Globally, the ocean sciences struggles with attracting diverse audiences to the discipline. This issue has important implications as it affects the talents and perspectives that are brought to bear in addressing the emerging challenges of the 21st century. These barriers can range from historical gatekeeping practices within the workplace to lack of opportunities for diverse students and early career professionalss. COSEA (Coastal and Ocean STEM Equity Alliance), a group of JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) professionals has been working to address these challenges that impact individuals across multiple career stages and identities. To date our work has focused on issues ranging on gatekeeping in the workplace, the lack of inclusion of diverse individuals within grants, and how the representation of the ocean sciences may not resonate with the diverse cultural structures of individuals that are historically underrepresented in the ocean sciences. In this session, we discuss ongoing COSEA work within the JEDI space, and how our work can support improving representation in the ocean sciences. While much of our work has focused on inclusion within the U.S. ocean science workforce we expect that our approaches can support diversity and inclusion efforts within the global ocean science community.  

Primary Presenter: Corey Garza, California State University, Monterey Bay (cogarza@csumb.edu)

Authors:

Mona Behl, Georgia Sea Grant  (mbehl@uga.edu)

Sharon Cooper, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University.  (scooper@ldeo.columbia.edu)

Aixa Aleman-Diaz, American Geophysical Union  (aixamalemandiaz@gmail.com)

Brandon Jones, National Science Foundation  (mbjones@nsf.gov)

Sarah Kolesar, Oregon Sea Grant  (Sarah.Kolesar@oregonstate.edu)

Jonathan Lewis, Indiana University of Pennsylvania  (jclewis@iup.edu)

Lisa White, University of California, Berkeley  (ldwhite@berkeley.edu)