Author: Alysha Shugart
Affiliation: Gemini South/AURA Observatory
Country: Chile
Title: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Practices at International Observatories
The merits of strong and transparent diversity and inclusion initiatives within scientific organizations are becoming more recognized. Data from cross-disciplinary studies show the benefits of diverse working groups, for problem solving to improvements in production in for-profit businesses. Besides workplace culture improvement, these programs can provide direct benefits to the individuals working for the organization, as well as working groups within the organization. Diversity has historically received much more attention than the subject of inclusion, but more recent studies have shown the incompleteness of a program that focuses only on diversity improvement, rather than giving equal attention to fostering an inclusive workplace. Even with a diverse staff, the work is not done. Organizations must aim to have low employee-turnover rates which maintain that diverse staff. Employee retention and contentment are shown to directly correlate with an inclusive workplace environment, so the second goal is to generate awareness of the importance of an inclusive workplace and what exactly that means. The goals of this paper and accompanying talk are as follows: 1) To report the findings of recent studies that research the benefits of diversity in an organization; 2) To emphasize the importance of inclusion in the workplace, and illustrate how the picture is not complete without a plan in place to foster an inclusive environment; 3) To put these data into the context of observatory operations, explain how these programs can positively impact operations working groups, and provide examples of ongoing diversity and inclusion activities at multi-national astronomy organizations. The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) is developing a new organizational structure for their ground-based nighttime optical and infrared facilities. This new organization will bridge these facilities and their support groups into one matrix structure with locations and employees in Hawaii, Arizona, and Chile. We will discuss the current status of the ongoing development of the diversity, equity, and inclusion plan of AURAÕs nighttime facilities.
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[5]: Alysha Shugart, Claire Raftery, Stephen T. Ridgway, Stacey R. Sueoka, Dara J. Norman, Chris Yamasaki, “Diversity and inclusion in observatory operations: Advocating for and implementing positive change”, Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 10704, 107040J (2018)