective is important in medical research to not become complacent around success.
Kim loved training health care providers to look after people as effectively as possible. This sometimes led to questions around drugs that Kim couldn’t answer because the research had simply not been done yet. Kim’s first grant came from this, allowing her to research the interaction between long-acting hormonal birth control and HIV medication. At the time, HIV clinical trials in high-income settings predominantly enrolled men who didn’t have the same medical needs, so contraceptives weren’t a consideration. This led to concerns about drug-drug interactions, with no research offering recommendations for women who needed effective contraception along with their HIV medication.
In 2014, Kim joined the University of Nebraska because she wanted to get back to teaching pharmacists while continuing her research program. There was a pharmacologist with a great lab and physicians to collaborate with. From there Kim has been fortunate to meet some incredible colleagues and fellow researchers, including CELT co-directors Professor Andrew Owen and Professor Steve Rannard.
What has Kim been most proud of in her work?
Without needing time to think, Kim confidently answered that it was her students. Some of these have been in her classes, but also junior colleagues she’s mentored through training awards or post-doctorates in the lab. She enjoys seeing her part in their passion for something and that they might go on and do something amazing. It’s nice knowing she might have helped them get there. Kim loves seeing previous students in clinical settings caring for patients, or on stage talking about the great work they’ve been doing since leaving her lab or classroom.
You’re only around so long, so all you can do is try to give opportunities to others.
Were there any expected or unexpected challenges in Kim's journey?
Women are hard on themselves, expecting unrealistic perfection, and Kim has fallen in that trap in the past. There can be the feeling you’re expected to be the best parent, significant other and work colleague simultaneously, while never raising your voice or making anyone in a room uncomfortable. It’s not possible to be all those things at once. It’s also not necessary to be the best, and certainly not all the time.
After having a child, Kim received comments from different areas of her life that she shouldn’t be travelling for work anymore. Often these comments came with an assumption that her parenting wasn’t the brilliant partnership that it is, with someone perfectly willing and able to allow her to travel on occasions she needs to.
Comments around parenting and work priorities are not just targeted at women anymore. Kim sees these comments towards younger male staff as well. Male colleagues are questioned about why they are taking on childcare or household responsibilities instead of the traditional model where the female partner carried this burden. It is hard to respond to comments and questions of this type, even when they are not intended to be unkind. It is so easy to internalize them and question if we’re not meeting some expectation or other.
There have been times where Kim has felt like concentrating on work has meant she’s not being a good enough mother, but if she took time to focus on family it can feel like she is not being committed enough to research. Now that she is more at peace with how that balance works for her and her family, it’s still hard to respond to those comments because advocating for ourselves doesn’t seem to align with being taught to ‘always be nice’. However, an important lesson is to remember that we all find our own way that works for us, but no one will ever get it 100% right.
Kim’s challenge in relation to her new role, is that it’s clear something has to go. When you are passionate about and enjoy all aspects of your work, deciding what to let go of is hard. Kim is trying to figure out how to make the new role fit, while continuing both research and teaching, without detriment to herself or relinquishing family priorities. Kim is determined to keep the research programme active and growing. The challenge is finding the new version of what this balance will look like.
What is the patient benefit of Kim's work?
Kim started with an acknowledgement of how grateful she is for her early years in clinical settings. She has faces and real people’s stories to remember while doing her research.
As mentioned above, because so much initial research was carried out in high-income countries where there were less women living with HIV, there are uncertainties around the management of common co-conditions for women. Globally, women’s health and access to effective contraception can still be challenging. Package inserts for HIV medications often still suggest not to use hormonal contraceptives with HIV antiretroviral therapies due to uncertainties around drug-drug interactions. Offering barrier methods as the only choice for family planning is dangerous, as in many parts of the world barrier contraceptives aren’t an ideal , and discrete, female-controlled options for birth control are important.
Beyond contraception, Kim is working on how to best use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for women in menopausal transition who also need antiretrovirals for HIV. Women with HIV begin the menopausal transition earlier, and may have worse symptoms related to menopause, but no research has been done to assure patients and providers that combining HRT with antiretroviral therapies is safe and effective. By understanding if there is an interaction between the therapies, we can offer solutions and provide more effective care for women with HIV across the lifespan.
Kim is also researching if there is any impact of gender affirming therapies on antiretroviral therapy for HIV, or vice versa. Patients should feel considered as a whole and acknowledged as a complete person, not just focusing on one condition. Not considering all aspects of someone’s life within their medication demeans who they are and denies them the dignity all people deserve.
It's been a thrill for Kim to work with Professor Owen, Professor Rannard and the whole LONGEVITY team developing long-acting formulations. There’s so much promise in the project. If we can figure out how to make medications to make people’s lives easier, Kim is happy to be part of the expertise to get us there.
As we celebrate Women and Girls in Science Day 2025, Kim’s achievements serve as a powerful reminder of how perseverance and passion can generate change. Her continued leadership will inspire young women to pursue careers in science and we celebrate her commitment to the LONGEVITY project.
#February11
The LONGEVITY project aims to simplify TB, malaria and hepatitis C virus treatment and preventative treatment to reduce the drug burden and the number of patients requiring complex therapies for active disease.
Find out more about the LONGEVITY project
The LONGEVITY Project is funded by global health agency Unitaid
The project also involves critical partners and collaborators in the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Johns Hopkins University, Medicines Patent Pool, Tandem Nano Ltd., Treatment Action Group and the University of Nebraska Medical Center
