Creating inclusive workspaces that foster and support BAJEDI leaders in the Big Ten Academic Alliance of geoscientists

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).

This project will advance knowledge of the barriers within geoscience academia that prevent the development of diversity champions, and help identify strategies to create and sustain cohorts of diversity leaders in geoscience at The Ohio State University and the wider Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA). The PI will organize a set of convenings of geoscientists with strong engagement from social and behavioral science experts to create and administer institutional climate surveys with an eye towards results-based action plans, developing BAJED1 faculty leaders in the geosciences, and providing professional development training in BAJED1 for graduate students and postdocs who will soon be on the job market.

Studies have demonstrated that diversity sparks innovation with underrepresented groups producing higher rates of scientific novelty. Yet, there is an innovation-diversity paradox because the underrepresented groups that diversify scientific organizations have less successful careers within academia (Hofstra et al. 2020). Geoscience in particular continues to lag behind other STEM fields in creating an inclusive community of diverse scholars.

The main objective of this project is the creation of results-based implementation that focuses on training and support of BAJEDI (Belonging Access Justice Equity Diversity Inclusion) leaders at Ohio State and the broader Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA). The activities outlined in this project will address two key questions. (1) What barriers exist within geoscience academia that prevent the development of diversity champions? (2) What strategies could be employed to create and sustain cohorts of diversity leaders to maximize collective impact?

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.