Unpacking Diversity's Next Steps

For the past four years, Unpacking Diversity has conducted a grassroots and self-fundraised campaign to create an intentional space for learning about social justice, diversity, and inclusivity in the geosciences, in CEOAS and the broader OSU campus. Our three keynote events and 14 facilitated seminars have enriched the campus dialogue around inclusion and anti-racism and have been attended by more than 600 students/staff/faculty/affiliates representing over 22 institutions. Our efforts were recognized by the President’s Commission on the Status of Women in 2020 with their Community Builder award, and two of our members are now invited Fellows of the CDLS at UCLA.

Our self-organized leadership team has carried the burden of this community enrichment program and its fundraising efforts while simultaneously engaging in our own rigorous research and scholarly work - an unfortunate and common example of Women of Color doing the work on behalf of their organizations.

Moving forward, Unpacking Diversity will continue to expand our reach on the national level by engaging our institutional partners and scientific societies. As a result, Unpacking Diversity, effective immediately, will no longer be organizing events at the OSU/CEOAS level. This email address (unpackingdiversity.ceoas@gmail.com) will remain active, and we encourage any students to reach out with any future inquiries or requests.

We appreciate those who have engaged with us over these past four years. If you have valued our contributions, the best way to continue this work is to amplify our Demands for Change that were presented to leadership, and hold leadership accountable for change.

In solidarity,

The Unpacking Diversity Professional Learning Community

We earned the 2020 PCOSW Community Builder Award

We are proud to announce that we have earned OSU's President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCOSW) Community Builder Award. This prestigious award honors an individual or group in the OSU community whose work contributes significantly to the campus environment through the advocacy of gender equity. Our ongoing work to build relationships across various disciplinary groups and institutional offices was highlighted in the nomination.

This award is one of five given during the annual Breaking Barriers Celebration coordinated by the PCOSW, the Office of Institutional Diversity, the Office of the Provost, and OSU Athletics. While the annual Celebration was postponed until next year due to COVID-19, the PCOSW will create a video to celebrate Unpacking Diversity as well as the rest of this year’s Breaking Barriers award recipients.

Learn more about the Commission and its mission at: https://leadership.oregonstate.edu/pcosw/about

We presented a celebratory slide to kick off this year's first session

Thank you, SACNAS!

We would like to thank the organizers of 2020 SACNAS for giving us space to host a workshop in which we shared experiences, tips, and guidelines for folks who are interested in creating their own professional learning communities, especially in predominantly white institutions.

This was a special event for us, as the presenting team included 3 co-founders who founded the PLC in 2017, and 3 organizers who joined in 2018! Organizing a conference session during a pandemic is not an easy feat, nor is attending a virtual session at a conference with numerous overlapping sessions. We deeply appreciated the presence of 100+ attendees and thank the audience for the comments and thoughtful questions. We hope to continue to contribute to a community of like-minded STEM leaders who prioritize social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Complete Flyer text:

Title: "Creating our own spaces of inclusion. Advocating for equity by women graduate students of color in predominantly white fields".

Date: Thursday, October 22

Time: 1-2 PM PDT (UTC-7)

This session will provide students and early career professionals with approaches for promoting equity and social justice in STEM disciplines. Panelists will share their process of establishing a learning community as an effort to create spaces of inclusion in fields historically dominated by white men.

Participants will be invited to imagine and consider how they might realize social justice outcomes at their respective institutions.

Optional pre-registration link provided.