I joined the federal government in December 2020, so I took my oath of office over Zoom. It was a solemn occasion, taken seriously by the person who swore me in as an important step to taking on my new role. However, as I got busier with the day-to-day at NIH, I quickly forgot the substance of the oath. Defending the Constitution didn’t seem particularly relevant to helping shape scientific priorities and advising applicants on how to make their research more impactful.
In the spring of 2025, as the federal workforce was being vilified by members of the Trump administration, I looked up the oath again. It was a helpful reminder that my ultimate loyalty was to the Constitution, not to a specific political leader or agenda. Over the course of 2025, as dramatic changes were put in place to how NIH grants were funded, I thought about the oath more and more. What did my loyalty to the Constitution require of me as I was being asked to tell grantees that they could not include terms like “diversity” or “underserved” in their projects even when those terms conveyed why the project was significant? Ultimately, I decided that the new requirements of my job were at odds with my values and the oath I swore, and I resigned. The words we use, the oaths we swear, should matter.
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