The Time is Now for Systemic Changes to Physics Culture
Despite decades of attempts at intervention, the numbers of African American students graduating with Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics and Astronomy have remained very low. The American Institute of Physics’ TEAM-UP report, released in 2020, highlights structural problems with how African American students are supported in their efforts to attain physics degrees. Solving these problems requires addressing systemic and cultural challenges and creating change in physics departments throughout the country.
In this talk, I will highlight findings from the TEAM-UP report and describe recent work done as part of the TEAM-UP Implementation Workshop series to support 47 physics and astronomy departments in their efforts to build plans to achieve the overall goal set forth in the TEAM-UP report, of (at least) doubling the numbers of African American students receiving BA degrees by 2030. While the report focuses on African American students, because the need is most evident there, attention to the key factors put forth in the report, and other concerns are likely to improve department culture for all students and faculty.
Dr. Dara Norman is the Deputy Director of the Community Science and Data Center at the NOIRLab in Tucson, AZ. She leads the Center’s Community Science mission to provide user support services and advanced data products for the astronomical community, and in particular, advocating for broad and equitable data access. Her research interests include the study of AGN and their influence on galaxy evolution.
Dr. Norman has been interested in the culture and workforce of astronomy for many years and has co-authors numerous white papers for 2 Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Surveys on these topics. She served as the AURA Diversity Advocate at NOAO, the duties of this position include creating and advancing opportunities at NOAO/AURA to bring more under-represented minorities and women into the “astronomy enterprise”, which includes research science, engineering, data science and instrument building. She has served on the governing board of the American Astronomical Society, where she chaired the task force that revised the society’s Ethics Code. She has been an active member of the AAS’s Committee on the Status of Minorities in Astronomy; chair of the astronomy and astrophysics section of the National Society of Black Physicists; and co-organizer of the 2015 Inclusive Astronomy Conference. She is currently co-chairing a committee supporting 47 university departments (including UC, Irvine Physics) with their implementations of goals to support recommendations from the AIP’s TEAM-UP report.
Dr. Norman received a Distinguished Alumni Timeless Award from the University of Washington in 2011. She became a Howard University Advance-IT Visiting Faculty Fellow in 2015 and has been recognized in the 2019 inaugural class of AAS Fellows. She holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Astronomy from the University of Washington and an S.B. in Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.