LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

1. LIGO Lab Diversity Activities Fred Raab LIGO Lab Diversity Officer Head, LIGO Hanford Observatory 18Nov08

2. Outline • What we said (last year) we wanted to do… • What NSF decided we wanted to do… • What we did… • What we need to do… Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

3. LIGO Diversity Committee Shown to NSF Visiting Panel in 2007 • Members: • Fred Raab, Chair • Cindy Akutagawa, LIGO Lab contact with Caltech HR, committee secretary and participant • Warren Buck, Chancellor Emeritus, University of Washington, Bothell • Corey Gray, operator, LIGO Hanford Observatory • Nergis Mavalvala, Ass’t Prof., LIGO MIT • Marisela Mendoza, Retention Specialist, Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA • Deborah Muhammed, Educator, LIGO Science Education Center • Amber Stuver, Postdoctoral Scholar, LIGO Livingston Observatory • Carol Wilkinson, AdLIGO Project Manager, LIGO Hanford Observ. • Stan Whitcomb, LIGO Chief Scientist, LIGO Caltech Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

4. Diversity Committee Charge Shown to NSF Visiting Panel in 2007 The committee will advise the Directorate about actions that can be taken to move the Laboratory forward towards our goal of providing opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women to join our staff and to thrive professionally. • Items of business: • efforts to increase diversity among applicants for future LIGO hires • efforts to increase diversity in the undergraduate research applicant pool • evaluation of potential barriers to a diversity-friendly environment within LIGO • assessment strategies: establishing a baseline and measuring progress Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

5. In Feb 2008, NSF requested that we also submit a formal diversity plan • LIGO Laboratory Diversity Plan (M080380) draft available to panel; under review by Diversity Committee • Plan emphasizes pro-activity: • LIGO Lab values diversity as essential to the creative process of science. • Broad definition of inclusion awareness: gender, ethnicity and race; also disabilities and different sexual orientations, languages, academic training, economic classes, backgrounds, etc. • All Lab members have a responsibility to encourage diversity; accomplishments will be formally recognized on annual employee performance reviews. • Diversity Officer will interface with Directorate and Diversity Committee to establish annual goals, report progress and adjust strategies if goals are not being met. Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

6. Lab Diversity Plan (cont’d) • Progress will be compiled and tracked on Lab demographics, REU applicants and awardees, numbers of under-served and under-represented touched by education & public outreach programs. • Recrutiment measures emphasize advertising/exhibiting to reach target audiences as well as networking with institutions and people with connections to targeted communities. • Retention: The Lab will actively seek the opinions of women and minority members on ways we can better foster success. (Egregious issues of discrimination or harassment will be dealt with through Caltech Ombuds Office and HR disciplinary paths.) • Forging a more inclusive pipeline: LIGO EPO efforts have hands-on access to large numbers of under-served and under-represented; explicit focus on awareness of STEM careers and pathways. Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

7. Actions recommended by Diversity Committee • Continue expansion of EPO programs to widen input pipeline for under-represented groups • EPO should include a careers component (already present to some extent; perhaps more explicit?) • LIGO should be represented at job fairs attended heavily by under-represented groups • LIGO should network with schools that have dense populations of under-represented groups • LIGO should develop standard way to have job openings highly visible to under-represented groups Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

8. Progress since Sep 2007 • Diversity Officer and Diversity Committee in place, at work • Draft of formal Lab Diversity Plan available to visiting panel and under review by Diversity Committee. • Tracking system largely in place; should be reporting by year end. • Procedure for routine postings of job searches to strategic online sites begun in collaboration with HR. • Annual exhibitions at annual meetings of NSBP/NSHP and SACNAS begun this year; raised LIGO awareness through hundreds of personal contacts. • Nergis Mavalvala represented LIGO in US Delegation at IUPAP Conference on Women in Physics • Seminars at Caltech & LHO by Vanessa Lauberg (promising African-American Astronomy Ph.D. candidate from U.Md., arranged by Stan Whitcomb) • LIGO Management Workshop discussion of diversity Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

9. To do: • Finalize and implement Lab Diversity Plan • Finalize tracking system and compile baseline numbers for 2007 and 2008. • Initiate LIGO workplace examination • In what ways is the LIGO Lab diversity friendly or unfriendly and how can we improve? • Identify 2009 Goals (start with this slide!) • Develop network contacts list • Request leads from “connected” individuals • Develop announcements of opportunities for interns, speakers, visitors • Increase number of job fairs and programs targeting specific groups Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities

10. Summary • We have created a program over the last 15 months • Will need expansion and tweaking based on assessments • Like other challenges, we will make progress Raab: LIGO Lab Diversity Activities