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Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Featured in the Spring 2022 Newsletter »
In 2020, every research and core staff team at the Belfer Center developed an action plan for achieving progress on diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIB). These plans generated significant gains, including much greater diversity in the Center’s hiring practices, speaker invitations, and fellowship applications.
For the 2021-2022 academic year, more than a dozen Belfer staff, fellows, and students convened a committee to institutionalize and build upon this work. The goal of this DIB Committee is to develop, prioritize, and execute learning opportunities and community engagement. To this end, the Committee has expanded upon and relaunched an internal “pulse survey” to assess diversity, inclusion, and belonging gaps and opportunities within the Center. This survey is crucial for DIB, noted committee member Nick Sung. “Demographic data is necessary to better identify challenges and assess progress in improving inclusivity and belonging. Moreover, transparency about the survey findings creates shared accountability and ensures that DIB remains an organizational priority.” The Committee has also sponsored a community learning series, with experts in the field sharing best practices on global diversity, overcoming social bias in hiring, and training opportunities.
A key goal, says committee member Erika Manouselis, is fostering a better sense of community. “The Belfer Center is made up of over 200 talented individuals all with their own unique perspectives, experiences, and areas of expertise. The two key questions for our Committee are 1) what can we do internally to ensure that everyone, despite our differences, feels they belong and can do their best work and 2) how can we leverage the Center’s network and platform to externally cultivate the next generation of more diverse foreign policy leaders?”
Additionally, several research teams have continued to prioritize DIB-related topics in their research outputs and programming. For example, the Center hosted a Women in STEM series, an event series on Haiti with the HKS Black Student Union, and the Intelligence Project organized a seminar on “The Past, Present, and Future of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging in the American Intelligence Community.”
The DIB committee consists of Paula Briscoe, Natalie Colbert, Augusta Dell'Omo, Sarah Donahue, Thomas Franco, Kelly Gaffney, Francesca Giovannini, Jonah Glick-Unterman, Ariel Higuchi, Alison Hillegeist, Kevin Klyman, Erika Manouselis, Matt Parent, John Park, and Nick Sung.
Recommended citation
“Deepening the Center’s Commitment to Diversity.” Belfer Center Newsletter, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School. (Spring 2022)