Ciearra Smith is ASBMB's manager of diversity, equity and inclusion programs. She earned her bachelor's in biology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and her Ph.D. in biomedical sciences at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. While she was a graduate student, Smith served as co-president of the Diversity Interest Group and co-organized DEI programs that centered on the intersectionality of personal identity and science. After earning her doctorate, she was a postdoc focused on DEI at UMass and organized inclusive teaching workshops, research seminars for diverse faculty hiring, and a program for recruting students from historically black colleges and universities.