Past as prologue: Lessons from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force

Abstract

Past and current institutional cultures have contributed to the overrepresentation of white men in geoscience. Acknowledging and learning from this history is critical to building a forward-looking, innovative, and anti-racist geoscience community. To change institutional culture and address inequities and exclusion, the first step for many institutions is to establish a committee or task force focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. In this manuscript, we reflect on our successes, challenges, and experiences co-chairing the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in 2020. We organized a transparent, community-driven effort that lasted for six months with clear expectations around outcomes. We identified priorities, goals, and recommendations for institutional change, ranging from large-scale structural changes to individual actions. Specifically, we found that (1) considering power dynamics, (2) striking a balance between tone and content, (3) addressing how financial constraints intersect with institutional values, and (4) respecting the power and politics of data were critical to our work. Here we present a roadmap for creating robust and visionary institutional change. In addition, we discuss the obstacles, barriers, and opportunities we encountered through our process, in order to provide strategies that other institutions can use to address their own needs, and to advance justice in geoscience as a whole. Moreover, we discuss how this structure and lessons learned are broadly applicable to academic institutions at various scales and beyond geoscience.