AAUS Diversity Initiatives

While AAUS has worked to be inclusive for years, there is more work to be done to promote diversity and improve inclusivity within our community. Here's how we're getting started:

- Our Mission and Values will be updated to reflect our ongoing commitment to advance and facilitate safe and productive scientific diving while promoting equity and diversity in our community.

-We're creating an ad hoc diversity committee to advise the Academy Board on how to lead during this time of social change. Moving forward, we will consult our membership to determine if and how our by-laws should be amended to make this committee a permanent, integral part of our leadership. Members wanting to be a part of the ad hoc committee are encouraged to contact the Board. All comments and suggestions for initiatives are welcome.

- Our Scholarship Chair, Liz McNamee, has written a proposal to the AAUS Foundation to create a Diversity Scholarship fund. From her proposal: 'The Diversity Scholarship is need-based and provides funding and a 1 year DAN membership to undergraduate and/or graduate students who are interested in underwater sciences and identify as members of underprivileged groups to complete their Open Water diver certification. This scholarship is being established as a response to the inequity in both academia and scuba diving to help jump start the scientific diving career of the scholarship winners.'

- We need to hear from our community. It's up to all of us to create a better future for our sector of the diving industry and our entire society. Many of our member organizations are also taking action and we would like for our initiatives to parallel and support these efforts.

Please let us know if you have ideas and suggestions as we move forward: