Maria Salas-Fernandez, associate professor in agronomy, is the recipient of the faculty 2024 Inclusive Excellence Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. She initiated and leads a sorghum field breeding program to develop germplasm for forage and biofuel production adapted to the Midwest, is a member of the R. F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding and a Plant Sciences Institute Scholar for Predictive Phenomics.
Salas-Fernandez is an outstanding researcher and teacher with a caring and supportive mentorship style, fully engaged in ensuring the professional success of her mentees, while providing a safe environment for her diverse group of graduate students, postdocs, staff and undergraduate students. Assembling diverse teams is a commitment in her research program. This commitment extends to the department and empowering minorities in her roles as teacher, mentor, colleague and committee leader.
In June 2021, the Department of Agronomy formed the first standing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging committee, and Salas-Fernandez was elected chair. Under her leadership, the committee addressed concerns raised in a departmental climate survey. She engaged the entire department in listening sessions to discuss the results of the survey and hear the thoughts of staff, faculty and students. The committee sponsored a book club that read “Lessons from Plants” by Beronda Montgomery, a book that weaves lessons about how plants coexist in communities and relates them to DEI issues within society. The committee sponsored training on implicit bias and microaggressions in the workplace through a three-hour workshop offered by the AdvanceGEO team. She also arranged weekly sessions for members of the department to “meet and talk” with representatives of the DEIB committee about whatever issues were on their mind. The largest effort undertaken by the committee during her tenure was the development of a strategic DEI plan for the department. Her leadership had an enduring impact on the functioning of the committee and the climate of the agronomy department.
“None of this was easy,” states a colleague. “It required hard work and commitment to principles of fairness in human interactions. It involved difficult discussions. And it took place during a time of social unrest and upheaval directly related to the work she was doing. Those of us who have benefited from her work are extremely grateful for the sacrifice, grace and unrelenting determination she brought to leadership of the DEIB committee.”