Oceanography | Vol. 38, No. 2
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Finally, some programs focus on long-term community
building to improve the retention of minoritized individuals.
These programs include Black Women in Ecology, Evolution,
and Marine Sciences (BWEEMS), Society for Advancement
of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science
(SACNAS), Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women+ to
Increase Retention (MPOWIR), Earth Science Women’s Network
(ESWN), Society of Women in Marine Science (SWMS), and
Unlearning Racism in Geoscience (URGE). BWEEMS and
ESWN work to connect women, elevating their voices and sup
porting authentic connections with one another. ESWN, estab
lished in 2002, has an expansive network, connecting over
8,000 women. SACNAS, operating since 1973, supports scien
tists through multiple opportunities that include the National
Diversity in STEM Conference (NDiSTEM), the “largest multi
disciplinary and multicultural STEM diversity conference in the
country” (Fenster and Verdier, 2023). MPOWIR focuses on the
retention of women and minoritized genders, referred to collec
tively as women+ in the MPOWIR lexicon, in physical oceanog
raphy through organized mentorship and professional develop
ment opportunities beyond an individual’s home institution. As
of 2018, MPOWIR reported that an impressive 80% of partici
pants who earned their PhDs between 2005 and 2012 remained
in the field (Mouw et al., 2018). SWMS, founded in 2014 and
with over 460 members as of 2023, utilizes symposia, workshops,
and webinars to engage women in a shared sense of community
and belonging. This organization’s work has “demonstrated the
effectiveness and importance of adaptive affinity-focused groups
and events in ocean sciences” through analysis of their symposia
(Canfield et al., 2023). The URGE program has been aiding the
community in developing meaningful institutional programs
since 2020, with specific directives toward educating non-
minoritized individuals on the effects of racism on the retention
of people of color in the geosciences, instituting collaborative
institution policy reform, and sharing resources for consider
ation when designing more equitable institutional policies.
At an international level, frameworks like the Ocean’s Benefits
to People (OBP) and the UN Decade of Ocean Science for
Sustainable Development (2021–2030) continue to support sci
entists in their career paths. OBP prioritizes the integration of
local communities into ocean governance and policymaking
(Belgrano and Villasante, 2020), while the UN Decade of Ocean
Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030) presents a
pivotal framework for BAJEDI efforts and initiatives in its goal
to include diverse perspectives in ocean sciences (Polejack, 2021;
Harden-Davies et al., 2022; Sun et al., 2022).
In discussing support structures offered by affinity groups,
town hall participants also touched on the disconnected natures
of many programs. Group members noted that many BAJEDI
programs operate independently, without unifying, inter-
institutional structures. Group members felt that unifying struc
tures, particularly for programs focused on undergraduate
education and retention, would provide greater community sup
port and professional networking. The idea of a unifying, inter-
institutional structure was underscored by another core topic
that focused on the necessity of strong cohort building within
equity programs. Here, cohort refers to an intentionally orga
nized group for a minoritized and/or marginalized community
that progresses through education stages together (e.g., a cohort
of graduate students of color who begin a graduate program the
same year). Individuals who participate in the cohort may have
shared life experiences related to their minoritized identity and
may face similar experiences of inequity in ocean sciences. To
build strong cohorts, the group’s discussion identified three guid
ing tenets: (1) offer individuals facilitated networking opportuni
ties, (2) remove financial barriers to participation, and (3) engage
in robust post-program follow-up and continued engagement
with cohort members. Within STEM, cohorts focused on reten
tion of minoritized individuals are shown to be successful when
multi-avenue support structures are available (Hansen et al.,
2024), as seen in the high retention rate (80%) of the cohort-
focused MPOWIR program. Within MPOWIR, early-career
participants are grouped with similar career-stage peers at dif
ferent institutions than their own, and two senior leaders con
vene monthly group mentoring over the course of two to three
years. This continuity in mentorship through career transitions
positively supports retention of women in the field (Mouw et al.,
2018). The Possee Foundation is another excellent example of a
unifying, inter-institutional structure that specifically focuses on
cohort-based retention strategies. The Posse Foundation works
with dozens of undergraduate institutions to improve the reten
tion of students of color in STEM fields, including post-program
community engagement, and boasts an impressive 90% gradu
ation rate for students in its programs (The Posse Foundation,
2024). Initiatives focused on expanding the participation of
minoritized groups continue to grow, with numerous programs
emerging to address inequities in ocean sciences since 2020.
Mirroring the increase in programs directed toward improving
participation in ocean sciences, 60% of publications related to
ocean equity and justice have been published since 2020 (de Vos
et al., 2023). While this recent focus on equity initiatives is
encouraging, it is important to acknowledge that the actual effi
cacy of this groundswell can be difficult to measure, as long-term
holistic demographic information is rarely publicly available.
Accessibility
Scientific institutions continue to implement initiatives to
improve BAJEDI within their communities. These include, but
are not limited to, more equitable hiring criteria and recruitment
practices, implementing codes of conduct, restructuring tenure
review to value equity work, and creating safe spaces for margin
alized identities, such as LBGTQIA+ spaces. Professional soci
eties play roles in these actions by providing safe spaces within
chapters, highlighting the work done by affiliated groups, and