Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging
Aero/Astro’s work on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging is underway. In July 2020 we started an Aero/Astro DEIB Committee to begin researching, thinking, and collaborating to forge a new pathway forward.
Stanford University Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Diversity Statement
Our department’s outreach and recruitment efforts have a long and proud history of bringing incredibly capable and well-qualified students, faculty, and staff to join us. Our vision for the future of the department strengthens both this tradition and our ability to solve challenging engineering problems by ensuring that we focus on our ability to successfully connect with, attract, and support talented people from all walks of life. Our strengths as individuals can never find their highest potential without the benefit of a richly diverse community within which we gain the wisdom and creativity of many lifetimes. For all our sakes, people of all gender identities, races, and class backgrounds must find a place of equal dignity, respect, and opportunity within our university.
Educational institutions play a critical role at the nexus of research, government, employment, and opportunity for their staff, students, faculty, and the broader communities they serve. It is therefore incumbent upon us to ensure that the makeup of the department encompasses a diversity of backgrounds and viewpoints. We believe this is the only way to maintain a cultural awareness of the institutional barriers, prejudices, and unique challenges facing all who would choose to join us.
Our goal is nothing less than a department that welcomes all people with open arms, and which makes itself and everyone within it stronger and better off for having done so.
To that end, the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging Committee has been established with two primary aims. First, to coordinate and amplify our department’s ability to support and advance the university’s broader vision for diversity, equity and inclusion. Second, to implement new initiatives and strategies at the department level which go beyond our basic commitment to equity and non-discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, class, sex, gender identity or expression, LGBTQ+ identity, age, disability, religion, veteran status, marital status, parenthood or any other family circumstance. Our efforts will serve to ensure a continuous improvement of the department’s ability to address the concerns of and serve the interests of these groups.
Our intention is not to categorize or classify people according to their identity, history, or life circumstances, nor to exclude anyone or deny their own challenges, but to openly acknowledge and recognize the institutional prejudice faced by so many. Our ambition and commitment to meet and overcome these challenges, together, must continually grow alongside our understanding and appreciation of the lives of our students, faculty, staff, and everyone in our broader community.
Comments? Questions? Suggestions? We'd love to hear from you!
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DEI committee members & initiatives 2022-2023
Current Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging Efforts in our Research Labs:
Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory Outreach
Stanford Autonomous Systems Lab DEIB initiatives:
- Women in Aerospace Symposium organization
- hosting students from the Summer Undergraduate Research (SURF) program
- organizing projects for the AI4ALL program
- placing HCBU students at Stanford and at other peer institutions through the NASA ULI center: https://sites.google.com/view/nasa-safe-aviation-autonomy/home
- placing underrepresented students from University of New Mexico at Stanford and at other peer institutions through the NASA ULI center
Stanford Plasma Dynamics Modeling Laboratory DEIB initiatives:
- hosting students from the Summer Undergraduate Research (SURF) program. Student hosted in 2020, Annika Thomas.
More Resources
Other Diversity & Inclusion Committees at Stanford
- Bioengineering
- Biosciences Commitment to Justice & Action (new 8/14/20)
- Chemical Engineering
- Computer Science Diversity and Inclusion Committee
- Chair: Prof. Moses Charikar
- Electrical Engineering
- Management Science and Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Stanford Medicine Diversity & Inclusion (new 8/14/20)
- Stanford Medicine Diversity Cabinet (new 8/14/20)
- Physics
- Founding Chair: Prof. Risa Wechsler