DESIGN: Reforming organizational culture across Biology using a Community of Care framework

In order to fully serve a diverse community of researchers, professionals, and educators in the Biological Sciences, the organizational structure of scientific societies and their programmatic decisions should emphasize a culture of community building and inclusive mentoring, alongside of scientific discovery. This project proposes that societies must expand from their “communities of practice”, which center on science, to incorporate “communities of care”, which center on people. The researchers have already developed and tested a three-stage approach for scientific society leadership that includes education, reflection, and guided action planning within this conceptual framework. This project will engage 5 US-based scientific societies in a series of critically evaluated listening sessions, workshops, and events that address both internal structures (society leadership) and external structures (journal and conference organization). Using this approach, the researchers will coordinate the initial implementation and evaluations for actionable opportunities with “community of care”-guided goals in each of these scientific societies. This project encompasses broader impacts by working to change discipline-level cultural values and through its direct support of over 100 scientists from diverse backgrounds and career-stages. This project has already generated buy-in from 5 US-based conference societies and their journals, which demonstrates proof of concept for the Biology community’s commitment to new, evidence-based approaches for inclusion. The guided action planning will draw from the expertise of existing evidence-based strategies developed in informal learning and corporate settings for community building. A major strength of this parallel approach is that it will catalyze a broader movement around proven cultural change methods than a single society can otherwise drive. Using a modular, flexible approach rooted in sociological and psychological peer-reviewed research will allow the researchers to generate support from societies’ leadership and membership who are invested in seeing their communities become more diverse, inclusive, and equitable but do not have the social and emotional tools or abundant resources to do so in a sustainable way. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.