NOAA: A Community of Science, Service, and Stewardship

Building a diverse and inclusive workforce

Diversity matters for science, and NOAA understands that the success of its missions depends on the diversity and inclusiveness of its workforce. It’s a principle stated emphatically by Dr. Neil Jacobs, assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction, and NOAA’s acting administrator, in his introduction to NOAA’s Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan: “It is impossible to articulate,” he wrote, “how critical a role diversity and inclusion play in helping NOAA effectively accomplish its mission.”

When we think of all the partners NOAA collaborates with, we think in terms of delivering service, which demands a workforce capable of understanding and responding to a variety of communities and stakeholders. It’s increasingly clear – and substantiated by research – that the work of framing and solving complex problems, as scientists do, is best served by diverse teams of thinkers. Groups composed from diverse experiences and expertise are more creative and innovative, bringing new questions, ideas, energies, and perspectives to old problems – perspectives less likely to be clouded by the familiar. The ability to see problems differently is often the key to scientific breakthroughs.

“For a scientific agency like NOAA,” wrote Jacobs, “innovation is a key driver of growth. Without diversity, we limit our ability to innovate. Without inclusion, diversity becomes meaningless, and any benefits associated with diversity will not be realized. The two concepts are inseparable, and begin with an inclusive environment.”

NOAA’s efforts to increase diversity and inclusion are aimed both inward and outward. Internally, its policies and procedures emphasize a commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace. More important, NOAA encourages a culture that values diversity and inclusion as mission-critical assets. It has adopted an enterprise-wide vision within its Office of Inclusion and Civil Rights, which monitors and encourages the cultivation of principles throughout NOAA. “NOAA’s diversity profile has risen as a result of that,” said Kenneth Bailey, who directs the office, “and in addition, we’ve started a variety of different programs to bring awareness to the importance of diversity and inclusion.”

One of these programs is the annual Diversity and Inclusion Summit, first organized in 2016 by a group that included Dr. DaNa Carlis, a meteorologist and program manager for the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research Weather Program Office. The first summit attracted a few hundred participants, but the number of NOAA managers and staff attending has more than doubled since – over a thousand attended the most recent event held in September, highlighted by Michael Bush, the keynote speaker from Great Place to Work.

NOAA’s José E. Serrano Educational Partnership Program with Minority Serving Institutions (EPP/ MSI) supports the training and graduation of students and increases the participation of students from traditionally underrepresented minorities – and in so doing, develops eligible candidates for NOAA’s workforce and mission-related enterprises. EPP/MSI supports four Cooperative Science Centers located at three Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Florida A&M University and one Hispanic Serving Institution, the City College of New York.

The EPP/MSI centers include 24 academic institutions that work together to train students in core NOAA mission fields: remote sensing technology and atmospheric, oceanic and environmental sciences. Over time, the EPP/MSI centers have supported 2,970 students and awarded 2,058 degrees. In 2019, the Educational Partnership Program funded 289 students attending minority-serving institutions, 44 of whom graduated with mission-related STEM degrees; 17 of whom pursued further education; and 27 of whom found employment with NOAA or other natural resource or science organization.

The EPP/MSI Centers have made a significant impact on the demographics of Ph.D. recipients in NOAA mission science fields. EPP/MSI Center institutions graduated about 60 percent of African Americans who were awarded Ph.D.s in atmospheric science, 55 percent of African Americans who earned Ph.D.s in environmental science, and 35 percent of African Americans who earned Ph.D.s in marine sciences from 2006-2018.

Dr. Carlis and Dr. Michelle Hawkins, Chief of the National Weather Service’s Severe, Fire, Public and Winter Weather Services Branch, both EPP alumni, organized the Diversity and Professional Advancement Working Group, an internal network, in 2014. Its mission is to attract, retain, and support the professional advancement of underrepresented minorities in NOAA. Carlis described the group as a national network “for people who are interested in advancing their career and impacting change within our agency.”

One of NOAA’s most distinguished scientists, Dr. Jamese Sims, also an EPP/MSI alumni, earned a NOAA scholarship to attend college at Jackson State University in Mississippi, and worked as a NOAA intern as both an undergraduate and graduate student before coming to work for the agency as a full-time meteorologist and algorithm engineer. Most recently, she’s been charged with developing NOAA’s strategy for adopting artificial intelligence across its operational lines.

NOAA’s efforts to recruit and retain diverse talent, and to foster a culture that values and promotes diversity and inclusion, have made a difference beyond mere demographics. As Bailey pointed out, the Federal Viewpoint Surveys, administered annually by the Office of Personnel Management, include questions in two categories – Support for Diversity and the New Inclusion Quotient (New IQ) – that have both risen in each of the last three years. 2019 also marked the seventh straight year that NOAA employees’ job satisfaction ratings increased as well.

These results reflect NOAA leaders’ understanding that changing demographics are only the beginning of what diversity and inclusion can ultimately deliver for the organization and the nation it serves: happier, more productive people, capable of providing the best possible service, stewardship, and science to Americans.