Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council

PSC digital Suite

“A diverse workforce, with a variety of perspectives and experiences, working in an inclusive environment where all voices are heard and contributions are valued, will unlock new scientific and technological frontiers to positively impact our community, nation and world.” – Argonne Director Paul Kearns

The future success of Argonne depends on our ability to recruit and train a diverse workforce. The Photon Sciences Division (PSC) and its user community represent a wide spectrum of ages, races, abilities, gender identities, national origins, religions and experiences. It is the combination of all of those backgrounds, plus our different research disciplines, levels of education and academic affiliations, that help make this a collaborative and innovative division to work in.

The laboratory’s core values of Impact, Safety, Integrity, Respect and Teamwork are the foundation for this community. It is up to all of us to build on those core values to create an equitable and inclusive culture. Argonne is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion for all employees, and the laboratory has launched an action plan to address systemic issues of inequality.

Each of us can help to ensure that all PSC employees and users have the opportunity to work in an equitable and inclusive culture, and to advance to the fullest extent of their skills and abilities.

The PSC DE&I council is composed of representatives from all four PSC divisions and reports to the Lab Director's Council. Our mission, vision and FY2021 Goals can be found here.

What is Diversity, Equity & Inclusion?

Diversity is the recognition of each person’s unique background and abilities. This provides the potential for greater innovation and creativity.

Inclusion is the act of bringing each of those unique individuals into the whole, where they can contribute. This enables organizations to realize the benefits of the potential diversity provides.
Equity is the fair and respectful treatment of all people. It is different from equality in that it provides people with the resources and opportunities they need, specific to their histories and circumstances. Equity is achieved when people have the same opportunities to obtain benefits, even if the outcomes are unequal.

Diversity and inclusion are two halves of the whole; equity is the glue that holds them together.

In order to achieve our goals of providing an inclusive and equitable workplace, we need to do everything we can to identify and eliminate unfair biases, stereotypes or barriers that may limit the full potential of our diverse community.

What can you do to help?

The first and easiest thing we can do is to educate ourselves. Here are a few resources - some literally only take 3 min to watch! We have also selected trainings and workshops you can find in the Events section below.
- Understanding Unconscious Bias | The Royal Society - 3'00''
- Creating Psychological Safety at Work in a Knowledge Economy | Amy Edmondson, Harvard – 3'13''
- 4 Steps for Busting Unconscious Bias | Devex – 4'26''
- Intellectual Humility | John Templeton University – 3'28''
- Particle for Justice Letter
- Self education about race/ethnicity in the US
- Myriam Sarachik Never Gave Up on Physics | NYTimes
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You can also join us on our Teams channel to share resources, thoughts, ideas and concerns.

Upcoming Events

Voice of PSC, 1-2pm: , every 3rd Thursday of the month on Teams

Updates on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion activities
Open forum to share thoughts, ideas and concerns
Next meeting August 19, 2021: the mental load

Pulse Climate Survey Focus groups:
Jeremy Boldt (ANL Leadership Institute) and/or Gus Gustafson (Center for Socially Responsible Leadership) to facilitate small, confidential focus groups over the next couple of weeks to discuss areas where we are doing well and areas where we can improve: your attendance is strongly encouraged, and individual data will NOT be shared with anyone at Argonne. Your input will be critical to help us develop action plans at both the division and directorate level. Register in TMS.

Employee Assistance Program monthly seminars:
Seminars from this past quarter (July-September) are now available in TMS. Topics included:

July 20 at 2:00 pm - Appreciating Diversity
August 17 at 2:00 pm - Making Healthy Food Choices
September 21 at 2:00 pm - The Opioid Epidemic: Employee Awareness

Activate your LinkedIn Learning account

Past Events

PSC DEI Quarterly E-News:

Cross-Council Collaborative Learning Club:

Intellectual Humility - Jun. 30st, 2021: Webinar recording available HERE (passcode: 55cz!$0f)
- Intellectual humility is often described as an intellectual virtue, along with other perceived virtues such as open‐mindedness, intellectual courage and integrity, and in contrast to proposed intellectual vices, such as pride and arro‐ gance.
- How you react when talking to people who may disagree with you? Do you give it a shot and listen or do you shut it down because it’s not what you believe in? Have you been in these situations? How did you handle it? Did you walk away feeling better? Join us to discuss!
- Prior to the presentation, review these short videos and fun assessments to test your intellectual humility:
Improving Psychological Safety within Your Teams - Mar. 31st, 2021
Picture a Scientist - Feb. 19th, 2021

Implicit bias workshop (Aug-Sep 2020):

Equity-mindedness: Identifying and Interrupting Implicit Bias through Candid Conversations - Dr Coleman
(Slides to come).

July 7th, 2020: Fighting Racism in the Workplace: What You Can Do?

Webinar recording (password:Fight#846)

June 25th, 2020 - PSC: Conversation on Systemic Racism

June 10th, 2020 - A Strike For Black Lives:

#STRIKE4BLACKLIVES Call

Lab resources

The Advanced Photon Sourcea U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility

The Advanced Photon Source
a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility