Past as prologue: Lessons from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force

Figures & data

Figure 1. Lamont Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force Makeup 2020. The Lamont Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force was appointed by the administration and made up of 18 members, four exofficio members, and three co-chairs from different levels of the Lamont community. (a) Task Force Composition. The composition is broken up by position, institute, and division; (b) Working Group Process. The second phase of the Task Force process, Working Groups, was determined after five iterations of practice rounds with different groupings of Task Force members until the final Working Groups were free of harmful power dynamics and optimal for research progress; (c) Working Group Template. Each Working Group worked through this template to develop ideas and compile resources around their Working Group theme.

Figure 2. Institutional DEI History and Task Force Timelines. (a) Lamont’s history of action on DEI started in 2005, with the ADVANCE grant, which focused on institutional transformation and increasing the number of women scientists. As a result of the ADVANCE program, the Office of Academic Affairs was established in 2008, new search committee guidelines were implemented in 2009, and the Research Professor track was established and expanded in 2010. Other DEI actions were spearheaded by the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity (OAAD) after its creation, but the next largest institutional step focusing on DEI was not until July 2020, when the LDEI Task Force was created. The Task Force Report of recommendations for institutional and individual action on DEI was delivered to the administration on January 15, 2021. After this, the Task Force was no longer in action (the vertical red line denotes the end of the LDEI Task Force); (b) Lamont Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force Process. The Task Force was created in July 2020 and began with Information Gathering, doing research on DEI actions and running practice working groups (see Figure 1). After deciding on four specific themes around which to organize, we split into Working Groups to deeply delve into themes to create specific recommendations. Report writing commenced in October, and culminated in a Report that was delivered to the administration on January 15, 2021.

Table 1. Example of a few compiled priorities, SMART goals, and recommendations.

Priority (P)	SMART goal (SG)	Progress measurement	Who will achieve?	Timeline	Individual actionable recommendations
P3.2 Ensure accessible training on core- and supplemental DEI topics are available yearly, and encourage everyone (especially supervisors) to participate in at least three per year.	SG22 Ensure accessible training on core and supplemental topics are available yearly and accessible online and encourage PIs and officers to participate in at least three per year.	Track all available trainings (in person and online) Track attendance at each training Track number of trainings each PI attends	Office of Academic Affairs & Diversity (OAAD)	Short Term (less than six months)	Inclusive Culture: We recommend training tailored to leadership roles, e.g., unconscious bias training in search and admission committees.
P2.4 Encourage a broad curriculum that reaffirms our DEI commitments and goals.	SG33 Provide support for Lamont affiliates leading cutting-edge curriculum development that reaffirms our DEI commitments and goals (e.g., Race, Climate Change, & Environmental Justice Seminar; workshops run by DEES faculty who are imbuing DEI in their existing classes).	Evaluate how many current courses include DEI in their curriculum Support the development of new and expanded curricula to further incorporate DEI into courses Ensure inclusivity and DEI support are made clear to faculty, TAs, and students	Administration, Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences (DEES)	Short Term (less than six months)	Supporting Success: Encourage DEI efforts of interested Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) to become a publishable effort/thesis chapter to better recognize the value of these efforts within and outside LDEO.

The Priorities are 15 overarching goals identified within the Working Groups, which must all be addressed to meet the challenges we face within and beyond our institution. The SMART Goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, and Timely Goals that summarize individual recommendation themes and goals outlined within the Working Group recommendations. The LDEI Task Force Report first lays out the Priorities, then delineates SMART Goals, and finally provides individual recommendations in a narrative context within the Working Group chapters. This table compiles each of these component parts of our roadmap for action and change on specific topics, and is not an exhaustive representation of the recommendations provided in the full report (See Supplement).

Figure 3. LDEO Demographics 2005–2020. Data from OAAD, 2020 and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES). Graduate student demographics, provided by DEES, is in the format used for reporting to the NSF/National Institutes of Health, and as such includes US citizens only. All other populations shown here (Research Professors, Postdoctoral Researchers, Research Scientists) include people of any nationality. The left column shows compiled demographics from 2005 to 2020 in percent URM and percent minority for Graduate students, Lamont Research Professors, Postdoctoral Researchers, and Research Scientists. The right column shows numerical demographics broken down by position, race, and binary gender for Lamont Research Professors, Research Scientists, and Postdoctoral Researchers from 2005 to 2020.

Figure 4. Working Groups and Priorities. Graphical representation of the four Working Groups and the Priorities that were synthesized from their recommendations. Yellow circle, upper right - Inclusive Culture. Green circle, upper left - Supporting Success. Red circle, lower right - Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion. Blue circle, lower left - Building Bridges. The numbers refer to each of the Key Priorities, some of which were drawn from multiple different working group recommendations, as indicated by the overlapping areas in the figure. The full list of Priorities is available in the Supplement.

Table 2. Task Force Working Groups—focus areas and results.

Working Group	Focus	Research areas	Key Priority examples
Inclusive Culture	Building community Training Reporting structure	Analyze current community events The institution’s Code of Conduct The institution’s accessibility plan Columbia University’s resources	Ensure that accessible trainings on core and supplemental DEI topics are available yearly, and encourage everyone (especially supervisors) to participate in at least three per year (P3.2).
Supporting Success	Support for all career tracks Mentoring and training Community support and DEI service Supporting workplace health Infusing DEI into existing funding streams	Mentoring at all levels Cultural shift toward mutual respect and normalizing community service and DEI work Recognizing and compensating work that goes above and beyond job responsibilities	Overhaul mentoring to address current shortcomings and the needs of diverse cohorts, at both the individual (e.g., 360-review) and group (e.g., values statements) levels (P1.5).
Recruitment, Retention, and Promotion	Increasing institutional support (strengthening and streamlining programs) Incentivizing and empowering individual and community engagement with DEI infrastructure and activities	Hiring additional staff who can commit to sustaining successful partnerships and programming A more efficient system to link grant writers to outreach opportunities Long-term commitments to investing funds for DEI	Invest in underrepresented scholars through cohort-based recruitment at all levels, from graduate students to scientists and staff (P1.1).
Building Bridges	Creating partnerships that emphasize the mutually beneficial exchange of ideas, information, and perspectives to connect: The institution with external communities Communities and individuals within the institution and the university as a whole The institution with the public	Primary friction points in developing meaningful, reciprocal relationships with other institutions and members of the broader communities the institution engages with were: Funding Incentives Time availability Administrative barriers	Develop institutional relationships with minority serving institutions (P1.3).

All institution specific recommendations can be found in the Supplement. The Priorities, SMART Goals, and recommendations from all Working Groups provide an outline for a scientific community that is fundamentally inclusive, equitable, and anti-racist. These recommendations are meant to create a new foundation for science, transform the culture of institutions, and build a community that has the capacity to continually grow in its reach and scope. Each of the priorities identified has associated SMART goals and detailed recommendations for implementation (see examples in Table 1 and full list of Priorities in Supplement).

Office of Academic Affairs and Diversity (OAAD). (2020). LDEO Demographics data. Available upon request from K. Dutt (LDEO) and S. Odland (DEES).

 Google Scholar