Our focus on diversity

Today marks the two-week anniversary of the National Diversity Equity Workshop (NDEW2013) that we organized in Arlignton, VA. Over 70 chemistry department chairs, representatives, sociologists and federal agency program officers participated in this very hands-on effort. I'm happy to report that several of the department representatives have gone back to their departments (in faculty meetings or in other public forums) to discuss diversity equity in the recruitment, retention and promotion of their students (undergraduates through postdocs) and their faculty. This makes me optimistic that diversity equity is becoming a true driver for academic excellence!

NDEW 2013 is one of OXIDE's activities, as funded by a consortium of agencies (NSF, DOE, and NIH) back in August 2012 to work with department heads across the nation in a top-down effort to remove diversity inequities that may be stalling our efforts to achieve commensurate demographics in our faculties. The Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE) is a partnership between Chemistry Department Chairs, Social Scientists, and everyone in between... The initiation of this effort was featured on the Georgia Tech College of Sciences web pages... “OXIDE Aims to Find the Best Minds for the Job”.