(Press-News.org) Washington, D.C. – The STEMM Opportunity Alliance (SOA), a national effort galvanizing stakeholders to achieve equity and excellence in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) by 2050, announced a milestone of more than 100 partners since its launch at the White House Summit on STEMM Equity and Excellence in December 2022.
Some highlights from SOA’s newest partners and their commitments include:
Johnson & Johnson will continue growing multiple projects that work to address the needs of young people seeking careers in STEMM and/or healthcare, especially from underrepresented populations.
Brown Girls Code has committed to launching five more academies in the areas of Math, Digital Arts, Entrepreneurship, Gaming and New Technologies to promote specialization for Black and Brown girls in its afterschool, hybrid, and virtual programs by 2025.
Oak Ridge Associated Universities is investing more funds into its Center for Next Generation Talent (CNGT), which is dedicated to enhancing diversity in the STEMM workforce through the formation of public-private partnerships. CNGT collaborates with partners on joint research projects, evaluates and assesses programs, and develops innovative learning environments and unconventional student recruitment strategies.
These diverse partners and projects demonstrate SOA’s breadth of collaborators as it convenes organizations from across sectors and scientific communities that will help advance a national strategy for achieving equity in STEMM by 2050.
As part of this effort, SOA hosted its second convening earlier this week at the New York Hall of Science. Companies like IBM, leaders in the education space like the NYC Department of Education, and community organizations like STEM From Dance convened in a rich discussion. Topics included K-12 educator preparation and diversification; access to evidence-based instruction and learning; supporting girls and women in STEMM; the role of industry, philanthropy, and community organizations in diversifying the STEMM ecosystem; and metrics for tracking progress toward equity.
Top funders, including SOA founding partner Doris Duke Foundation, are also convening at a roundtable hosted by the Simons Foundation to discuss how to effectively support equity in the national STEMM ecosystem.
“The STEMM Opportunity Alliance will continue to grow our partner network because achieving the systemic change needed to meet future demands and capitalize on historic commitments will require greater coordination, alignment, and shared learning than currently exists,” said Sudip Parikh, CEO of AAAS and executive publisher of the Science family of journals. “SOA has the power to work across sectors and geographies to facilitate national coordination and pursue STEMM equity on a national level like never before.”
With millions of dollars in new funding for key industries, like semiconductor manufacturing, coming into the state, New York State will require a STEMM ecosystem that can deliver the outstanding, diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforce to power our future.
“By reimagining our existing STEMM ecosystem, you’re opening the door to promising futures and the high earning potential that STEMM fields offer. We know the jobs of the future will require skills in coding, engineering, and technology,” said Governor Kathy Hochul in a video address to convening partners. “It starts with STEMM education. The key is focusing on introducing our students to great opportunities. This will ensure we have the talented workforce we need to continue our nation-leading work and ultimately drive economic growth and prosperity for generations to come.”
SOA partners have committed over $1.5 billion to initiatives and programs that address the five action areas set forth in the Biden Administration’s vision to transform and enhance the U.S. STEMM ecosystem. SOA’s latest partnership announcement comes at a time when the Biden Administration is embarking on bold new DEI in STEMM goals and when innovation and American leadership are front-and-center in policy debates.
Together, SOA partners are constructing a national strategy to achieve STEMM equity and excellence that is informed by stakeholders across sectors and includes robust, measurable, and ambitious goals that can serve as organizing principles for this work. More information about SOA’s plan to construct the national strategy can be found here.
SOA is planning a slew of upcoming events in May and beyond and will announce these soon.
SOA’s newest group of partners includes:
Building Engineering and Science Talent (BEST)
Brown Girls Code
Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program (ChiS&E)
Creating Pathways and Access for Student Success (CPASS)
Education Development Center (EDC)
Girlstart
Illumina
Johnson & Johnson
National Science Policy Network
Oak Ridge Associated Universities
Regeneron
The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES)
Women in Revenue
A full list of partners and commitments can be found at https://stemmopportunity.org/partners.
###
About the STEMM Opportunity Alliance | stemmopportunity.org
The STEMM Opportunity Alliance is a national effort by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with the support of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF), dedicated to building a STEMM ecosystem rooted in equity, inclusion, and scientific excellence to power progress, innovation and prosperity for all by 2050. This effort brings together organizations and entities from across sectors and scientific communities that are committed to developing and advancing a national strategy for achieving shared goals for equity in STEMM.
END
Stroke is among the most dangerous and commonly misdiagnosed medical conditions. Black and Hispanic people, women, older people on Medicare, and people in rural areas are less likely to be diagnosed in time for treatment to be effective. In a new study, researchers used machine learning methods and data available when patients enter the hospital to develop a model that predicts strokes with more accuracy than current models.
The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), Florida International University (FIU), and Santa Clara University (SCU), appears in the Journal of Medical Internet ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Honey bee colonies managed using organic methods were as healthy and productive as those managed in conventional systems, while avoiding the use of synthetic pesticides to control pests and pathogens inside the hive, according to newly published research led by Penn State entomologists.
The researchers said they believe that their study, which compared the performance of honey bees under three types of management systems, is the first to show that organic beekeeping management is sustainable and supports high honey-bee survival and honey production.
The methods beekeepers use to manage honey ...
A new North Carolina State University study shows that Indigenous groups in the western United States are – for various reasons – having difficulty turning water they have a legal right to, under water rights settlements, into actual water that can generate revenue through leases to other groups or through direct uses such as agriculture.
Western tribal water rights are a longstanding, yet underpublicized, component of a large and seemingly intractable problem: how to satisfy all water-rights holders when available ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the world searches for ways to reduce the use of plastics such as single-use plastic bags, a novel study by Penn State researchers demonstrates a process to make paper bags stronger — especially when they get wet — to make them a more viable alternative.
The study suggests a process for creating paper bags durable enough to be used multiple times and then broken down chemically by an alkaline treatment to be used as a source for biofuel production, according to researcher Daniel Ciolkosz, associate ...
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A Penn State-led interdisciplinary team of researchers across six institutions was awarded a $3.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to investigate the role that macrobiota, such as clams, salt marshes and seagrasses, play in carbon cycling in estuaries.
“Estuaries are highly productive and diverse ecosystems and hence deserve study in their own right,” said Raymond Najjar, professor of oceanography and lead investigator on the project. “But estuaries ...
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — With a new microscopy technique that uses blue light to measure electrons in semiconductors and other nanoscale materials, a team of Brown University researchers is opening a new realm of possibilities in the study of these critical components, which can help power devices like mobile phones and laptops.
The findings are a first in nanoscale imaging and provide a workaround to a longstanding problem that has greatly limited the study of key phenomena in a wide variety of materials that could one day lead to more energy-efficient semiconductors and electronics. ...
A study of young adults who were victims of violent injuries as children found significantly higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in this group than the general population.
The study – conducted by University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) researchers – surveyed 24 respondents who were victims of gunshot, stab, or assault wounds as children between the years of 2011 and 2020. Of the participants, 15 suffered a gunshot wound, eight suffered a stab wound, and one was assaulted. Respondents were primarily teenagers at the time of injury, with a median age of 16.6 years. An average of six years had passed from the initial injury to the time ...
Bonita Springs, FL— Smell, taste, and chemesthesis are vital chemical senses that contribute to the multidimensional sensation of flavor. Together with other sensory inputs, they allow us to enjoy eating and drinking. Understanding the fundamental mechanisms underlying these sensations is a primary focus of the annual conference of the Association for the Chemoreception Sciences, AChemS XLV. Other key areas include factors that modulate these mechanisms and their impact on fundamental behavior in a wide array of species. Attendees and members of AChemS are leading scientific and biomedical researchers dedicated to better understanding the function ...
New Haven, Conn. — The U.S. prison population plummeted during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic but the percentage of incarcerated Black people rose, according to a new analysis of prison data published April 19 in the journal Nature.
The higher percentage of incarcerated Black people by mid-2020 was found in almost all states, and temporarily reversed a decades-long decrease in the percentage of Black people in the national prison population, researchers from Yale and Northeastern Universities and the Santa Fe Institute found.
While several factors contributed to the increase in percentage of incarcerated Black people during the height of the pandemic, researchers ...
VANCOUVER, Wash. – Suspected suicidal cannabis exposures have increased 17% annually, over a period of 12 years, according to a Washington State University-led analysis of U.S. poison center data.
The vast majority of the attempts, more than 92%, involved other substances in addition to cannabis, and the data cannot show a direct causal link between cannabis and suicide attempts. Still, the findings are cause for concern, the researchers said, especially since the increase was more pronounced among children and women ...