Like many innovations developed at a single site and motivated by the needs of a particular population, the creative challenge is "scaling up" or transferring what works to new sites and populations. In short, improving the prospects for minority student ascendance to positions of leadership depends on identifying practices that "travel." Once they take root, even as "experiments," they heighten the likelihood that they can be institutionalized. By this we mean, they become self-supporting by the host organization after the funding by the original outside sponsors has expired. Institutionalization means that the local institution has claimed ownership, making the program goal part of its culture and devoting human and fiscal resources to its ongoing attainment.

Formulating strategies for acting on this organizational imperative was the ultimate goal of the Summit. This is what emerged.

Institute for Leadership

… create a national leadership academy and it would have perhaps three components — a fellows program, a site program and a research and evaluation program.

The fellows program would be modeled on some combination of the kinds of programs out there — AAAS, Congressional Fellows, White House Fellows, where people put in applications for what it is that they want to do. And it might be a postdoc. It could, in fact, be a graduate student. It might be an assistant professor. It could be somebody coming back from industry into the academy.

A national leadership institute would be a resource for all involved, or seeking greater involvement in, the development of minority scientists and engineers. It would represent a learning community of senior and neophyte professionals. Organizations with a portfolio dedicated to the next generation of scientists and engineers, such as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the Research Corporation (Tucson, AZ) would lead a list of prospective sponsors.

The Institute would ideally be "plural" — distributed at various sites where research universities, in collaboration with corporate partners, pursue knowledge production and application. Institutions that host NSF-funded Science and Technology Centers, Engineering Education Coalition, collaboratories, and Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) projects would represent the kind of setting, with the mingling of human and fiscal resources, for nurturing leadership through research, product development, and management of staff and projects. Such a context cannot be invented or simulated. It must be present to allow opportunity for growth in creative environments. Examples already exist of research institutions with track records in granting science and engineering Ph.D.s to U.S. minorities and strong global industrial partnerships. They should be built upon.

The Institute’s operational components at each site would be, in skeletal form, as follows:

Fellows Program. A Fellowship program would provide leadership training, on a competitive basis for a finite period, at the graduate, postdoctoral, or young professional stages of the career. It would model leadership behavior. The experience, in a research-intensive setting, would emphasize as a mainstream obligation the development of talent in the workplace. Technical skills are thus seen as a minimum requirement, not complete fulfillment of expectations. A senior internship program would pair minority full professors and their industry analogues with established science and engineering leaders in research and education settings. All of these would be expensive, but selective, alternatives for developing leaders — influential people who cross boundaries, synthesize ideas, galvanize constituencies, and make a difference.

On-site Academy. A second function of an Institute would be the professional development of Ph.D.s as mentors and members of important networks. Leaders communicate informally and act as gatekeepers for exchanging information about people, trends, and opportunities. Offices on campus, such as Harvard’s Derek Bok Center that offers faculty tutelage and feedback on teaching and learning techniques, can serve as models for incubating innovations without the risk of reprisal, i.e., the tone is positive and the message sent by the institution is its positive valuation of the activity.

Studies Program. To assist innovators and skeptics alike, while increasing the credibility of human resource efforts through evaluation, the Institute would support a studies program for visiting scholars. Their collective goal would be the development of criteria that capture the characteristics of programs and activities that succeed in cultivating leadership among minority populations in the context of science or engineering workplaces. Federal agencies should be especially committed to funding such studies.

Coalition of Minority S&T Associations

The matchmaking of qualified minority baccalaureate recipients with quality science, mathematics, and engineering programs is a continuing struggle. SACNAS and the National Society of Black Engineers perform yeoman’s service for their constituencies. But until the American Chemical Society and FASEB, just to name two large professional associations, make the "minority issue" their issue, minority students and faculty will be excluded from important conversations and marginalized within their disciplines. Academic institutions with world-class faculty and research facilities are the necessary sites of advanced education and training for the next generation of minority, as well as majority, scientists and engineers. From among these ranks, in these settings of international repute, will emerge the next generation of leaders.

Nonprofit organizations such as the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (GEM) have advanced the cause of matchmaking for a quarter-century. This pool formation and credentialing - labor-intensive to be sure, underscores how the lack of information on who is qualified but invisible precludes "connections" for mutual benefit. Today, of course, information technology can be creatively and fruitfully employed. But the fact remains that leaders are a small subset of this pool. Without preparation for global technology-rich opportunities, minority scientists and engineers cannot compete for the leadership positions of the 21st century.

Registry of Minority Undergraduate Students. This might be a compilation of various lists that academic and corporate recruiters could easily consult. Providing hot link to web sites would create a directory that facilitates "matchmaking" a la GEM. An NSF source is the LSAMP program, which offers a model of institutional coalitions — many involving collaboration among minority-serving and majority institutions — targeted to the production of minority baccalaureates in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. A third model that incorporates career advice and first-person experiences with notices of employment and advanced degree opportunities is AAAS’s NextWave <www.nextwave.sciencemag.org>.^§

Kiosks and Catalogs. There is something to say for old-fashioned media — the hard copy and the face-to-face communication. These networking tools should not be abandoned. Indeed, it may be better to think about technology as augmenting these interpersonal means of conveying information, correcting impressions, and connecting people who otherwise would be ignorant of one another’s efforts and organizations. Conferences, symposia, and workshops that expose students to working scientists and engineers who are leaders and role models. This affords students — through exhibit booths, poster sessions, and panel discussions — the opportunity to present their work, receive constructive criticism, and build their own professional network, all of which are essential for future leadership.

A Federal Diversity Coordinator

The major system for accountability in federal agencies is now GPRA [the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993]. Every agency has to say what its goals are and measure its audit performance against them. I think it would be a very powerful move to make sure that every agency has in its GPRA plan the kind of goals and changes that we are looking for.

The diversity "czar" would cooperate with audits of agencies on this issue. There would be something like the office of federal contract compliance and programs that would oversee an audit of a federally-funded organization and how well they're performing on diversity issues.

A federal Diversity Coordinator could be appointed by the President as Deputy to the Science Advisor. The Deputy would monitor what the Federal agencies are already directed to do — replenish a workforce dedicated to advancing the agency’s mission. The R&D agencies sponsor programs that help to create future leaders by intensifying activities that support participation in science, mathematics, and engineering. Bolstered by GPRA performance plans and reports on degree-taking in science and engineering, the agencies are already accountable for achieving certain human resource goals. Such an appointment would "raise the stakes," the visibility, and the priority of building the pool of potential science and technology-based leaders.

The R&D agencies would be expected to link their research programs more explicitly to their strategic plans and GPRA reporting. Locating the Diversity Deputy in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy would ensure a different kind of accountability and treatment of the issues discussed in this report.^§§ The Deputy would have a continuing responsibility to consult with agencies on the application of their research award criteria to make increased recruitment, retention, and degree-conferral an avowed goal of agency funding.

Invoking nothing less than the moral suasion of the Executive Office of the President, in conjunction with congressional oversight and special bodies such as the Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering, and Technology Development,^§§§ will keep minority participation and leadership clearly on the federal radar screen. Complementary efforts by professional societies and especially activities such as the National Academy of Engineering’s Committee/Forum on Diversity will etch the issue on the national economic and workforce agenda. It is easier to monitor outcomes once the nation’s attention has been riveted by the leadership of the political system, as well as the research and policy communities.

Disseminating This Report

All organizations that represent career opportunities and compete as employers for talent — Federal, corporate, foundations, and other nonprofits (such as community-based organizations) — are potential partners in transforming the proposed actions into realities. A report of an event is a mobilizing force. It stirs emotions and triggers ideas. It should inspire, but how it is interpreted and acted upon is the ultimate test of inspiration: are people moved to act, or act differently? Do they see themselves as part of the implementation of a program or a previously ad hoc effort? Do they take ownership?

It is our hope that readers will share this report with colleagues, send it with a cover letter to anyone who cares or should care about the issues addressed. Be inclusive. Urge comments and reactions by professional communities in their journals and newsletters. "Make news" of representation, participation, and leadership in science and engineering.

^§ A starter list of Web Resources is contained in Appendix E.  

^§§ OSTP recently issued its own report pertinent to these issues: National Science and Technology Council, Ensuring A Strong U.S. Scientific, Technical, and Engineering Workforce in the 21st Century, April 2000.  

^§§§ See Land of Plenty, Diversity as America's Competitive Edge in Science, Engineering and Technology. Summary of the Report of the Congressional Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and Development, July 2000.