At the end of April, Geography, GIS and 可持续性 Professor Chelsie Romulo, Ph.D., 收到一封让她措手不及的邮件. 这封邮件是一封邀请函 to a top-tier educational and professional experience at none other than the White 房子.  

“我以为这是垃圾邮件，”罗慕洛笑着说. “然后我在谷歌上搜索了这个活动，它看起来 like a real thing, so I immediately reached out to my team to see who could join me.” 

的 invitation was to the 2024 White 房子 Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence: 到2050年推动进步和繁荣. 的 白宫科技与政策办公室 和 stem机会联盟 co-hosted the event to bring together leaders across multiple industries to discuss ways to increase diversity, equity and access to careers in STEMM (Science, Technology, 工程、数学和医学). 

的 invitation offered space for two people to attend, Romulo and another colleague. 教授和性别研究主席和谐纽曼博士.D.他高兴地抓住了这个机会 来陪罗慕洛. 

“这是如此出乎意料和令人惊讶. 感觉很超现实，”纽曼说.  

这对夫妇急于这样做 分享他们在STEMM公平和di方面的专业知识和知识scuss ways minority communities could pursue STEMM careers at the nation’s top leader’s 并迅速安排了参加为期一天的活动的机票和酒店.  

“的 first half of the day we listened to guest speakers who work in government, academia, private sector and non-profits who all had these amazing stories related to equity in STEMM or overcoming really stressful situations related to their identities to 成为领导者，”罗慕洛说.  

Later that afternoon, attendees broke out in different sessions, and Romulo and Newman 选择参加一个与高等教育有关的会议.  

“的 hosts discussed nurturing curiosity in every child and creating opportunity for all in higher education, which are lofty goals and so the next step is to see how 这是可以做到的，”罗慕洛说.  

In 2022, the 白宫科技与政策办公室 and other partners 成立STEMM机会联盟，包括 200多家机构 致力于帮助促进stem领域的公平. 据导演说在美国，这些组织已经为这些努力投入了20多亿美元.  

这一策略 因为这项计划基于五大支柱:参与、灵感、发现、 创新与机遇.  

“So, for us in higher education we’re now tasked with finding ways to implement these 罗慕洛说. “作为研究stem的学者，我和Harmony进入了这个领域 equity specifically in higher education, we need to figure out how we leverage our 研究结果和我们的专业知识，以便我们能够确保所有人都有机会.” 

stem中缺乏少数族裔社区 

根据 国家科学与工程统计中心, in 2021, women made up only one third (35%) of people employed in STEM occupations. Hispanic workers represented 15% of the total STEM workforce and Asian and Black workers 分别是10%和9%.  

罗慕洛上学时就看到了性别差距. 她获得了学士学位 in biology 和n studied natural resource management for graduate school in environmental 科学与政策.  

“I had experiences where my entire committee was all white men because there were no women or people of color available in the department who had a position or expertise 他们能在我的委员会里吗?”罗慕洛说. “所以，这是非常有趣的 进入一个我被边缘化的领域.” 

Now in an educator role, Romulo can focus on research supporting 莱戈股本 and contribute to policy and practice to close equity gaps for people who have historically 在stem学科中被排斥、服务不足和代表性不足. 

将思想付诸行动 

Both Romulo and Newman have led externally funded grant projects that investigate 莱戈股本. 目前，他们正在领导新的拨款提案，由 美国国家科学基金会(NSF)， 1美元一个.200万美元，另一个4美元.200万年. Both projects aim to create real boots-on-the-ground change and experience in higher 教育和stem机会. 

为了1美元.在200万美元的项目中，Romulo和她的同事们把一个框架放在一起 support recent postdoctoral researchers to facilitate their professional development 在职业建设技能方面，重点是提高stem的公平性.  

Over the course of three years, the proposed grant would give postdoctoral scholars the opportunity to come to UNC, learn under the new training and do some investigation 博天堂官方网站一个地区公共西班牙裔服务机构的STEMM权益. 通过支持 participants who have navigated these inequities, the institute would both train the researchers in how to implement equity work and research while also practicing that 权益工作本身.  

“的 NSF is interested in supporting folks who want to get involved in scholarship 特别是与stem教育和公平有关，”罗慕洛说. “我们有一段历史 博天堂官方stem教育的包容性卓越和公平工作. 所以，我们取了一些 我们所知道的东西并将其发展为博士后培训.” 

4美元.200万美元的赠款涉及多所大学，除了博天堂官方，包括 the University of New Hampshire, Oregon State University, Clemson University and University 科罗拉多州的博尔德.  

“With this representation across the country and with this collaborative opportunity with these other scholars, we want to look at racism and conservation science,” Newman 说. 

Newman says the plan is to collect data on the kinds of barriers and opportunities connected to one’s race and gender for advancement at the undergraduate level, within 研究生教育和专业范围内的保护.  

“So, once you’ve graduated and you’re working, whether it’s in academia or outside, [we want to know] what kind of barriers and opportunities you are experiencing, connected 进步，你的种族和性别，”纽曼说. “这是我们决定的地方之一 to leverage is partnerships with DEI committees that already exist within conservation.” 

的 goal, Newman says, is to uncover how successful organizations are in providing positive gender and race experiences and to communicate that information and strategies 给其他公司和组织.  

“的 framework, the lens that we’re using in this examination is about belonging, but not at the individual level where it’s about the identities of feeling like ‘I ‘归属’，而是结构性归属。”纽曼说.

Structural belonging, Newman says, looks at the policies, practices and cultural norms that demonstrate that one is accepted, supported, respected, valued by and important 对社区来说. 在这种情况下，项目将着眼于创建结构的策略 根据种族和性别归属于保护科学家.  

Both research projects are awaiting approval and funding, similar to the STEMM Opportunity 纽曼和罗慕洛在上个月的峰会上参与了联盟的努力. 而 the goal is to put actions into place, Newman says she is happy that the conversations 围绕stem领域的不平等正在发生.  

“的re is all this money, all these resources and opportunities that exist from networking 并相互借鉴，想出解决方案，”纽曼说. “我是说，白人 房子 is holding summits and trying to address the inequities, so that’s exciting!”