Open AccessScientific Societies Advancing STEM Workforce Diversity: Lessons and Outcomes from the Minorities Affairs Committee of the American Society for Cell Biology
Author(s) -
Verónica A. Segarra,
Sydella Blatch,
Michael Boyce,
Franklin Carrero-Martínez,
Renato J. Aguilera,
Michael J. Leibowitz,
Maria Elena Zavala,
Latanya Hammonds-Odie,
Ashanti Edwards
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of microbiology and biology education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.301
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 1935-7885
pISSN - 1935-7877
DOI - 10.1128/jmbe.v21i1.1941
Subject(s) - workforce , diversity (politics) , diversification (marketing strategy) , engineering ethics , political science , underrepresented minority , public relations , medical education , medicine , business , engineering , marketing , law
Promoting diversity and inclusiveness in the STEM academic workforce remains a key challenge and national priority. Scientific societies can play a significant role in this process through the creation and implementation of programs to foster STEM academic workforce diversification, and by providing mentoring and skills development training that empower scientists from under-represented minority (URM) backgrounds to succeed in their communities of practice. In this article, we provide examples of challenges met by scientific societies in these areas and present data from the American Society for Cell Biology, highlighting the benefits received by trainees through long-term engagement with its programs. The success of these initiatives illustrates the impact of discipline-specific programming by scientific societies in supporting the development of URM scientists and an increasingly diverse and inclusive academic STEM community.