Yesterday, the White House Office of Science and Technology announced a new initiative designed to address the enormous equity and opportunity gaps in STEMM education, training, investment, philanthropy, and business. The STEMM Opportunity Alliance is starting life with a collective $1.2 billion in individual commitments made by a diverse array of partners across government, academia, and philanthropy, including corporate partners like L'Oreal, 3M, Micron, Novartis, and Merck.
Because this is a government thing, there are plenty of acronyms to wrangle. STEMM stands for science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine. The initiative was launched by three organizations, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), all of whom had spent the better part of the last year researching how we lose talent in education and industry to bias and other barriers.
The STEMM workforce in the U.S. is primarily white and, outside of certain health care roles, primarily male. As a result, a lack of representation—Black, brown, Indigenous, rural, poor, disabled, LGBTQ, and immigrant—has led to persistent and measurable inequities. (And keeps this columnist in business.)
“History has shown, of course, that new investments in science and technology don't always translate into equitable results for all people in all communities without sustained and intentional effort,” Alondra Nelson, deputy assistant to the president and deputy director for science and society at the OSTP, said at the kickoff.
That means finding new ways to create good, high-paying tech jobs that require training but not necessarily a college degree. Classrooms with currently underrepresented students are ignited by teachers who look like and value them. A research ecosystem that invests in a wider array of ideas and in places outside of known venture capital corridors. A welcoming workforce. Accommodations for working families. And the fruits of progress shared by all.
Partner organizations are making public commitments to do or continue doing their part and, just as important, share outcome data with the collective. By way of quick examples, 3M is investing in programs that support academic achievements for underrepresented students, and Biogen is launching a hands-on biotech laboratory program for middle and high schoolers. The DDCF got my attention for something very insightful: a $12 million co-funding initiative to reduce barriers that may prevent biomedical researchers with family caregiving responsibilities from continuing in the field.
Even though each participating organization may have a history of supporting STEMM initiatives on its own, the new collective focus seems notable for several reasons.
For one, it’s the first time that the government has asked all stakeholders operating within the STEMM ecosystem to evaluate their advocacy from an equity perspective. To do that, they effectively de-centered the “business case” for diversity and addressed the broader societal and reparative benefits this work might bring. And they started with a grand convening, giving a truly diverse array of experts and institutions who have been thinking about this on their own a chance to meet each other. It’s now a community of sorts—which was reflected in the delightful energy of the two-hour kick-off, which you might enjoy watching.
While it’s always inspiring to be in the presence of people who are working toward big, shared, planet-changing goals, it was fascinating to hear a common theme emerge: belonging. Nearly everyone spoke poignantly and passionately about the need to support a culture of belonging in every place they teach, work, or invest. It was the one thing everyone could do right now to make things better.
Start by thinking beyond representation.
“So often, this narrative has been centered on representation,” said Nikole Collins-Puri, chief executive officer of TechBridge Girls, a nonprofit focused on introducing girls of color to STEMM education. It’s time to think past the numbers and re-design the spaces people will enter. “Representation does not address the environment, the genius that is left behind when you're asking our girls to fit into a system that never wanted them in the first place.”
Her advice is applicable anywhere inclusion is an issue: “We have to reimagine these environments so that our girls are centered in their own brilliance, centered in their own stories.”
Ellen McGirt
@ellmcgirt
Ellen.McGirt@fortune.com
This edition of raceAhead was edited by Rachel Lobdell.
