Inside STAT: #BlackInNeuro's founder on turning a Twitter movement into a lasting community

#BLACKINNEURO FOUNDER ANGELINE DUKES IN IRVINE, CALIF. (CRYSTAL MILNER/STAT)

When neuroscience graduate student Angeline Dukes saw Black scientists in other fields including astronomy and physics get highlighted in Twitter movements, she wondered where a similar one for her field was. “Sooo when are we doing a #BlackInNeuro week?” she tweeted back in July, a question that led to nearly two dozen Black neuroscientists coming together within days to found Black In Neuro. The group's goal of developing a community for Black neuroscientists stemmed from Duke's own yearning for a safe space to highlight her own accomplishments and help deal with the mental health impact of the police shootings of unarmed Black Americans. “A part of me wanted Black In Neuro because I wanted something positive and I really needed … a community that would understand without me having to explain why it was so upsetting,” Dukes tells STAT's Natalya Ortolano. Read more here.