After Juliet Daniel delivered her first lecture as a professor at McMaster University back in 1999, a few Black students enthusiastically dashed up to speak with her. However, what they said surprised the biologist and cancer researcher.
“They were excited because they had never in their entire life had a single Black teacher,” Daniel, who is based in Hamilton, Ont., recalled. “[They] had grown up in the GTA and they were in second-year university and I was the first Black teacher they had ever had.”
That experience helped drive the research scientist’s decision to mentor and support young Black students, especially those studying