Founded in 2014, Women in the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) (WiS) is a dedicated group of women faculty, staff, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students who are working to improve the SOEST workplace climate so that everyone can thrive. We are committed to a healthy, safe, equitable and productive climate in SOEST in which all employees and students treat each other with dignity and respect. Although WiS is focused on gender equity, we recognize that many of our concerns and challenges are shared by other underrepresented groups, and particularly by those with overlapping underrepresented identities.

For over a decade, WiS has been at the forefront of a grassroots movement to bring about much-needed change in SOEST, largely through training and consciousness-raising. Activities to date include:

1. Creating an inclusive community for women now numbering over 100;
2. Demanding the creation of a Director for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion position in SOEST;
3. Providing safety net resources for students, staff, faculty, and personnel who have been bullied, harassed, or treated unfairly;
4. Filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to release the names of harassers known to the Title IX office;
5. Drafting and delivering a SOEST Building Safety Petition signed by 89 SOEST personnel to increase workplace safety;
6. Creating and institutionalizing orientations and safety trainings for incoming SOEST graduate students and postdocs;
7. Offering bystander, microaggression, and gender bias trainings;
8. Leading an ADVANCE grant proposal, now PI-ed by Provost Michael Bruno, to create a campus-level DEI strategic plan;
9. Organizing and recruiting for externally facilitated workshops on ADVANCE; Fair and equitable hiring (Search Advocates), Mentoring for student persistence (Becky Packard); Negotiation and interpersonal communication (COACh), etc.
10. Establishing SOEST Wāhine Awards, a mini-grant program to fund WiS members’ professional development.
11. Add your activity here! We encourage WiS members to leverage our network to organize activities.

Join us! SOEST Women graduate students, post-docs, faculty and staff can join WiS by completing this short form (log in with your hawaii.edu email address): forms.gle/cuhByRM2sZp3zLN76

For more information, please email Dr. Jenny Engels or Dr. Barb Bruno