This post first appeared at Katja’s homepage Author: Katja Ovchinnikova Last week, I co-led a session on ally skills with Malvika Sharan, Sofya Mikhaleva and Paul Gerald Sanchez as a part of the Women’s Day at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. The concept of the ally skills training was originally developed by Valerie Aurora, a former Linux kernel developer. Valerie has designed extensive and well structured materials offering guidelines for learning and teaching how to step up and use our social advantages to support others in workplaces and communities.