Diversify or Die

It’s the law

It’s the right thing to do

It will make you more competitive (innovative)

It’s the only way we’re going to survive

American business sees a crisis

To maintain our country's competitiveness in the 21st century, we must cultivate the skilled scientists and engineers needed to create tomorrow's innovations.

Virtually every major respected organization representing business, research and education, as well as government science and statistics agencies and commissions, has extensively documented the critical situation in U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Business & academia agree

MEASURING THE MOMENT:Innovation, National Security, and Economic Competitiveness

November 2006

Task Force on the Future of American Innovation

“America is in a slow motion crisis”

Unless we invest more in science and technology, the America of tomorrow will be “weaker, poorer, and less safe”

Newt Gingrich, April 8, 2008

The world is changing

“By 2010, 90% of all Ph.D.-holding scientists and engineers will be living in Asia, according to a prediction by the late Nobel-prizewinning chemist Richard Smalley.”

Time magazine, October 26, 2006

National Governors Association

Gov. Janet Napolitano, AZ

“U.S. economic growth in the 21st century will be driven by our nations ability to innovate”

U.S. demographics are changing

Women and minorities = 60% of the total U.S. workforce

Women = 46% percent of the total labor force

= 23% of the S&E labor force

African Americans and ethnic minorities = 24% of the total population = 7% of the S&E labor force

Shirley Ann Jackson2003

“…it now is unclear whether the nation can expect to have anadequate supply of scientists and engineering professionals needed to maintain its long-established global leadership.”

We have a problem

In group achievement, diversity often trumps ability

In his simulation, the more diverse group almost always performed better than the "smarter" group. The best and the brightest would often get stuck at the same place, so that the problem became impossible. The randomly selected group, however, had a diverse cognitive tool kit, which allowed it to overcome such apparent obstacles. The Frontal Cortex, Feb 15, 2008

"Progress depends as much on our collective differences as it does on our individual IQ scores,"

Corporate America speaks out

“The world needs science... Science needs women” (www.forwomeninscience.com – L’OREAL - UNESCO)

We can be the solution

America is in a “slow motion” crisis Corporate America is desperate for scientists,

techies, engineers, mathematicians (STEM) [demand is there]

We need to engage more kids and early in their lives to fill the STEM pipeline [provide the supply]

That means looking beyond the traditional demographics that have filled STEM jobs in the past