Jedidah Isler dreamt of becoming an astrophysicist since she was a young girl, but the odds were against her: at that time, only 18 black women in the US had ever earned a PhD in a physics-related field. In this personal talk, she shares the story of how she became the first black woman to earn a PhD in astrophysics from Yale — and her deep belief in the value of diversity to science and STEM.