Diversity at Carnegie

What we’re doing 

The Carnegie Institution for Science has a deep commitment to scientific excellence and to increased diversity and equity in STEM fields. At the Department of Global Ecology, we are working to make our policies, practices, and culture more inclusive in an effort to promote broader participation in science, technology, engineering, and math. We’re currently working on these activities:

Departmental level 

1. We have been holding weekly departmental Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) meetings (if you’d like to participate please contact Wu Sun.)
2. We are working to improve our search and hiring practices with the help and consultation of Dr. Stephanie Goodwin, consultant and founder of Incluxion Works, Inc.

• We have created a list of organizations where we would advertise new positions to promote greater diversity in the applicant pool.
• We have created inclusive job advertisements for postdoctoral positions and three new PI level positions to encourage scientists from underrepresented groups to apply.
• Search committee members and other members of the department participated in Goodwin’s workshop entitled “Implementing an inclusive search”.
• Postdocs and graduate students have been included in the hiring process for PI level positions.

Institutional level 

1. In July 2020, the Carnegie institution convened a DEI Committee with representation from all departments and initiated a full institutional review led by Anat Shahar. The review highlighted institutional challenges and successes, identified future priorities and recommendations, and outlined relevant timelines to address these recommendations. The final report is expected January 2021.
2. The institution convened a Postdoctoral subcommittee, a task force charged with understanding and improving the experience of postdocs in the institution as they relate to issues of DEI. One-on-one interviews of postdocs were conducted and recommendations from them were delivered to the institution-level DEI committee. 
3. The institution contracted an outside group to conduct a workplace climate survey to gather thoughts and concerns from Carnegie employees on a number of issues related to Carnegie’s organizational culture and workplace environment.

External partnership:

          Carnegie is a partner in AGU’s Ethics and Equity Center.