Diversity and Inclusion: Creating an Equitable Future

Myrbo, A. Yacobucci, P. Lundgren, L., Loeffler, S., and Kirakosian, K. (2018) Diversity and Inclusion: Creating an Equitable Future. EarthRates, Minneapolis, MN. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xW041p44MoXSPmvNLcaBw1UtW4SkIi55/view

Implicit biases have deep cultural roots, and by definition may be unrecognized (Srivastava & Banaji, 2011). In spite of research evidence supporting the prevalence of implicit and explicit bias, many remain skeptical. Mandatory diversity training and other awarenessraising efforts may be met with resistance. It is difficult to reach the people who most need to be convinced of the value of inclusion (Ranganath & Nosek, 2008).
Broader impacts can be seen as a box to be checked, and often get short shrift in proposals relative to scientific questions (Lok, 2010). Principal investigators may feel unprepared or unqualified to engage in broader impacts work, lacking training and support in these areas.
Much of our impact occurs in one-on-one or one-on-few interactions, making it hard to scale up our successes. This places a burden on the most effective members of the diversity community and takes time and energy away from the academic research that is considered in merit reviews and promotions.

W H A T W O U LD IT T AKE TO AD D R E S S TH E S E C H ALLE N G E S ?
Images of ?white men standing on top of mountains? are routinely used to represent the geosciences. These stereotypical portrayals alone can be barriers to the recruitment of diverse students into the discipline, as they exclude diversity in race, gender, ability, socioeconomic status, and preference (e.g., lab or modeling rather than field science). Children, parents, teachers, and undergraduates should see the many different ways of becoming and being a geoscientist be exposed to the wide range of questions geoscientists pursue. Next Generation Science Standards for K-12 education now include geoscience; whether this addition puts more students into the pipeline remains to be seen.
Scaling up the successes of individual and group diversity efforts requires empowering people to take specific, concrete actions that promote inclusive environments. Organizational research has shown that cultural change within an organization can happen if 40% of its mem bers endorse the change (Tolbert et al., 1995). We need to identify and train potential change leaders in order to shape inclusive scientific communities and make attention to inclusion part of what it means to be a professional scientist (St. John et al., 2016). The NSF GOLD program (GEO Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity) is one effort that seeks to develop and sustain such leaders.
To address the resource barriers to full participation in the geosciences, funds could be requested in grant proposals, and made available by funding agencies, to enhance support of students with family obligations, to establish field gear pools or rent gear for student interns, and to support conference travel. Another significant resource barrier relates to childcare (Orzechowski and Mc-Mullen, 2017). We need to normalize the availability of affordable childcare at meetings (from smaller workshops to AGU-size meetings) and provide support (financial, logistical, empathetic) for families to accompany an REU student to the REU site. GSA? s On To the Future (OTF) grants support underrepresented minority attendees for their first GSA conference (Geological Society of America, 2017); however, more funding for more students at conferences is needed.
Formal certification or ?badging? is an incentive for university departments and other institutions to do the hard and intentional work of creating a more welcoming and inclusive scientific com munity. Everyone deserves equal opportunities to pursue education and careers in the geosciences. We are not efficiently harnessing our potential human resources, at a time when the geosciences are increasingly critical to ensuring humanity? s survival and well-being. More, and more diverse, perspectives translates into more robust science that is more responsive increasingly critical and diverse societal needs.
In the geosciences, a number of initiatives have addressed diversity and inclusion, including engaging and recruiting underrepresented minorities in high school (e.g., White et al., 2004;White, 2013;Wernette et al., 2017). However, more work can and should be done, especially if societies and organizations establish standards from the top down. For example, in astronomy, the community created inclusivity standards, including removing barriers to access, creating inclusive spaces, and establishing a community based on inclusive practice (American

Innovation and Transformation
Astronomical Society, 2015). The American Geophysical Union recently updated their ethics policy to categorize discriminatory and harassing behavior as scientific misconduct (American Geophysical Union, 2017), and opened a revised Equity and Diversity statement to public comment. These are strong steps to ensure that inclusive learning and working spaces become the norm within our discipline and in STEM, more broadly.
Our future challenge is to ensure these sorts of representation continue as well as supporting alternative and new representations and imagery of geoscientists. Talented people are more receptive to STEM fields that have made much more progress in changing their public image. We cannot afford to lose out in recruiting and retaining the next generation of geoscientists. This would negatively impact our discipline for generations to come.
Students in the NSF-funded Sustainable Land and Water Resources Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) walk out into their research site, a floating bog on the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation in northern Minnesota. Photo by Amy Myrbo