By: Vera Kaelin
“[The secret to success is] to have a strong sense of self, to know who you are and to know why you do what you do”.
Dr. Sylvia Perry is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and an assistant professor by courtesy in the Department of Medical Social Sciences at the Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She directs the Social Cognition & Intergroup Processes (SCIP) Laboratory, composed of four graduate students, a lab manager, 17 undergraduate students and a dog as their lab mascot. When talking to Dr. Perry, it became evident that she pursues her career in an uncompromising manner and with strong passion. Her innovative research focuses on understanding people’s racial bias awareness and their existing biases towards different racial minorities, people of different weight, or sexual orientation. With clear intention, she provides mentored research opportunities in her lab to first generation college students and students of color.
Dr. Perry, herself a first-generation college student and underrepresented minority faculty member, provides access to opportunities that she did not have, but wished for, as an undergraduate student. When I asked her how she became so successful, she laughed and said, “I am stubborn.” Indeed, Dr. Perry seems persistent and proactive. Fascinated by her own and other’s experiences with racial biases and bias awareness, Dr. Perry proactively sought to connect with scholars with similar interest. Some of these people became her future mentors, who believed in and nurtured her and her ideas. One year before completing her PhD, she secured a prestigious NIH R01 supplement to fund her postdoctoral position with Dr. John Dovidio, a well-known researcher in her field.
Dr. Perry not only knows about biases towards underrepresented minorities through her research but also from her own experiences. “I experienced both subtle and blatant forms of racial and gender bias, and […] I received signals and feedback that my work was not as valuable.” She recalled dealing with this negative feedback to be exhausting, and intrinsic motivation was required to continue. It is perhaps no surprise, then, that Dr. Perry asks her students, “What is it that you are passionate about? What will keep you going even if others don’t believe in your work?” Mentoring students is one of the aspects Dr. Perry likes most about her job. She in particular likes when she can see “a spark in [my] mentees’ eyes when they find something interesting.”
At Northwestern University, Dr. Perry works on a number of research projects, mentors graduate and undergraduate students, and teaches undergraduate and graduate classes. She also parents her 2.5-year-old son. How does she manage all of this? It must be her strong sense of self. She knows who she is and why she does what she does, even when others might not believe that it is all possible.