December 2023

Oceanography

THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE OCEANOGRAPHY SOCIETY

VOL. 36, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2023

BUILDING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

IN THE OCEAN SCIENCES

December 2023 | Oceanography

contents VOL. 36, NO. 4, DECEMBER 2023

SPECIAL ISSUE ON

BUILDING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN THE OCEAN SCIENCES

INTRODUCTION

6 Introduction to the Special Issue

By E.S. Kappel, B.E. Cuker, C. Garza, D. Gibson, C. Martinez, W.F. Todd, and C. Xu

10 Assessing Diversity in US Ocean Science Institutions: Insights from Fifteen Years (2007–2021) of OSER Data

By S.A. Lewis, A. Holloway, and K. Yarincik

BARRIERS TO ENTRY, PERSISTENCE, ADVANCEMENT, AND SUCCESS

22 Re-Envisioning Undergraduate Research Experiences to Increase Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Harness

the Power of Diversity in Ocean Sciences

By P.H. Barber, C. Martinez, C. Garza, D.M. Gibson, and A.C.D. Davis

35 Ho‘okele ka Wa‘a: Recalibrating the Sail Plan for Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the Ocean Sciences

By H.H. Kane, C.A. Choy, B.C. Bruno, D.K. Tachera, K. Keliipuleole, J.A.T.K. Wong-Ala, J.H.R. Burns, C.A. Kapono, K.H. Pascoe,

K. Steward, and R.A. Alegado

44 Oceanography’s Diversity Deficit: Identifying and Addressing Challenges for Marginalized Groups

By S.T. Abdel-Raheem, A.R. Payne, M.G. Rivera, S.K. Sturdivant, N.S. Walker, M.C. Márquez, A. Ornelas, M. Turner, K. Byers,

and R.S. Beltran

51 Advancing Diversity and Inclusivity in Ocean Sciences by Re-Envisioning Overlooked Barriers in Scientific

Diving Training

By P.H. Barber, J.K. Barber-Choi, A. Betancourt, B. Cuker, A.C.D. Davis, C.R. Fong, P. Fong, J. Fong, D.M. Gibson, and T.B. Smith

56 Black Women in Ocean Science: Barriers to Advancement and Strategies to Move Forward

By L.M. Isma, M.L. Bernard, J. Layton, R. Santana, K.W. Wilkins, and D. Nembhard

60 SPOTLIGHT. Neurodiversity: An Important Axis of Diversity in Ocean Sciences

By J.D. Wilson, E. Sibert, M. Grigoratou, C.L.C. Jones, L. Rubin, and Z. Smilli

62 SPOTLIGHT. Reimagining Policies, Practices, and Culture to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Assault and

Sexual Harassment at NOAA

By E. Osborne, C. Martinez, S.D. Aberson, K. Nelson, S. Duncan, C. Ryals, F. Muñoz, and T. Griffin-Elliott

66 SPOTLIGHT. Navigating a Sea of Obstacles: Ocean Science for People with Disabilities

By A. Bower, J. Vazquez-Cuervo, and E. Comstock

68 SPOTLIGHT. Creating Pathways for Nontraditional Graduate Students

By P. Woodworth-Jefcoats, M. Jahnke, E.A. Howell, D.R. Kobayashi, C. Miller, R. Nichols, and M. Onuma

70 SPOTLIGHT. Breaking Down Financial Barriers to Fieldwork

By K. Kamer, K. Jassowski, G. Martel, and C.R. Whitcraft

72 SPOTLIGHT. Safe Space Commitment

By R. Pedra Nobre, E. Caref, E. Balladares, and L. Zaima-Sheehy

74 SPOTLIGHT. Fair Winds and Following Seas Remotely: Modifying Perceptions of Fieldwork as a Requirement

in Marine Science to Aid in Diversifying the Discipline

By A. Nousek-McGregor, B. Fisher, C.A. Baker, C. Robinson, G.M. Damerell, C.M. Liszka, S. Fielding, and P. Muschitiello

Oceanography | Vol. 36, No. 4

SPECIAL ISSUE SPONSOR

Support for this issue was provided by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

(NOAA), National Science Foundation (NSF),

Office of Naval Research (ONR), and National

Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

SPECIAL ISSUE GUEST EDITORS

• Ben Cuker, Hampton University

• Corey Garza, University of Washington

• Deidre Gibson, Hampton University

• Catalina Martinez, NOAA Ocean Exploration

• Wendy F. Todd, University of Minnesota Duluth

• Cassie Xu, formerly with Columbia Climate

School, Columbia University

COVER IMAGE CREDITS

Silhouettes: Rawpixel/iStock.com.

Wave: StudioM1/iStock.com.

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Electronic versions of articles will be updated.

A LOOK AT SOME FEDERALLY FUNDED PROGRAMS

78 Federal Support Fosters Ocean Workforce Diversity Through Programmatic Investments and Community Action

By C. Kairies-Beatty, E.L. Rom, V. Brown, N. White, K. Reath, and E. Shroyer

85 SPOTLIGHT. The ASLO Multicultural Program Pioneers Diversity Efforts in the Aquatic Sciences

By B.E. Cuker and J. Davis

88 Preparing a Diverse Future Workforce in Marine and Fisheries Science: The NOAA Living Marine Resources

Cooperative Science Center

By P. Chigbu, E.A. Babcock, D.M. Gibson, D. Hoskins-Brown, R. Jagus, J.A. Miller, M.A. Sexton, S.L. Smith, B. Stevens, D.J. Die,

E. Schott, and V. Young

94 SPOTLIGHT. A Bridge to Marine Geosciences: A Learning Community for College Transfer Students

By J. Dolliver, J.M. Guzmán, M. Nuwer, L.A. Thompson, and K.A. Naish

96 Expanding Access to Ocean Science Through Inclusively Designed Data Sonifications

By L.M. Smith, A. Bower, J. Roberts, J. Bellona, and H. Li

102 Building a More Inclusive and Impactful Marine STEM Undergraduate Research Experience: The Marine Science

Laboratory Alliance Center of Excellence for Broadening Participation

By A. Busse, J.M. Ribble, K.L. Marshall, and M.P. Crosby

106 SPOTLIGHT. Supporting the Next Generation of Leaders in the Geosciences: Barnard’s Environmental Science

Pathways Scholar Program

By L. Brenner, B.J. Mailloux, S. Rodriguez, T. Maenza-Gmelch, E.M. Cook, F. Koli, C. Marizzi, R.J. Frawley, B. Saad, and M. Stute

108 Intergenerational Interventions to Cultivate DEI-Champions: Increased Resilience and Accountability Through

“Shipboard” Experiences

By R. Bryant, B.A. Keisling, B.C. Starks, B. Nunn, L.D. White, J.C. Lewis, and S. Cooper

114 SPOTLIGHT. An HSI-R1 Cross-Campus Partnership Model to Enhance Recruitment and Retention of Underrepresented

Students in the Geosciences

By A.C. Jones, D.Y. Kim, B. Rabin, J.M. Dutton, and K.B. Heidelberg

116 Mentoring the Mentors. A Workshop Series to Support Inclusive Mentoring Practices

By G.E. Hofmann, V. Beaufort, X.S. Clare, and M. Phommasa

121 SPOTLIGHT. Improving Retention of Underrepresented Groups in the Geosciences Through an Intensive First-Year

Experience at the University of South Carolina

By C.R. Benitez-Nelson, K.S. McNeal, and W.J. Jones

December 2023 | Oceanography

OTHER INITIATIVES

124 The Role of Professional Societies in Advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, and Accessibility in the

Fields of Coastal and Ocean Science

By E. Meyer-Gutbrod, L. White, B. Schieler, M. Behl, and S. Park

132 SPOTLIGHT. Ocean Discovery Institute’s Model for Empowering Underrepresented Students in STEM:

Community-Based, Continuous Belief

By J.T. Barkan, J.G. John, E.J. Drenkard, and D. Talley

134 SPOTLIGHT. Student-Led Mentoring System Designed to Lower Barriers for Graduate School Applicants

By C. Willis, S. Wang, A. Walsh, M. Jahns, K. Halloran, N. Kukshtel, and E. Bhatt

136 SPOTLIGHT. Salton Sea Environmental Work and the Importance of Community Science

By D. Centeno, I.B. Arzeno-Soltero, A. Delgado, M. Freilich, C. Marquez, Q. Montgomery, A. Palomino, G. Penalber, R. Sinclair,

and J. Taboada

138 SPOTLIGHT. Excluded Identity Retention in STEM: A Roadmap for Inclusive Undergraduate Research Symposia

By M.P. Heard, C.L. Nordheim, C. McKinley, Z.L. Zilz, V.A. Jones, B.A. Vincent, and E.M. Caves

140 Charting the Course to Advance DEI in the Ocean Sciences: A Case Study

By C.F. D’Elia, K. Falls, S. Bargu, and L. Hooper-Bùi

146 SPOTLIGHT. The Culture of Science in Academia Is Overdue for Change

By J.H.R. Burns, C.A. Kapono, K.H. Pascoe, and H.H. Kane

148 SPOTLIGHT. Actions and Challenges Toward Building Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Arctic Marine Science:

The Case of the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen

By A. Desmarais, A. Merzouk, A. Forest, V. Rochefort, and F. Dhifallah

150 SPOTLIGHT. Challenger Society for Marine Science: Increasing Opportunity Through an Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity,

and Accessibility Working Group

By B. Fisher, K. Hendry, G. Damerell, C.A. Baker, M. Goddard-Dwyer, S. Joshi, A. Marzocchi, A. Nousek-McGregor, C. Robinson,

K.R. Sieradzan, A. Tagliabue, and K. Van Landeghem

152 Unpacking Diversity: A Grassroots Initiative and Its Institutional Evolution

By A. Sanchez-Rios, T.B. Truong, J.A.T.K. Wong-Ala, M. McCracken, and M. Treviño

158 SPOTLIGHT. Code to Communicate: Empowering Bilingual Connections in Earth Science

By A. Rosa Marín, I.M. Cortés, T. Aránguiz-Rago, A. Pesce, J. Libarkin, and N. Gasparini

160 SPOTLIGHT. The Ocean as a Classroom: Considering the Roles of Equity, Diversity, and Justice in Oceanographic

Knowledge Production to Promote Accessibility for Future Generations

By N.G. Erazo, T. Light, D.A. Capone, A.L. Effinger, P.F. Erazo, L. Huang, A. Kannad, K.B. Lanpher, E. Norris, S.O. Perry, E. Romero,

T.M. Russell, R.I. Varner, L. Wicker, A. Yu, D. Zhai, and R.D. Norris

162 SPOTLIGHT. Women of the Water: Enhancing Equity and Inclusion in Aquaculture

By B.H. Morrison, M.L. Cockrell, N.R. Rhody, and K.L. Main

164 Micro Communities of Safety: Perspectives from NOAA Employee Resource Group Members

By J. Davis, C. Martinez, and V. Brown

DEPARTMENTS

169 FROM THE TOS JEDI COMMITTEE • JEDI Events and Programming for OSM 2024

By J.J. Pierson

Oceanography | Vol. 36, No. 4

The Oceanography Society (TOS) was founded

in 1988 to encourage collaboration and inno-

vation among ocean scientists worldwide and

across subdisciplines. The Society continues

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December 2023 | Oceanography

The Oceanography Society was founded in 1988 to advance

oceanographic research, technology, and education, and

to disseminate knowledge of oceanography and its appli-

cation through research and education. TOS promotes

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William Smyth, Oregon State University

Peter Wadhams, University of Cambridge

Oceanography contains peer-reviewed articles that chronicle

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December 2023 | Oceanography

Oceanography | Vol. 36, No. 4

INTRODUCTION TO

THE SPECIAL ISSUE ON

WHY THIS SPECIAL ISSUE NOW?

In his inaugural “The Oceanography

Classroom” column for Oceanography

in 2000, Dean McManus noted: “A par-

ticular challenge for higher education

is to include more members of under-

represented groups in the study of the

ocean. Fifteen years from now, 40% of

the traditional undergraduate- age pop-

ulation will consist of these under-

represented groups, but today the ocean

sciences have the lowest participation by

underrepresented groups of any science”

(McManus, 2000). Why should we care

about this lack of diversity in the ocean

sciences? As a recent US National Science

Foundation report puts it, “A diverse

workforce provides the potential for

innovation by leveraging different back-

grounds, experiences, and points of view.

Innovation and creativity, along with

technical skills relying on expertise in sci-

ence, technology, engineering, and math-

ematics (STEM), contribute to a robust

STEM enterprise” (NSF, 2023a). To put

it more succinctly, “diversity is not dis-

tinct from enhancing overall quality—it

is integral to achieving it” (Gibbs, 2014).

Having a diverse, inclusive, and equitable

workforce is not only a valuable objective

and moral imperative, it is essential for

fulfilling future workforce needs.

We are now more than 20 years beyond

the McManus column, and the numbers

have only slightly improved. While gen-

der diversity has significantly increased

in the ocean sciences during that time-

frame (Orcutt and Cetinić, 2014; Lima

and Rheuben, 2021; Legg et  al., 2023),

the same cannot be said for other his-

torically underrepresented and margin-

alized groups (identified in various parts

of this special issue as Black, African

American,

Hispanic,

Latino/ Latina/

Latinx/ Latine, Native American, Alaska

Native, Indigenous, Asian American,

Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA+, and People

with Disabilities). Little substantive

progress has been made in increasing

diversity in the graduate school popula-

tion in the broader geosciences over the

last 40 years, as demonstrated in a 2018

article published in Nature Geoscience

(Bernard and Cooperdock, 2018) and in

data from a National Science Foundation

survey of current graduate students

(NCSES, 2021). Indeed, the NCSES data

show that in 2019, only ~8.8% of those

surveyed identify as coming from a

group that is considered part of a mar-

ginalized community in the United

States (Garza, 2021).

With heightened acknowledgment of

the diversity imbalance in ranks of ocean

scientists, the inequitable experiences

of those not from the dominant cul-

ture (Berhe et al., 2022), and community

determination to implement changes that

will support a successful future for the

field (e.g., Behl et al., 2021), the time was

right for publishing a compendium of

articles that strives to educate the ocean

sciences

community—and

beyond—

about how to recognize inequities and

mitigate barriers, and that provides tools

for implementing best practices for build-

ing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the

field. We also wished to share pedagogi-

cal approaches that can be adapted to rec-

ognize cultural and learning differences.

This special issue builds on the existing

body of knowledge distributed through-

out the peer-reviewed literature, in vari-

ous workshop reports, in funding agency

By Ellen S. Kappel, Benjamin E. Cuker, Corey Garza, Deidre Gibson, Catalina Martinez, Wendy F. Todd, and Cassie Xu

BUILDING

DIVERSITY,

EQUITY, AND

INCLUSION

IN THE OCEAN

SCIENCES

December 2023 | Oceanography

surveys and program reports, and in proj-

ect reviews, and it offers new information

that we wish to make widely available

to the broader community of students,

employers, government officials, faculty,

and administrators.

By compiling the ocean sciences com-

munity’s

collective

experiences

and

knowledge into one open-access volume,

our aspiration is that this special issue will

(1) serve as a resource for building diver-

sity, equity, and inclusion in the ocean sci-

ences; (2) inspire people and institutions

to earnestly review practices and commit

to meaningful positive changes to achieve

a truly equitable, inclusive, and diverse

ocean sciences field; and (3) encour-

age underrepresented and marginalized

scholars to become and remain ocean

scientists. We also hope that this special

issue will stimulate discussion within the

ocean sciences community as to how we

can collectively create a more welcom-

ing, safe, secure, and inclusive environ-

ment for underrepresented and margin-

alized scholars and encourage colleagues

to look beyond the ocean sciences for

creative solutions.

SPECIAL ISSUE CONTENT

Instead of inviting authors to write arti-

cles on narrowly defined topics, the

guest editors asked The Oceanography

Society, the publisher of Oceanography,

to issue a broad call for letters of inter-

est in submitting articles on five topic

areas: (1)  Numbers and Trends: What

Do The Data Tell Us?; (2) Barriers to

Entry, Persistence, Advancement, and

Success; (3) A Look at Some Federally

Funded Programs; (4) Other Initiatives;

and (5)  Your Ideas. We received more

than 80 letters of interest, which were all

guest-editor reviewed. Final decisions

were made with the goal of inviting arti-

cles that span a range of programs and

initiatives. An equally important objec-

tive was to include voices of the next

generation of scholars to complement

authors who have been pioneers in pro-

moting diversity, equity, and inclusion

in the ocean and related sciences. In the

end, we sorted the articles into three of

the five initial topics, as seen in chapter

titles of this special issue.

Because of the great interest in contrib-

uting to the special issue and the wonder-

ful variety of letters of interest we received,

we invited many more authors to contrib-

ute articles than originally planned. In

some cases, we asked groups who sub-

mitted letters of interest on similar types

of programs to collaborate, with the

hope that by combining experiences they

would suggest novel ways to move for-

ward that would have more impact than

publishing several individual articles. By

combining forces in some articles and

inviting numerous shorter “spotlights,”

we were able to include even more voices

than initially anticipated. This approach

also allowed us to display a wider range of

programs, collect additional perspectives,

and capture more diverse identities, add-

ing richness to the volume. We gave voice

to as many people as our budget permit-

ted because of our desire to highlight

the range of barriers underrepresented

scholars face to advancement and reten-

tion in the ocean sciences and to empha-

size the experiences of the people who are

developing, running, or participating in

various programs.

For the spotlights, we asked authors to

limit their articles to roughly 1,500 words,

BOX 1. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

As part of this special issue, we are including an

online supplement that contains autobiographical

sketches written by ocean scientists from under-

represented and marginalized backgrounds. These

sketches highlight people’s careers, some bar-

riers they have encountered during their career

journeys, and how they mitigated those barri-

ers to find success. These sketches are mod-

eled on the one-page profiles that appear in the

two Women in Oceanography volumes published

by Oceanography (Autobiographical sketches of

women in oceanography, 2005, 2014) that have

been the source of inspiration for a generation of

women oceanographers.

https://oceanographydigital.tos.org/

flip-book/110286/787099

Oceanography | Vol. 36, No. 4

one figure, and no more than five refer-

ences. To eliminate repetition and imme-

diately capture readers’ attention, we

asked authors of these short articles to

focus their introductory paragraphs on

specific goals and exclude material that

would be covered in the longer keynote

articles, such as the national challenges or

statistics related to the lack of diversity in

the ocean sciences. We asked authors to

immediately get to the heart of the matter:

What are the barriers you are address-

ing and what did you do about it? Who

funded your program and what were the

program goals? Articles needed to briefly

describe the programs, including details

that would help readers adapt or mod-

ify their own approaches to address their

specific needs. We limited the results sec-

tions to describing, in broad terms, which

components of the programs were suc-

cessful, including retention statistics, if

available, and any additional pertinent/

constructive information. Importantly,

we asked authors of the spotlights to add

explicit “lessons learned” sections to their

manuscripts summarizing what worked

and what didn’t, including thoughts

about how they might change their pro-

grams going forward. We expect these

sections to be the most constructive and

informative for readers.

Many of the longer, externally peer-

reviewed articles follow roughly the same

format as the spotlights, though authors

had more leeway to expand the main arti-

cle sections, providing more background

information and references, details on

program motivations, descriptions, and

lessons learned. Our intent remained,

though, to not have authors include

detailed program assessments and evalu-

ations that might be more appropriate for

an education-focused journal. Rather, we

again asked authors to focus on sharing

their insights on effective practices used in

the design, structure, and function of their

programs that made them more inclusive,

equitable, and diverse; how projects were

modified over time and why; and what

did and did not work. Other articles break

out of the prescribed mold to focus more

on authors’ lived experiences.

Our editorial vision and goals evolved

as

spotlights

were

submitted

and

re viewed. Foremost in our thoughts was

that we did not wish to publish a typi-

cal series of journal articles. We wanted

this special issue to serve as a “hand-

book” that would share the knowledge

our community has gained in designing

and running programs that increase and

support diversity and that would high-

light the lived experiences of authors and

program participants. As our thinking

changed, we asked many authors to reim-

agine and rewrite their articles to better

fit the new paradigm.

While the bulk of the articles in this

special issue resulted from the letters of

interest we received, we invited program

managers from federal agencies sup-

porting this issue to weigh in. Over the

last several decades, millions of US fed-

eral dollars have been spent on funding

programs seeking to broaden participa-

tion in STEM (e.g., NSF, 2023b), but the

ocean sciences, and indeed the broader

geosciences, still have not made signif-

icant progress. A collaborative article

highlights the efforts of four US agen-

cies (National Aeronautics and Space

Administration, National Oceanic and

Atmospheric Administration, National

Science Foundation, and Office of Naval

Research) that have taken different, but

complementary, approaches to increasing

diversity in the ocean sciences. Similarly,

we solicited a collaborative article from

professional societies that are associ-

ated with aquatic science. We asked those

authors to discuss what the professional

societies have done, are doing, and plan

to do to increase diversity, equity, and

inclusion in the ocean sciences.

LANGUAGE

Language matters, and it evolves. As Craig

and Bhatt (2021) put it, “thoughtful use

of language can signal openness, inclusiv-

ity, admiration, and celebration, or sim-

ply be an expression of empathy and care

for our fellow humans.” Consistent with

those sentiments, we asked authors to

incorporate inclusive language in their

articles and not use deficit language

(e.g., minority). We gave authors leeway

to use terms they were most comfort-

able with rather than specifying the use

of particular terms, as long as deficit lan-

guage was avoided. For example, differ-

ent authors use the terms Latine, Latinx,

or Latina/Latino. Some authors preferred

the term “historically excluded groups,”

while others preferred “underrepresented

groups,” and others “marginalized com-

munities” or “marginalized identities.”

One term we did unify in this special

issue is using “White” uppercase, though

we recognize that other publications

have chosen to use “white,” and there

are arguments for both, as described

in many excellent commentaries avail-

able on the web.

FINAL THOUGHTS

With this special issue, we asked our

community to think differently and write

differently. The word “reimagine” came

up many times in discussions among

the guest editors and with authors. We

wanted authors to move beyond consid-

ering how to improve upon existing pro-

grams that have attempted to address the

diversity deficit in the past, and to think

about what programs and institutions

might look like if we started fresh, using

the knowledge and experience we have

gained over the decades and including the

voices of the diverse population we want

to embrace the ocean sciences, and STEM

in general. Many of the articles in this

special issue describe programs that have

taken that independent path, reimagin-

ing what truly inclusive programs might

look like—although it is clear that secur-

ing funding both over the long and short

terms remains challenging.

We hope that a special issue on diver-

sity, equity, and inclusion in the ocean

sciences a decade from now will be filled

with articles documenting how the ocean

sciences implemented course corrections

that resulted in a much larger and welcom-

ing tent for a diverse array of colleagues.

Right now, it’s an all-hands-on-deck need