[Iefac.list] Fwd: INFORMS DEI Ambassadors - Application deadline November 15!
Julie L Swann
jlswann at ncsu.edu
Wed Nov 3 15:57:15 EDT 2021
IE Faculty--
Please see the below opportunity. There are some interesting projects
from the past cycle.
Best,
Julie Swann
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: INFORMS DEI Ambassadors - Application deadline November 15!
Date: Wed, 3 Nov 2021 01:29:31 +0000
From: Keskinocak, Pinar <pinar at isye.gatech.edu>
To: Julie L. Swann <jlswann at ncsu.edu>
Dear Colleagues,
The INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Ambassadors Program
provides a platform to unite groups of academic and practitioner
members, graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, and staff to
work individually or collaborate on initiatives to foster a diverse,
equitable, and inclusive INFORMS community. In support of this effort,
the DEI Ambassador Program is currently awarding small grants (up to
$2,500) for work that helps support DEI. Deadline to apply is November 15.
Detailed info at the end of this email. Application process is easy, and
applications are short (1-2 pages).
Best, -- Pinar
Application Portal: INFORMS - 2022 Diversity Ambassadors
(secure-platform.com)
<https://informs-awards.secure-platform.com/a/solicitations/login/109?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Finforms-awards.secure-platform.com%2Fa%2Fsolicitations%2F109%2Fhome%3F__hstc%3D194041586.66c2128308d82a874dcb73b3f973fd4e.1621215516866.1635531649117.1635872088500.57%26__hssc%3D%26hsCtaTracking%3D82624212-5686-4844-8060-8b0f8e426cc4%7C0dfc5784-bdeb-42cc-a965-4ec77749bec5>
*Do you have a great idea to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion
within INFORMS?**INFORMS is pleased to announce the Diversity and
Inclusion Ambassadors initiative program!*
* *Submit a proposal for a small grant (up to $2500) to support a
diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) initiative to benefit the
INFORMS community*
* *Any INFORMS member or staff can apply*
* *Proposals are due by **November 15, 2021*
* *Projects run during 2022*
* *Up to 15 projects will be funded*
* *See below for more details!*
*Do you have a great idea to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion
within INFORMS?* The INFORMS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
Ambassadors Program will bring together groups of academic and
practitioner members, graduate and undergraduate students, post-docs,
and staff who will individually and/or collectively work on initiatives
to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive INFORMS community. The
program is intended to provide a platform for our members to engage in
DEI initiatives in a variety of areas including workplace practices,
teaching, and research, and leverage our capacities as individuals
(practitioners, researchers, educators, students, and staff) to
contribute to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion among the
broader INFORMS community.
Up to 15 projects will be funded.
*Who Should Apply for the DEI Ambassadors Program?*
* All INFORMS members and staff are encouraged to apply. Former
involvement with DEI programs/activities is a plus, but not required.
* Applicants should have an individual (or small 2-4 person team)
proposal for a project that will contribute to or create the
capacity to contribute to furthering DEI within an INFORMS community
or for the entire membership.
* Applicants will be expected to remain engaged with the entire group
of Ambassadors on a sustained basis. While the ambassadorship will
only last formally for one year, the goal is to establish long-term
relationships among participants, and between participants and
existing (and potential future) INFORMS initiatives for long-term
impact.
To push our thinking in new directions, INFORMS is seeking both
Ambassadors who have been immersed in this topic as well as those
interested in connecting to it from different fields and perspectives.
Awardees from previous years are eligible to apply again, either with a
new proposed project or with a significant extension to their previous
project.
*How to Apply*
Interested participants should submit an application via INFORMS Awards
Portal by November 15, 2021. The application includes:
* A brief 1-2 page statement uploaded as a PDF articulating the
applicant’s (or the team’s) interest in becoming a DEI
Ambassador(s), including:
o the objectives for their proposal,
o what they believe they can contribute to the Ambassadors program,
o how the proposed project/activities will have an impact,
o how this impact can be measured based on relevant metrics
(short, medium, and long term),
o how the applicant’s prior experiences will help in the proposed
effort,
o articulation of what INFORMS staff support might be required to
ensure the success of the project,
o a proposed budget, requesting up to $2500 (or $2500 per person
for teams), with a description of anticipated usage of the funds.
* The applicant’s CV or resume uploaded as a PDF. (In the case of a
small team, the CVs or resumes of all team members should be
compiled into a single PDF file and uploaded.)
* Postdoctoral fellow and graduate student applicants should also
include a letter of recommendation from their faculty advisor.
Undergraduate students should include a letter of recommendation
from a faculty member in their unit or their school chair.
* Participants may explore the possibility of matching funds from
their organizations or other external sources to support their
activities, and possibly pilot some of the proposed initiatives
within their own organization before widespread adoption within
INFORMS. If such a commitment is made by a participant’s employer, a
letter of commitment should be included in the application.
If an applicant or a group of applicants have plans to solicit other
external funding to support their proposed activity, they are encouraged
to discuss this in their proposal.
Applications will be reviewed by a committee and the selected
Ambassadors will be announced by January 8, 2022.
*Funding*
Each Ambassador will receive up to $2,500 in discretionary funding, to
be spent on initiative-related activities. Each Ambassador will submit a
budget for his/her proposed activity. (Some proposals may not request
any funding, and others may request less than the maximum, depending on
the content of the proposal.) The funds are to be used as the
participants see fit following INFORMS rules and regulations and will be
approved by INFORMS. For example, a participant/group may support an
hourly student to assist with data analysis, support the travel of a
world-renowned expert on DEI topics to give a plenary or keynote
presentation at the INFORMS annual meeting or the Business Analytics
Conference, pay for designing/printing pamphlets or preparing a webinar
for increasing awareness of DEI within INFORMS, etc. The funding will be
disbursed as reimbursement of approved expenses incurred upon submission
of receipts. Ambassadors should submit their receipts to INFORMS staff.
All expenses must be incurred by the end of the calendar year and
submitted for reimbursement by February 1 of the following year.
*Commitments*
Ambassadors will be appointed for a term ending December 31, 2022.
Participation in the program requires a commitment to:
* Complete their proposed initiative/project that will raise the
profile of this theme within INFORMS or make an INFORMS-wide
contribution.
* Attend a virtual kick-off meeting in January 2022 to meet the cohort
of current Ambassadors and learn about each other’s projects.
* Attend quarterly (or more frequent, if needed) conference call
meetings for progress updates and sharing (a kick-off meeting and at
least three additional meetings through the end of the program).
* Prepare a one-page executive summary: An initial draft due June 30,
2022; final draft due December 20, 2022.
* Contribute a post to the DEI blog by January 2023.
* The executive summary should discuss the project, new learning, the
impact of the activities (short, medium, long term). Some
participants may be invited to share an edited/extended version to
be published in /OR/MS Today/, /Analytics/, and/or /OR/MS Tomorrow/.
To further disseminate the outcomes, some participants may also be
invited to participate in webinars and other channels.
* Share their results with the INFORMS community in a specially
designated session (or a series of sessions or events) at the Annual
Meeting.
For Ambassadors whose projects show significant potential and strong
progress but cannot be concluded in one year, a second term can be
considered, if they submit an application again the following year.
*Potential individual/group projects may include (but are not limited to):*
* Collecting and sharing best practices for increasing diversity or
enhancing inclusion of a given group.
* Reviewing existing processes and their outcomes for potential
(possibly unintentional) biases against or barriers to individuals
within a group and identifying ways to make processes more equitable.
* Creating guidelines for DEI training for members or staff that can
be used across multiple organizations, including topics such as
bystander intervention and implicit bias.
* Collecting (in collaboration with INFORMS staff) and analyzing data
to better understand DEI metrics across various INFORMS groups
activities, such as subdivisions, journals, award committees,
conferences (participants, keynote speakers, plenary speakers,
etc.), etc.
* Starting a new INFORMS award focusing on DEI contributions.
* Framing a research agenda that is focused on DEI-inspired themes,
especially in areas that rely heavily on human studies, but have
perhaps consistently neglected to pay attention to different
physical, biological, and/or psychological/behavioral aspects of
specific minority groups.
* Developing non-traditional evaluation metrics for DEI within our
community and identifying potential obstacles toward promoting
diversity and inclusion.
* Targeting K-12 (kindergarten thru 12th grade in the United States,
or equivalent primary and secondary education levels in other
countries) outreach to promote analytics and operations research,
engage diverse populations with INFORMS early on, and addressing the
“pipeline” coming into the profession.
* Establishing a training program on DEI: for example, a series of
short videos on several of the topics above (these could be made
available free of charge to INFORMS members and for a fee to other
individuals or organizations for group access).
* Collecting and analyzing data to better understand the relationship
between DEI metrics and funding (government, company, etc.)
* Studying the experiences and challenges of international members and
their attitudes towards DEI.
* Exploring the challenges and opportunities that arise from
intersectionality, wherein someone belongs to more than one
marginalized group, e.g., forging allyships between different
marginalized groups.
* Developing a “How can I help?” guide that speaks personally to
members in different positions/roles (educator/teacher, advisor,
supervisor, manager, student, etc.) within INFORMS by recommending
specific actionable ways to contribute to DEI that span the spectrum
of the amount of effort and time-commitment required.
* Developing partnerships with other professional societies to jointly
sponsor a DEI activity.
* Developing partnerships with organizations to better elevate DEI
awareness among O.R./Analytics professionals within an organization.
* Developing mentorship programs for certain subgroups.
* Organizing keynote panel discussions at conferences inviting leaders
from companies, governments, and universities (e.g., deans and
school chairs) to discuss their DEI initiatives and best practices
* Setting up online community forums for LGBTQ+, female,
under-represented minorities so that members can ask and discuss
issues with mentors within the same community.
* Conducting a survey about maternity/family leave policies at
different universities.
* Creating a guide/video training for all organizations using the
INFORMS Career Center reminding interviewers of the types of
questions they cannot ask job applications (e.g., marriage,
disability, children status) and suggesting appropriate ways to
communicate the availability of disability/marriage/child/etc. services.
These are just a few potential examples, and the list would expand based
on the proposals received, as well as the themes or focus areas that may
be identified as high priority for INFORMS in a given year, to ensure
alignment with INFORMS activities and goals.
*Evaluation Process *
All applications will be evaluated by a Program Committee, who will
consider individual merits of each application. The selection criteria are:
* Whether the project is well defined;
* Whether the project appears doable within the proposed timeframe and
budget;
* The project’s potential for impact in the INFORMS community;
* The project’s potential for impact in the broader OR/MS profession;
* How well the success of the project can be objectively assessed in
the near or long term;
* How well the scope of the project complements or deepens the topics
to be addressed by the cohort of Ambassadors each year, and in
consecutive years.
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