Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources

Understanding the Problem in Academia

• #BlackintheIvory is a twitter hashtag with story after story of the challenges, affronts, and active hostility that Black students and academics have to overcome to be successful. If you are not sure there’s a problem, this is a good place to start.
• Invisible Labor. An Inside Higher Ed article by Eric Anthony Grollman on the additional burden of service that many Black scholars carry.
• For historical background, Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History, by Stephanie Y. Evans, is free on kindle.
• We are not okay. And you shouldn’t be either. Provides a reality check on how scientists of color are affected by the intersectionality of social issues  — here, a pandemic and racism — while trying to navigate academia. Reminds that the same coping strategies are not available to everyone and suggestions for how to offer support.
• White Academia: Do Better.
• To address bias, you have to recognize it. ADVANCEGeo provides resources for recognizing how bias operates in academic systems, including implicit bias, imposter syndrome, and stereotype threat. Though many of the resources center on bias against women, they are also relevant to racial bias.
• Strengthening Pathways to Faculty Careers in STEM: Recommendations for Systemic Change to Support Underrepresented Groups. Lessons from the APLU INCLUDES Project. The Association of Public and Land Grant Universities has compiled evidence of promising practices for recruiting and retaining faculty from underrepresented groups.

Understanding the Problem in Ecology

• @BlackAFinSTEM is a twitter account that showcases Black STEM Unity and shares the experiences of Black people in STEM. They organized #blackbirdersweek and the #birdingwhileblack livestream. Visit their linktr.ee.
• #BlackBirders, #BlackBotanists, and #BlackinNature are twitter hashtags where you can find lots of people sharing their love of nature and stories of what happens when you don’t look the way people expect a nature lover to look.
• A Primer on Diversity in STEM, from the ADVANCEGeo project.
• GeoReading for Equity, a reading list, equity primer, and conversation space assembled by a large group of contributors in the geosciences.

Creating an Inclusive Environment

You’re motivated to take action. Maybe your first impulse is to throw all your energy into recruiting a more diverse group of students, postdocs or faculty. That’s great. And the effort may benefit from first taking a moment to think about what kind of an environment they will find when they arrive.

Inclusivity in general

• Microaggressions explained. This 20 minute video provides numerous examples of the hurtful accumulation of microaggressive behavior. Or, try the tl;dr version: why microaggressions are like mosquito bites.
• Small Pond Science: Recruitment without inclusion is futile—and maybe even counterproductive
• #ShutDownSTEM is more than a hashtag. The associated website has many resources to review and actions to take. They are organized according to your role in academia, whether you are a student, pre-tenure faculty, a program leader or administrator, there are concrete actions you can take.
• Examining intersectionality and inclusivity in geosciences education research: A synthesis of the literature 2008-2018 (Mattheis et al. 2019) in Journal of Geoscience Education. Interesting insights in this review from ADVANCEGeo leaders about how changes have been implemented and measured versus what is known about what is likely to be effective. It suggests some ways to move forward (both in education and measuring the changes/outcomes).
• Silence is never neutral; neither is science by 500 Women Scientists Leadership https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/voices/silence-is-never-neutral-neither-is-science/ The racial history of scientific progress and the impact of exploitation and non-inclusive research on scientists and society. Plus, why objectivity will not solve the clearly documented (see data references within) problem; alternative solutions are proposed.
  
• Academic leaders must support inclusive scientific communities during COVID-19
• In 2016, the National Science Foundation funded 5 projects intended to expand diversity in geosciences. The Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD) website has links to those projects, their outcomes, and associated resources.
• In a truly inclusive learning and work environment, everyone is able to be themselves without fear of being judged or excluded for it. ADVANCE Geo has compiled a helpful list of resources for creating an inclusive climate, as well as a set of guidelines and samples for writing codes of conduct.
• Diversify Ecology and Evolutionary Biology seeks to identify ecologists and evolutionary biologists who are women and/or from a group traditionally underrepresented in the sciences (e.g., those from racial or ethnic minorities, those with disabilities, people who identify as LGBTQIA). The group’s goal is to help people identify scientists who might diversify seminar series, award nominees, etc. A companion list at diversify EEB grads focuses on PhD students.
• UC Davis STEM Faculty Resource Guide – For Faculty Starting to Learn about Equity offers a nicely structured set of resources and tools, though some are UC Davis-specific.

Diverse Racial and Ethnic Populations

• IGEN Equity in Graduate Education Resource Center is maintained by AAS to provide resources for improving recruitment, equity, and inclusivity  in graduate education.
• Ten Simple Rules for Building an Anti-Racist Lab
• Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Week is a weeklong personal and professional development initiative for academics to honor the toll of racial trauma on Black people, resist anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and facilitate accountability and collective action.
• Call for a Robust Anti-Racism Plan for The Geosciences. The Geoscience Society has a petition with over 12,000 signatures that lays out many of the inequities in the field sciences. The document suggests solutions as well as highlighting the challenges.
• Evidence-based Strategies for Improving Equity and Inclusion of Individuals in Underrepresented Racial and Ethic Groups. This 10-page review of broadening participation literature contains concise, descriptions of proven intervention strategies, with references.
• Navigating Racism: Black Graduate Students Need Support. Anita Jack Davies in The Conversation.
• Listing of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)

Collaborations with Indigenous Knowledge Holders

• Training the Next Generation of Indigenous Data Scientists. A New York Times article on the Indigenous Biodata Consortium and Indigidata — a workshop to introduce Indigenous students and early career researchers to data science skills.
• Guidelines for Considering Traditional Knowledges (TKs) in Climate Change Initiatives
• The US Department of Arts and Culture has developed a guide to acknowledging native lands (linked to a map of ancestral native territories). “Acknowledgment is a simple, powerful way of showing respect and a step toward correcting the stories and practices that erase Indigenous people’s history and culture and toward inviting and honoring the truth.”
• How to include Indigenous researchers and their knowledge. Ecological science and Indigenous ways of knowing have great synergistic potential, but in many places remain siloed. Nature spoke to four Indigenous academic scientists about the challenges these early-career researchers face, and how scientists can respectfully and effectively bring together traditional knowledge and Western science.
• Toward Right Relationship with Native Peoples.

Sexual and Affectional Minorities

• Systemic inequalities for LGBTQ professionals in STEM. found that LGBTQ STEM professionals were more likely to experience career limitations, harassment, and professional devaluation than their non-LGBTQ peers. They also reported more frequent health difficulties and were more likely to intend to leave STEM. 

Access for All Abilities

• The Association of Science and Technology Centers recently issued a digital accessibility toolkit. Although it’s oriented toward museum and science center interpreters, it’s got lots of valuable information for science communicators of all stripes.
• The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) offers resources to help employers adapt the working environment for employees with a wide variety of disabilities.
• The misuse of colour in science communication details how commonly used color maps distort perception for all readers and how they may make visualizations unreadable or misleading for those with color vision deficiencies. Includes recommendations for improved color mappings.
• ADVANCE GEO has a set of resources focused on creating inclusive virtual environments, which is always useful but especially relevant as we all go virtual under COVID19.
• 3PlayMedia is a closed captioning provider (no recommendation implied), which has a free biweekly webinar series on making digital media more accessible for individuals with limited hearing and vision.
• The Center for Universal Design in Education offers ideas for incorporating universal design principles into the design of physical spaces, presentations, web sites, and publications.
• In web design, alt-text offers a way for visually impaired readers to understand the role that images play on a web page. Scientific visualizations, such as charts and graphs, pose a special challenge in this area.  This 2020 article by visualization expert Amy Cesal offers useful tips.

In the Field

For many ecologists and geoscientists, field experiences are professionally and personally formative. But the long hours, informality, and lowering of barriers that form lifelong friendships can also allow bullying and harassment to go unchecked, increasing stress and driving talented researchers away.

• The Report of the Workshop to Promote Safety in Field Sciences resulted in 52 recommendations targeted at improving field science culture, misconduct accountability, policy, and reporting. The workshop was organized by CSU Desert Studies and the Consortium for Ocean Leadership on 24-26 March 2021.
• Safety and Belonging in the Field: A Checklist for Educators. A comprehensive checklist that seeks to make fieldwork a “positive, generative, collective, and valuable experience for all participants.” Written by authors with a wide range of backgrounds and field experiences, this document stresses inclusivity over each step in the fieldwork process, from planning to the return and debrief.
• You are welcome here: A practical guide to diversity, equity, and inclusion for undergraduates embarking on an ecological research experience. Written primarily for undergraduates considering a research experience, the paper recommends practical strategies for dealing with three common sources of anxiety: imposter syndrome, communicating with mentors, and safety in fieldwork.
• How Field Courses Propel Inclusion and Collective Excellence. This short paper in Ecology and Evolution outlines strategies for turning field experiences from exclusive experiences into channels for inclusion. A handy graphic and short video are also provided.
• Ten Steps to Protect BIPOC Scholars in the Field. A very short, digestible, actionable set of recommendations for improving inclusion of students and colleagues who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color.
• Safe fieldwork strategies for at-risk individuals, their supervisors and institutions (doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-01328-5) Certain individuals are at higher risk for conflict and violence when they are in the field due to prejudice against their race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, and/or religion. This paper provides strategies for acknowledging and reducing the risk of conflict.
• Resources for conversations about safety, inclusivity and accessibility in field environments
• Mental health in the field (Nature Geoscience volume 11, pages 618–620 (2018)
• Fieldwork Inspiring Expanded Leadership and Diversity
• Resources for help in fully including people with disabilities in field experiences are still limited, but one good place to start is the International Association for Geoscience Diversity, which maintains discussion fora for scientists and aspiring scientists coping with a wide variety of challenges. They also run an accessible geology field trip each summer in association with the Geological Society of America annual meeting.
• The Challenges of Fieldwork for LGBTQ+ Geoscientists. A new survey (August 2020) reveals the unique issues that traveling for research poses for LGBTQ+ scientists.
• Resources for considering and responding to the intersectionality of COVID-19 with field work (among other academic issues).
• Field-based learning narrows achievement gaps in STEM (Beltran et al)

Bystander Intervention

The culture of science will not change unless everyone participates in making change. Researchers of color cannot be the only ones identifying and challenging practices and behaviors that unfairly advantage White people. Learning to intervene effectively takes practice.

• ADVANCE Geo offers resources and trainings, as do many other organizations.
• The psychology program at Pepperdine University maintains a nice, concise resource on Confronting Prejudice: How to Protect Yourself and Help Others

With travel restrictions in place, many in-person trainings are being revised as remote or hybrid trainings. We’ll update here as we learn of new remote resources.

Mentoring

Effective mentoring improves the learning, performance, and professional growth experience for everyone, by clarifying expectations and opportunities. First generation academics—from all backgrounds—may benefit most from good mentoring, but researchers instituting these practices have also seen better relationships and productivity for all their trainees.

• Ten Simple Rules for Developing and Mentor-Mentee Expectations Document
• Examples of mentoring compacts from CIMER
• Mentor mapping exercise from ADVANCEGeo
• #EEBMentorMatch links students from minority serving institutions with mentors to advise them on applications for NSF Graduate Research Fellowships and Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowships.
• The Entering Mentoring curriculum, developed by The Wisconsin Program For Scientific Teaching, is available free, from the web site of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute or as a printed book.

• • • Entering Mentoring. Pfund, C., J.L Branchaw, and J. Handelsman.  2014. W.H. Freeman Publishers, New York, NY, USA.
    • Building National Capacity for Research Mentor Training: An Evidence-Based Approach to Training the Trainers. Pfund, C., KC Spencer, P Asquith, SC House, S Miller, and CA Sorkness. 2015.CBE Life Sciences Education, 14(2), ar24.
    • A companion guide, Entering Research, tackles related issues from a student’s perspective.
• The Earth Science Women’s Network (ESWN) is an international peer-mentoring network of women in the Earth Sciences, many of whom are in the early stages of their careers. They promote career development, build community, provide opportunities for informal mentoring and support, and facilitate professional collaborations.
• Step up to Leadership for Mid-Career Growth. This article from the Nature Careers section provides some hard-earned advice for mid-career scientists with big aspirations.
• Culturally Aware Mentorship with Dr. Sherilynn Black and Dr. Angela Byars-Winston (VIDEO)
• Pathways to Science is an online manual for mentoring (and being mentored) at all career levels.
• Successful STEM Mentoring Initiatives for Underrepresented College Students is a step-by-step, research-based guide for higher education faculty and administrators who are charged with designing mentoring programs to recruit and retain students from underrepresented groups.

Having difficult conversations

• The Anti-Racism Starter Kit and Anti-Racism for Beginners.  If you are, as a White person, a little afraid to get started because you don’t want to say the wrong thing (you will sometimes) or make the problem worse, these are good places to start reading. Antiracism is an active approach to recognizing and opposing racism in all its forms. It doesn’t necessarily require marching or tweeting or even donating. It does require work and self-awareness.
• The Master’s in Social Work Program at USC has put together an attractive and well-documented toolkit for beginning (and continuing) conversations related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
• Having Uncomfortable Conversations: A New Communications Imperative
• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
• Lab heads should learn to talk about racism

Recruiting

As you expand recruiting efforts — whether for students, faculty, staff or proposals — a strategic recruitment plan can help you decide how to prioritize time and resources. What does it take to make an institution more diverse? (Nature, 6 June 2018) offers some ideas for getting started.

There’s a great deal more to say about recruitment, and we’ll be expanding these resources in the coming weeks (as part of our #ShutDownSTEM commitment), but here are a few starting points:

• Follow Twitter hashtags such as #firstgen, #blackinstem, #blackecologists, #500womenscientists, #500queerscientists to identify accounts to follow in your field, such as @GeoLatinas, @Science_inColor, and @DiversifyEEB. When you tweet out your opportunities, they’ll help amplify them to their followers. But take the chance to learn from them too.
• The Avarna organization provides learning experiences, assessments, implementation planning, mentorship and coaching, intentional convenings, and resources for the outdoor and environmental sector. They have made their toolkit for mitigating bias in recruitment and hiring freely available.
• Establish connections with programs that are broadening participation in STEM. If you have an existing relationship, they may share opportunities with their alumni lists or reshare your postings on social media. Examples:
  • American Geophysical Union’s Bridge program offers a common graduate school application for partner programs that adheres to best recruiting practices. Consider becoming a partner, if your program isn’t already.
  • Ecological Society of America: SEEDS. SEEDS’ mission is to diversify and advance the ecology profession through opportunities that stimulate and nurture the interest of underrepresented students to participate, and to lead in ecology.
  • Doris Duke Foundation: Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program. DDCSP works to increase the number of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups who choose to pursue coursework and careers in conservation.
  • American Museum of Natural History’s Enhancing Diversity in Conservation Science Initiative. The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History works to build bridges with faculty at minority-serving institutions and promote student diversity in conservation-related fields.
  • The Environmental Data Science Inclusion Network (EDSIN) is dedicated to facilitating and supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion within the environmental and data science fields.
  • Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) is an undergraduate-to-graduate bridge program designed to broaden participation of historically underrepresented communities in the atmospheric and related sciences.
  • The Nature Conservancy: Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future. The LEAF program provides paid summer internships for high school students and helps educators from environmental high schools share best practices and scientific resources.
  • National Council for Science and the Environment: EnvironMentors. EnvironMentors is NCSE’s youth mentoring and college preparation program for underrepresented high school students across the country.
• Identify and build relationships with faculty and administrative contacts in your field at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), MSI (minority serving institutions), and tribal colleges. They can help steer outstanding students and alumni toward your opportunities.
• Community colleges also often have more diverse student bodies than R1 universities. A conversation led by the Undergraduate Field Research Network (UFERN) suggests approaches to building strong relationships with community colleges.
• Many identity-specific organizations have job boards and will share announcements for a small fee. Plan to include these recruitment expenses whenever you budget for a new position.
  • Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Opportunities Board (fellowships, RFPs, student opportunities) is free — and they also have a resume bank. Job opportunities (including postdocs) go on the jobs board, which starts at $309 for a 30-day posting.
  • American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) ($300 for 30 days and email to >15,000 subscribers
  • Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) ($150 for 30 days)
  • Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES) ($150 for 30 days)
  • Minority Postdoc ($400 for one month)

Research Experience for Undergraduates anti-harassment curriculum from the IRIs internship program.

Many current studies are finding that standardized admissions tests, including the GRE, do a poor job of predicting academic success and tend to reduce access by under represented groups.  WE’ll be working to add resources on alternative selection approaches.

• The GRE fails to identify students that will graduate and hurts diversity, new study finds
• Typical physics Ph.D. admissions criteria limit access to underrepresented groups but fail to predict doctoral completion, Casey W. Miller et al. 2019. Science Advances.
• #GeoGRExit: Why Geosciences Programs Are Dropping the GRE (EOS)
• To GRE or not to GRE (Speaking of GeoScience)

Seeking Funding

The LTER Network Office and the Diversity Committee maintains a Zotero Library of DEI-related publications, which can provide a head start when researching evidence-based practices and developing new programs.

Additional funding opportunities for programs and individual fellowships include:

• Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) is a comprehensive effort to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering discovery and innovation by proactively seeking and effectively developing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent from all sectors and groups in our society.
• Ford Foundation Fellowships. Predoctoral, Dissertation, and Postdoctoral fellowships will be awarded in a national competition administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on behalf of the Ford Foundation.
• National Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowships provide research experience in federal agencies, including EPA, NOAA.
• The Mendenhall Research Fellowship Program of the U.S. Geological Service (USGS) provides an opportunity for postdoctoral fellows to conduct concentrated research in association with USGS scientists, often as a final element to their formal career preparation.
• NASA funds postdoctoral and early-career investigators in Earth science through their New Investigator Program. The new investigator must be the PI on the proposal.
• NSF Division of Earth Sciences offers postdoctoral awards. Award is made to individuals early in their careers, not to the associated institutions.
• Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowships. The program is intended to recognize beginning investigators of significant potential and provide them with experience in research that will broaden perspectives, facilitate interdisciplinary interactions and help establish them in leadership positions within the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences community.
• OECD Cooperative Research Program Fellowships. Supports conferences and travel fellowships, esp. in areas related to the OECD agriculture program,
• Simons Postdoctoral Fellowships in Marine Microbial Ecology, application made by individual (up to 3 years post-PhD), award only to institution.
• Simons Foundation Early Career awards in Marine Microbial Ecology, (More than one year and less than 8 years in a tenure track or equivalent position.
• Remember to investigate individual institutional programs for supporting diverse grad students and postdocs. The UC system, for example, has an entire program.
  

Building Community

For now – Twitter Lists and accounts to follow. More to come soon.

• Black AF in STEM, organizers of #BlackBirdersWeek
• Black and STEM’s list of lists to find Black researchers by discipline
• BLACKSTEM Global’s list of influencers
• Black Lives Matter’s list of chapters
• Mary Annaïse Heglar’s list of Green Voices of Color
• HBCU STEM Network
• 1stGenSTEM
• BlackWomenSTEM

Evidence that Diversity Improves Problem Solving and Creativity

Diverse teams incorporate different perspectives, promote healthy debate, and balance biases between team members. Research supports the idea that team collaboration is improved when women participate in a group. The phenomenon of diverse groups outperforming groups with similar constituents also seems to hold true for other types of identity diversity (i.e. race or culture) as well as functional diversity (i.e. diversity in how people solve problems). Emotional intelligence between group members can also improve group performance.

• The Diversity-Innovation Paradox in Science. PNAS. 2020.
  By analyzing data from nearly all US PhD recipients and their dissertations across three decades, this paper finds demographically underrepresented students innovate at higher rates than majority students, but their novel contributions are discounted and less likely to earn them academic positions. The discounting of minorities’ innovations may partly explain their underrepresentation in influential positions of academia.
• Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science
• Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers
• Why are some groups smarter than others?
• Research team performance