Transcript LIGO Lab Diversity Activities Fred Raab LIGO Lab Diversity Officer

LIGO Lab Diversity Activities
Fred Raab
LIGO Lab Diversity Officer
Head, LIGO Hanford Observatory
18Nov08
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Outline
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What we said (last year) we wanted to do…
What NSF decided we wanted to do…
What we did…
What we need to do…
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Shown to NSF Visiting Panel in 2007
LIGO Diversity Committee
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Members:
» Fred Raab, Chair
» Cindy Akutagawa, LIGO Lab contact with Caltech HR, committee
secretary and participant
» Warren Buck, Chancellor Emeritus, University of Washington,
Bothell
» Corey Gray, operator, LIGO Hanford Observatory
» Nergis Mavalvala, Ass’t Prof., LIGO MIT
» Marisela Mendoza, Retention Specialist, Columbia Basin College,
Pasco, WA
» Deborah Muhammed, Educator, LIGO Science Education Center
» Amber Stuver, Postdoctoral Scholar, LIGO Livingston Observatory
» Carol Wilkinson, AdLIGO Project Manager, LIGO Hanford Observ.
» Stan Whitcomb, LIGO Chief Scientist, LIGO Caltech
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Shown to NSF Visiting Panel in 2007
Diversity Committee Charge
The committee will advise the Directorate about actions that
can be taken to move the Laboratory forward towards our
goal of providing opportunities for underrepresented
minorities and women to join our staff and to thrive
professionally.
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Items of business:
» efforts to increase diversity among applicants for future LIGO hires
» efforts to increase diversity in the undergraduate research applicant
pool
» evaluation of potential barriers to a diversity-friendly environment
within LIGO
» assessment strategies: establishing a baseline and measuring
progress
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In Feb 2008, NSF requested that we
also submit a formal diversity plan
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LIGO Laboratory Diversity Plan (M080380) draft
available to panel; under review by Diversity Committee
Plan emphasizes pro-activity:
» LIGO Lab values diversity as essential to the creative process of
science.
» Broad definition of inclusion awareness: gender, ethnicity and race;
also disabilities and different sexual orientations, languages, academic
training, economic classes, backgrounds, etc.
» All Lab members have a responsibility to encourage diversity;
accomplishments will be formally recognized on annual employee
performance reviews.
» Diversity Officer will interface with Directorate and Diversity Committee
to establish annual goals, report progress and adjust strategies if goals
are not being met.
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Lab Diversity Plan (cont’d)
» Progress will be compiled and tracked on Lab demographics, REU
applicants and awardees, numbers of under-served and underrepresented touched by education & public outreach programs.
» Recrutiment measures emphasize advertising/exhibiting to reach
target audiences as well as networking with institutions and people
with connections to targeted communities.
» Retention: The Lab will actively seek the opinions of women and
minority members on ways we can better foster success.
(Egregious issues of discrimination or harassment will be dealt with
through Caltech Ombuds Office and HR disciplinary paths.)
» Forging a more inclusive pipeline: LIGO EPO efforts have hands-on
access to large numbers of under-served and under-represented;
explicit focus on awareness of STEM careers and pathways.
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Actions recommended by Diversity
Committee
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Continue expansion of EPO programs to widen input
pipeline for under-represented groups
EPO should include a careers component (already
present to some extent; perhaps more explicit?)
LIGO should be represented at job fairs attended
heavily by under-represented groups
LIGO should network with schools that have dense
populations of under-represented groups
LIGO should develop standard way to have job
openings highly visible to under-represented groups
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Progress since Sep 2007
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Diversity Officer and Diversity Committee in place, at work
Draft of formal Lab Diversity Plan available to visiting panel and
under review by Diversity Committee.
Tracking system largely in place; should be reporting by year
end.
Procedure for routine postings of job searches to strategic
online sites begun in collaboration with HR.
Annual exhibitions at annual meetings of NSBP/NSHP and
SACNAS begun this year; raised LIGO awareness through
hundreds of personal contacts.
Nergis Mavalvala represented LIGO in US Delegation at IUPAP
Conference on Women in Physics
Seminars at Caltech & LHO by Vanessa Lauberg (promising
African-American Astronomy Ph.D. candidate from U.Md.,
arranged by Stan Whitcomb)
LIGO Management Workshop discussion of diversity
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To do:
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Finalize and implement Lab Diversity Plan
Finalize tracking system and compile baseline numbers for 2007
and 2008.
Initiate LIGO workplace examination
» In what ways is the LIGO Lab diversity friendly or unfriendly and how can
we improve?
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Identify 2009 Goals (start with this slide!)
Develop network contacts list
» Request leads from “connected” individuals
» Develop announcements of opportunities for interns, speakers, visitors
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Increase number of job fairs and programs targeting specific
groups
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Summary
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We have created a program over the last 15 months
Will need expansion and tweaking based on assessments
Like other challenges, we will make progress
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