STEMM Opportunity Alliance releases national strategy to diversify and expand the STEMM workforce by 2050

On Wednesday, the STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, & Medicine) Opportunity Alliance announced STEMM Equity and Excellence 2050: A National Strategy for Progress and Prosperity. In a press release, SOA also announced that its partners have collectively committed more than $2 billion to realize the vision of the national strategy, each committing to “multi-lateral, cross-sector collaboration to achieve systems-level change.”

Examples of these commitments include:

• Microsoft has committed to supporting an educational program, FarmBeats for Students, to increase equitable access to STEMM learning experiences in rural communities around the country.
• The Education Development Center will expand its Math for All professional development program, reaching about 960 teachers and 44,800 students in grades three through six, thus increasing the number of skilled and diverse educators.
• The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is investing about $5 million to support educational pathways from minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to master’s and doctoral degree programs to support the development of STEMM faculty from historically excluded and marginalized populations.
• The Burroughs Wellcome Fund and the Charles H. Revson Foundation are investing $2.7 million to increase the number of minority scientists engaging in innovation.
• Jobs for the Future (JFF) is launching an effort for Black learners and workers to understand how AI is positioned to accelerate economic equity. Another JFF effort aims to increase Black learners’ access to complete postsecondary programs associated with high-demand STEMM careers. JFF is also piloting pathways for in-demand tech jobs for frontline workers in retail.
• The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, in partnership with #GirlsLeadSTEM will lead a capstone initiative in strategic communications that “will ensure demographics of STEMM professionals depicted in entertainment are consistent with the demographics of the country and effectively illustrate the importance of diverse perspectives in achieving excellence in STEMM,” according to the press release.   

A complete list of SOA’s partners and synopses of their commitments are available here.

SOA is a national effort by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), with the support from the Doris Duke Foundation (DDF), “dedicated to building a STEMM ecosystem rooted in equity, inclusion, and scientific excellence to power progress, innovation and prosperity for all by 2050,” as stated in their press release.