Woods Hole Diversity Initiative Releases First Update Since 2018 Report
Sixteen years after the Woods Hole Diversity Initiative came to be, the six institutions involved in the effort have gotten together to re-sign the initial memorandum of understanding and release a 2021 update on their progress to creating a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable environment in the village, their field, and beyond.
Since the initial signing of the memorandum in 2004 by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Marine Biological Laboratory, NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center, US Geological Survey, Woodwell Climate Research Center, and Sea Education Association, the initiative has been reupped twice, the first of which being in 2012 and now again in 2021.
Robert Thieler, current chairman of the diversity initiative, said that these most recent reflections on its mission and impact are crucial in actually achieving set goals and expanding.
“Having a diverse scientific community is essential,” he said. “It has always been, and it only becomes more so in this century and beyond. There are global challenges that we can only address with strong and broad perspectives and a wide variety of skillsets and representation.”
Dr. Thieler said that science — specifically geosciences, which is his field of expertise — is historically a white male-dominated field.
“We are, as a result, intellectually lacking and experientially lacking the kinds of perspectives and skills that we will need to address all the global challenges that our institutions address as part of our very diverse mission around ocean science and engineering and education,” Dr. Thieler said. “And we won't be relevant in this century without drawing on a broader base of talent and creating a more inclusive and supportive.”
The initiative to comprehensively survey the WHDI mission as it is applied to the institutions started before Dr. Thieler’s time and was spearheaded by Dr. Susan Gardner of NOAA in Woods Hole.
She engaged Dr. Robert Livingston of Harvard, who worked with WHDI in 2018 to compile a comprehensive reporter on the institutions and the initiative as a whole, and recommended avenues of improvement when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Dr. Livingston’s report, Dr. Thieler said, uncovered some “uncomfortable truths” but gave them an honest look, which allowed them to organize their mission in the most effective way possible. It was largely taken as a call to action on three major fronts: diversity, inclusion, and shared learning.
“Each institution is keeping records of what we are doing and how things are working and how we are being accountable,” Dr. Thieler said. “And there have been a number of pre-existing and post-Livingston report grassroots efforts led by members of our community [or] led by people in the institutions that have been hugely important in acting on aspects of the Livingston report.”
Though the 2021 update does not represent a comprehensive look at everything being done at all six institutions, it does give a broad overview of the vast effort being undertaken to step up inclusivity in both the science field and the greater Falmouth community.
The initial report by Dr. Livingston identified six actionable items to lay the foundation of the WHDI. These included creating an official statement on diversity and inclusion at each institution, establishing more inclusive and diverse hiring processes, and fostering more community engagement. The 2021 update states that while the institutions still continue to make progress, these are not the kind of problems that can be quickly resolved, and the purpose of these updates is to allow the institutions to assess where they’re at and help identify the best strategies for catalyzing change.
Based on the 2021 update, one of the WHDI’s bigger initiatives is a partnership with local schools as a broader community outreach initiative. The WHDI is engaging with minority-serving schools and local schools to provide more access to Woods Hole’s many scientific institutions. More specifically, The Woods Hole Partnership was developed after all six institutions signed a memorandum with Falmouth Public Schools to begin integrating Woods Hole science and scientists into the school curriculum at multiple grade levels. The program was slightly delayed due to the pandemic and is therefore still being strategized. These community outreach programs, along with countless others underway across all six institutions, serve to bring people into Woods Hole, one of the key actions to improving diversity efforts in the village.
Aside from local outreach to school-aged youth, the WHDI institutions have also stepped up their on-site recruitment presence at various historically Black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions across the country. The goal is that with each of the institutions doing their job to actively recruit and make themselves present to diverse applicants and interested candidates, they’re acting to “widen the net,” something that Dr. Livingston recommended in his report.
WHDI is also actively engaging with the community of Woods Hole and is hoping to engage with the greater Falmouth community when it comes to increasing inclusion and welcoming diversity. The WHDI formed the Diversity Advisory Committee to help carry out diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the community. Dr. Thieler said he’s looking forward to seeing how the relationship between the WHDI institutions and the larger community grows through the efforts of the committee.
Building an inclusive Woods Hole is a priority for the WHDI. As part of this initiative, various employee resource groups have been established, and a campaign has been launched to diversify the art visible around the various Woods Hole campuses. One example took place at MBL, where the display of prominent scientists in the lobby of the Lillie building was changed to the new “Legacy of Leadership” wall, which is described in the update as featuring 10 scientists who “better reflect the contributions of diverse MBL scientists.”
When it comes to hiring, the WHDI has taken the initiative to implement new policies and hiring guidelines to promote equity and diversity in all of its institutions. In addition to conducting antiracism workshops and inclusion training, the WHDI institutions have also implemented diverse hiring panels and strengthened recruitment protocols. WHOI, for example, has created multiple human resource positions focused on enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in hiring, recruitment, and training.
While not an exhaustive list of all diversity initiatives going on in Woods Hole, Dr. Thieler says that the 2021 update to Dr. Livingston’s report is just one of the first steps in a long-term commitment to promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in both the scientific institutions and the village.
“In a word, it's exciting,” Dr. Thieler said. “There are very few places that are Woods Hole. You know, one would argue there's nowhere to like Woods Hole that has this kind of mix of institutions is situated in this kind of community. We're not a big university or not a small liberal arts college. We are two federal agencies from different cabinet departments with different missions and four very different private educational research institutions As a scientist, how can you not be excited by that?”
The full 2021 update can be read online at the Woods Hole Diversity Advisory Committee website.