We recently had a discussion about this - and it got me to thinking. We have talked about diversity before and we have even had several symposia over the years focusing on diversity issues, such as how to manage cultural differences in the teaching laboratories, i.e. the appreciation and level of safety of our student populations, dealing with cultural differences with regard to attire, managing reproductive health issues, etc.

But we really have tackled the question about how to increase our diversity in the profession. My initial thoughts are that we do have an issue about how people enter the profession in the first place.

And, I would like to hear from folks on this topic as it is a great conversation to be having.

I listened this morning to an interview by a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talking about issues in the military, and he made a profound statement - if you look at the current Joint Chiefs - you see the same demographic, but there is a commonality as to their career paths, and when you look at those career paths, you see that there is a lack of diversity, even though the diversity has increased throughout the military. (We have historically seen that as well in many career paths.) He indicated that we have to do better recruiting in those career paths that lead to what is seen as successful, i.e. start from the bottom up.

We have historically seen this - and we are seeing change - but it is slow - what can we do to help foster this change?