DEI Workshop: The Power of Small Disturbances
The grand challenges we face today - like climate change and inequality - can seem intractable. After all, the systems we live, work, and learn within are imbued with implicit bias and continue to produce inequitable and unjust outcomes. The field of science is no exception. Today, because bias, discrimination, and inequity continue to prevent the full diversity of voices - and their ideas, questions, and solutions - from reaching the world’s megaphones and shaping what happens inside and outside the laboratory, we are necessarily stymying our progress toward a more equitable and sustainable world.
But this doesn't have to be our story.
With the need for innovation more urgent than ever, and a collective imperative to create the conditions where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential, small systemic disturbances have the power to create seismic change. And each of us can play an active role in creating those disturbances.
In this session, you’ll hear a guest perspective from Dr. Sonali Mohapatra, Quantum Innovation Sector Lead at the National Quantum Computing Centre, Director of the Prospero Space Fellowship, and Founding Member and Chair of New Voices in Space Working Group on the Scottish Space Leadership Council. Dr. Mohapatra will describe why now is the time to innovate the systems in the field of science for greater equity and equitable scientific innovation. Dr. Kristen Liesch - Forbes “D&I Trailblazer” and co-founder and co-CEO at Tidal Equality - will explore how small disturbances and ‘domino dynamics’ have the power to transform our systems and drive a more equitable and innovative future. She will share insight, drawing on the science of behavioral change and the art of social change, and provide practical examples and tactics you can use to create “small disturbances” of your own.