STEM Can Change The World But It Needs Diversity To Do So

There is no denying that scientific innovation has touched the lives of nearly every human life on the planet. Discoveries in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that change our everyday lives are not accidental, they require years of research and hard work.

One crucially overlooked aspect in that process is the necessity for the individuals driving those innovations to have diverse backgrounds. This diversity allows for a better understanding of the problems and enables the exploration of solutions from multiple perspectives.

Recently at a panel discussing medical devices, Dr. Jeff Shuren, the Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, spoke about a “potential bias” in pulse oximeters that was “due to skin pigmentation, potentially putting patients with darker skin pigmentation at risk in delays in treatment and worse patient outcomes.”

Dr. Shuren went as far as to call the matter an issue of “great public health importance.”

To put it more clearly, some innovations may work fine for White people, or those with light skin but Black and Brown men, women and children may actually be being put in danger by inaccurate readings.

J. Bob Alotta is the Senior Vice President of Global Programs at Mozilla. A lifelong activist and accomplished filmmaker, she is a vocal advocate of the LGBTQIA+ community and works tirelessly to create social change through her philanthropic efforts. She spoke with Built By Girls for the video series How I Started in STEM to discuss her interesting career path and to stress the importance of diversifying our STEM fields for the benefit of future generations.

“Diversity for diversity's sake is not a real thing. So I just wanna be really clear about that,” said Alotta. “The reason why we need diverse folks engaged in STEM is because science and technology are where answers are produced. And if you don't even know what the question is, how are you going to answer that? We all come from different places and have different identities and different personal experiences. And the more there are of us with diverse experiences, the more questions we have and the more questions we can answer. So we're able to innovate based on our collective imaginations and our collective body of knowledge. If we limit that body of knowledge, if we limit our imaginations, then we're only going to limit what's possible.”

Unfortunately, race is not the only factor overlooked when it comes to problems with innovation and its problems. For a long time women were historically excluded from car manufacturing design and test processes. As a result female seat-belted drivers had a 47% higher chance of injury than male belted drivers in similar crashes. With the percentage rising to 71% for ‘moderate injuries’.

This horrendous jump in injuries to female drivers was a direct result of women being excluded from the process and the assumption that testing the biometrics of the average male body would be sufficient.

“I think it's critical to have representation.” said Mojgan Lefebvre, the Chief Technology and Operations Officer for Travelers (TRV). Lefebvre has been honored as a member of the 2021 Forbes CIO Next List as “One of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Enterprise Technology Leaders”. She has also been named one of the “Women to Watch in Science and Technology” by the Boston Business Journal and when speaking with Built By Girls for How I Started in STEM she emphasized the importance of diversity and inclusion in STEM.

“I think it's important to have representation. It's important because when you look up or you look around and you don't see people like yourselves, I would suggest that you are actually probably setting the model for those who come after you. So I would say don't give up and if you like what you're doing continue to do it and be a role model.”

More to check out:

The Rise of ERGs: Driving Inclusion and Engagement in Fortune 500 Companies

How I Started in STEM with Wicked Saints Studios CEO Jess Murrey

Female Gamers Push the Video Game Industry to Unprecedented Levels