CMIIM2008

The Committee on Microbiological Issues Impacting Minorities (CMIIM) of the Public and Scientific Affairs Board (PSAB), American Society for Microbiology (ASM) is the successor to the ASM PSAB Committee on the Status of Minority Microbiologists (CSMM), which was established in the early 1980s.
Since the 1990s, several ASM committees have been established to address the original CSMM missions, including the ASM Education Board's Committee on Minority Education, the ASM Membership Board's Underrepresented Members Committee, the American Academy of Microbiology's (AAM) Diversity Committee, and the ASM PSAB's CMIIM.
Mission
Specifically, the CMIIM mission is to:
*ensure that relevant microbiology issues that may impact minority populations or minority microbiologists are addressed in ASM public policy positions and statements
*monitor and enhance the status of minority microbiologists in the profession and in ASM
*collaborate with personnel planning priorities regarding manpower issues as they may affect minority microbiologists
*interact and collaborate with similar committees or groups in other scientific organizations
Members
CMIIM is chaired by Marian Johnson-Thompson, Ph.D., (retired) Director of Education and Biomedical Research Development at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, in Research Triangle Park, NC and Professor Emerita, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of the District of Columbia.
CMIIM members include Marian Johnson-Thompson, Ph.D. (Chair), Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D. (Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Agnes Day, Ph.D. (Howard University College of Medicine), Lucia Rothman-Denes, Ph.D. (University of Chicago), Dwayne Boucaud, Ph.D. (Quinnipiac University), Crystal N. Johnson, Ph.D. (University of Southern Mississippi), and Margaret Kanipes, Ph.D. (North Carolina A&T State University).
Activities
CMIIM members serve as volunteers in the ASM Minority Mentoring Program, as judges for the ASM Annual Biomedical Research Conferences for Minority Students (ABRCMS), and as co-developers of an annual session at the ASM General Meeting. CMIIM has developed an ASM General Meeting Minority Travel Grant that is supported by the National Institutes of Health to increase the participation of underrepresented minorities.
In July 2006, CMIIM developed a monthly electronic newsletter that contains information pertinent to minority microbiologists. To date, there remain very few minority-based newsletters for scientists, and there is only one geared toward microbiologists, The Minority Microbiology Mentor, distributed by CMIIM.
This e-newsletter provides a central means of distributing pertinent information to underrepresented minorities in the field of microbiology. Some examples include career advice, networking tips, relevant news articles, unique funding and career opportunities, microbiological issues affecting minorities (e.g., HIV), minority issues affecting microbiologists (e.g., minority retention), and scientific articles published by minorities or by minority-serving institutions (MSIs).
The target populations are African-Americans, Latino-Americans, Native Americans, Alaska natives, and Pacific Islanders, which are underrepresented in the biological sciences.
The Minority Microbiology Mentor was announced, and subscribers were invited to sign up on the ASM website, on July 5, 2006. The first issue was distributed on July 12, 2006, and the number of subscribers stood at 734 as of January 2, 2009.
As of January 2, 2009, the newsletter has spotlighted over 60 minority microbiologists and their peer-reviewed research.
In January 2009, CMIIM developed a community that features minority microbiologists in greater detail.

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