Creating Cultures of Inclusive Excellence

Science and engineering in Canada continue to exist within organizational and disciplinary cultures that are embedded within historical and societal biases, Eurocentric forms of knowledge, stereotypes, and structural biases. Oftentimes, these factors will leave talent on the sidelines and limit innovation. Human capital is the most valuable resource for any organization and anything that limits the participation of the broadest range of human talent will also limit progress, innovation, creativity, and productivity.

Recognizing and removing these barriers to talent in science and engineering will lead to improved outcomes. However, this requires significant levels of self-awareness and education at the individual and organizational levels.

In this session, Dr. Coe will show how understanding our contexts and histories and using self-reflection, data, evidence, and scholarship can help us get comfortable with the uncomfortable topics of racism, sexism, homophobia, and colonialism in science and engineering. She will challenge us to flip the script on the deeply embedded deficit model for engaging historically excluded demographics in engineering and help us move towards an asset model of organizational cultural change by identifying tools and strategies that can help individuals and institutions act towards creating sustainable cultures of inclusive excellence.