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Introduction

Efforts over the last several decades to increase the participation and leadership of Black men and women in the nation’s scientific and medical workforce have had limited results. Despite many individual successes, the number of Black professionals in science, engineering, and medicine (SEM) fields has not reached a level that corresponds with African American representation in the country at large. Structural racism affects progress at all stages along the pathway—from young children through graduate and medical students through faculty and clinicians at all levels. Beyond entry into educational programs or recruitment into workplaces seeking to diversify, challenges persist to achieve equity and inclusion for Black males and females. Moreover, psychological barriers confound the engagement of Black men and women in SEM fields.

To explore these issues and suggest solutions, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) launched the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine. Over the past 2 years, the Roundtable has convened workshops on K–12 education, the impact of COVID-19, financial burdens to pursuing SEM careers, and other topics. Sessions during each of these workshops identified psychological factors related to those specific topics. To have a more targeted discussion, the Roundtable convened a virtual workshop on September 14–15, 2021, entitled “Psychological Factors that Contribute to the Dearth of Black Students in Science, Engineering, and Medicine.” As summarized in this proceedings, panelists and participants

identified policies and practices that perpetuate these factors and explored solutions toward achieving and maintaining wellness, especially among students and young professionals.

OPENING REMARKS

Welcome from the National Academies Leadership

Laura Castillo-Page, Ph.D. (the National Academies) welcomed participants and shared her priorities as the National Academies inaugural chief diversity and inclusion officer. “Although DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] work is not new to the National Academies, I am establishing a new office that will be a resource for the entire organization,” Dr. Castillo-Page explained. “As many of you know, this requires a comprehensive and cross-cutting approach where we can successfully address the cultural and systemic changes that are necessary to advance equity, diversity, inclusion, and antiracism within our organization.” The office’s priorities include building the National Academies’ capacity to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion internally and in outwardly facing work. Internal priorities include improving the workplace culture for staff, members, and volunteers. External priorities relate to workshops and consensus studies across the National Academies’ seven programmatic areas.

“This is why I am so pleased to see the many accomplishments of the Roundtable even before others were prepared to discuss these issues, let alone take action against them,” she said. “The work of the Roundtable is a model for the Academies on how to unpack, understand, and generate solutions for advancing Black men and Black women in science, engineering, and medicine.”

Dr. Castillo-Page noted the importance of the workshop focus because mental health and psychological factors not only impact access to careers but also impact communities of color more generally. She noted in her own background growing up in Harlem, she saw firsthand how these factors affected her family and community.

Background on the Roundtable

Roundtable chair Cato Laurencin, M.D., Ph.D. (University of Connecticut), thanked Roundtable members, National Academies staff, and participants. He noted his own recent book draws on many of the issues that the Roundtable addresses (Laurencin, forthcoming).

As Dr. Laurencin explained, the origins of the Roundtable began with a 2018 workshop and subsequent publication about the crisis resulting from the growing absence of Black men in medicine (NASEM, 2018). Articles in the media were asking whether Black males in medicine were becoming an “endangered species,” he recounted. There has been a rebound in numbers, he noted, but much work remains.

After a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus to discuss the workshop, the National Academies established the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine in 2019, and Dr. Laurencin expressed his appreciation to Roundtable members and sponsors. As he elaborated, the goal of the Roundtable is to understand issues and create ideas for solutions, especially solutions utilizing the strengths in having Black men and Black women in these fields. At its inaugural meeting in December 2019, the group decided that each subsequent meeting would include data gathering, ideas generation, and a public workshop. Action groups were formed to foster information sharing and development of evidence-based approaches, engage with stakeholders, and conduct a range of activities for meaningful change. Seven action groups have been established: public engagement; mentorship and advising; systemic change to overcome psychological barriers to success; racism; pre-K to graduate education; financing; and COVID-19. With the current workshop, each action group has organized at least one workshop, and proceedings have been published (NASEM 2020, 2021, 2022 a, b, c)

In reviewing the workshop’s Statement of Task (see Box 1-1) and agenda (see Appendix A), Dr. Laurencin stressed the need to move beyond incremental interventions to create large and systemic changes. “This is a workshop and not a talk-shop,” he stressed. “We have to move forward with urgency.”

Context of the Workshop

Workshop co-chair Vivian Pinn, M.D. (National Institutes of Health), spoke on behalf of herself; fellow co-chairs Shirley Malcom, Ph.D. (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS]); and Evelynn Hammonds, Ph.D. (Harvard University); and the planning committee. Dr. Pinn shared the mission statement of the Mental Health and Behavioral Action Group used as the basis to plan the workshop:

The committee looked at the work of the other Roundtable action groups to explore how mental health relates to each of them. “That allowed us to pull together all of the activities across the Roundtable in a comprehensive manner,” she observed. For example, she said, the research literature shows that Black youth are disproportionately punished, suspended, and

expelled in schools and are especially susceptible to the form of bias known as adultification, in which Black girls are hypersexualized and viewed as less innocent, and Black boys are viewed as older, less innocent, and more guilty of crimes. “These psychological factors and racial biases contribute to the theme of risk as the dominant narrative surrounding Black youth,” she said, and called for a counternarrative of resilience to focus on strengths and factors related to success rather than failure. “We hear the negatives about our Black youth; we want to focus on the positives and the factors that contribute to success,” she stressed.

She emphasized the need to focus on strategies and actions. “Yes, we need more research—but there is a lot that is known. We want to move from discussion to action,” she said. “Also, we are focusing on systemic changes? Why is there always a focus on changing our Black youth to fit the system? Why are we not looking at what the system needs to do to better accommodate our Black youth?”

ORGANIZATION OF THIS PROCEEDINGS

The remainder of this publication is organized to follow the agenda of the workshop. Chapter 2 addresses mental health and socio-psychological factors to increase the participation of Black men and women in science, engineering, and medicine, including a keynote address by Altha Stewart, M.D., the first Black president of the American Psychiatric Association. Chapter 3 focuses on early education as the pathway to success and includes a presentation by Edmund Gordon, Ph.D., a pioneer in the creation of Head Start and other early childhood programs. Chapter 4 looks at changes in colleges and universities, with four innovative programs highlighted. Chapters 5 and 6 address approaches in other public and private institutions, including government agencies, health-care organizations, and foundations. Young professionals share their own experiences in Chapter 7, followed by conversation among the planning committee members and with participants in Chapter 8. A closing keynote by Cora Marrett, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin–Madison) pulls together some of the workshop themes. The agenda and biographical sketches of the speakers can be found in Appendixes A and B.

In accordance with the policies of the National Academies, workshop participants did not attempt to establish any conclusions or recommendations about needs and future directions, focusing instead on issues discussed by the speakers and workshop participants. In addition, the planning

committee’s role was limited to planning the workshop. This proceedings was prepared by the rapporteurs as a factual summary of what occurred at the workshop.

REFERENCES