DESIGN: Creating cultural change in small to medium-sized professional societies: a training network approach

Societies of the size and scope of the American Elasmobranch Society (AES) are often the first professional societies that students experience. They are important structures in making members feel welcomed, included, and valued in the scientific enterprise. The goal of this project is to lay the groundwork for creating a network of small to medium-sized societies that can work together to create cultural change in their own fields and beyond. Project leaders will pilot this by first focusing on the AES, where they will complete a thorough review of AES’s guiding policies, create and implement training for members, and create a train-the-trainer model to deliver those trainings beyond AES. The researchers will then pilot this approach with other similar societies. The long-term goal is to expand this into a mutually supportive Network that will extend the training and best practices established in this project beyond AES. This will build talent in scientific fields and diversify the scientific workforce through the persistence of a diverse student population into said workforce. The researchers for this project will lead the creation of culture change with the American Elasmobranch Society (AES), which can then be extended to other societies. Specifically, the researchers will 1) provide a more welcoming and safe meeting for AES and other societies, accomplished through changes to the guiding documents and policies of AES; 2) see culture change within AES that facilitates diversity in membership, accomplished through intensive training and a train-the-trainer model; and 3) provide the resources to help affordably create change in similar societies, accomplished through a Network approach. The researchers will evaluate several hypotheses relating to the implementation of policy changes and a sustainable training model and pilot a support Network for other societies. It is hypothesized that increased training, and the mere availability of training, will lead to a culture shift as indicated by: 1) approval (by vote of members) of changes to make the guiding documents of AES overtly inclusive; 2) improvement in pre- versus post-meeting climate surveys; and increases in the following: 3) numbers of members voluntarily completing training; 4) new members; 5) diversity of members; and 6) diversity of members holding leadership positions. The goal of this project is to see a gradual and steady increase in the number of societies seeking assistance from the Network and adopting the best practices developed through this project. 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.