Diversity and Innovation

In 2008, I founded the Diversity and Innovation Caucus with 5 other colleagues in the House of Representatives.  The Diversity and Innovation Caucus was established to:

• Generate policy ideas for increasing the participation of groups underrepresented in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM);
• Articulate the importance of pro-STEM and pro-innovation policies for groups underrepresented in STEM fields; and
• Communicate the importance of promoting diversity in STEM for the achievement of America's innovation and competitiveness goals.

According to the U.S. Census, 39 percent of the population under the age of 18 is a racial or ethnic minority.  Yet, in 2000, only 4.4 percent of the science and engineering jobs were held by African Americans and only 3.4 percent by Hispanics. Women constitute over half of the post-secondary students in the nation, but represent a little more than one quarter of our science and engineering workforce.  If we want to expand the STEM pipeline and ensure that America remains innovative and competitive, we must infuse the STEM fields with new talent from communities all across our country.

During these first two years the Caucus has successfully worked to include provisions in key legislation, like the America COMPETES Act, which will send more highly qualified teachers to high-need school districts through the Noyce program and invest in laboratory facilities in high-need schools.

The Caucus has also being instrumental in including a wide range of resources to enrich STEM experiences for under-represented groups and attract young people to the STEM fields in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

The Diversity and Innovation Caucus works closely with STEM partners across the country and has formulated eight principal objectives to increase participation by under-represented groups in these fields.

1.  Support the recruitment, retention, and professional development of well-qualified STEM teachers in high-need schools, so that educators are better prepared for teaching girls, students with limited English proficiency, and other minority groups.

2.  Ensure that students in high-need populations have access to a rigorous STEM curriculum, hands-on laboratory experiences, informal learning and other methods that increase interest and academic performance in STEM areas.

3.  Ensure that all schools are identifying and mitigating gaps in student performance in STEM education.

4.  Increase STEM academic and research capacity at Minority Serving Institutions.

5.  Strengthen the STEM pipeline by including specific attention to the following:

• Addressing obstacles to women and minority participation throughout the STEM workforce and pipeline (such as subtle institutional biases, a lack of adequate health care coverage, inflexibility of work hours, lack of dependent care options, etc.),
• Ensuring proper funding and coordinated oversight of existing federal programs focused on broadening participation in STEM, and
• Improving the quality of life for post-doctoral candidates.

6.  Strengthen and re-examine oversight of existing legislation aimed specifically at broadening participation by under-represented groups in STEM fields.

7.  Support a systematic approach to changing the face of STEM careers in the public eye via policy that creates or strengthens:

• Mentoring programs for women and minorities, and
• A federal marketing campaign for STEM careers.