ADVANCEGeo Partnership: Empowering geoscientists to transform workplace climate through bystander intervention and research ethics training

Despite their societal relevance, the geosciences are one of the least diverse fields in STEM. Bias, discrimination, and harassment present serious hurdles to diversifying the field. These behaviors persist due to persistent structures of exclusion, continued marginalization of non­majority groups, severe power imbalances in the current research training and funding models, and inadequate attitudes and policies against misconduct. ADVANCEGeo Partnership builds on successful collaborations among the American Geophysical Union, the Association for Women Geoscientists, and the Earth Science Women's Network to generate systemic change in the geosciences through a multi-level approach to transform workplace climate: at the institutional level, by addressing academic cultures through the leadership of scientific societies and on campus efforts; structurally, through policies and processes that guide professional conduct and response to hostile behaviors; and individually, through education and empowerment of all members of the scientific community. Major objectives of this NSF-funded project are to: (1) Develop and test bystander intervention training programs with geoscience-relevant scenarios and that incorporate intersectionality;(2) Develop research ethics teaching modules that define harassment, bullying and discrimination as scientific misconduct; (3) Disseminate training materials via partnership with professional societies for sustainability; and (4) Develop a sustainable model that can be transferred to other disciplines. We report on project progress and describe the methods used to develop and implement an in-person intervention that uses active learning and bystander intervention practices to address, respond to, and prevent workplace climate issues at the personal, community, and professional levels. Workshop evaluation data will be presented to demonstrate the reach of the intervention, positive formative findings, and participant satisfaction. Retrospective pre-test methods are used to demonstrate increases in participant learning outcomes. Our model is already being adopted for other disciplines inside and out of STEM in collaboration with professional societies.