Presentation #214.02 in the session Workforce and the State of Our Profession (iPosters).
So many aspects of everyone’s lives have been put on hold during the coronavirus pandemic. Professionally, lab work ground to a near halt, virtual meetings and conferences became the norm and maintaining collaborations required unprecedented levels of effort. Changes imposed on our lives in response to the pandemic shone a brighter light on the inequities that exist in our community and forced us to pay greater attention to everyone’s well-being. The work being done towards equity, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility (EDIA), the bulk of which is carried out by members of underrepresented groups, has become even more important. Far from slowing down, there has been a flurry of EDIA work over the past two years, despite the fact that such work is typically uncompensated.
The recently released Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, “Origins, Worlds and Life”, included an entire chapter dedicated to the State of the Profession, the first planetary decadal survey to have done so (although the most recent astrophysics decadal survey also contained a similar chapter). Over two dozen white papers are cited in this chapter; many more were submitted for consideration. In addition, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released the report “Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Leadership of Competed Space Missions” this past spring. This report identifies specific actions that NASA should take to insure more diverse and equitable participation in the spaceflight missions that are key to many careers and the work that NASA does. The “Advancing IDEA in Planetary Science Conference” (IDEACon) that was held virtually and hosted by the Lunar and Planetary Institute brought together members of the planetary science and social science communities to discuss their work towards bolstering the state of EDIA in our field for the first time. 427 members of the EDIA community registered for the conference, which featured 70 contributed talks, five keynote presentations and multiple workshops. Finally, this DPS Fall meeting will feature the inaugural presentation by the winner of the DPS-NSBP speaker program, Dr. Jasmine Bayron. Her presentation at the 2021 National Society of Black Physicists meeting was entitled “Moapa Valley (CM1): The Black Box of the CM Parent Asteroid”.
This presentation will highlight these developments in EDIA work and provide the perspective of DPS’ Professional Culture and Climate subcommittee on the state of EDIA in the planetary science community.