As part of our preparations for our Annual Meeting, we asked our membership to reflect on how recent events have changed their thinking, and their organization’s on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in our field, and where NEWIEE might have a unique and valuable role to play.

As is typical with NEWIEE members, your responses were insightful, challenging, and covered a lot of ground. Here is a summary of some of your ideas for NEWIEE:

• NEWIEE’s own programming and membership should feature a diverse range of participants and focus on outreach and other ways of diversifying our membership and events through working with young people, sponsoring memberships, involving other organizations – these are all great ideas! During 2020, our event speakers and NEWIEE’s board became more diverse, and we are actively working on further outreach for 2021. Keep the ideas coming! If you are interested in helping with membership or programming, let me know!
• NEWIEE has a role to play as a resource to your organizations/employers in helping attract and support a diverse range of women in the field. In welcoming and supporting diverse participation in our field, several members mentioned assistance with hiring practices, metrics, and mentoring at their firms. Along these lines, we have been working with the Northeast Clean Energy Council, a major trade association in our region, to develop DEI workforce programming for our organizational members. We will continue to build on this, and welcome any volunteers who are interested in participating.
• NEWIEE can move the needle on DEI in our field beyond workforce participation. This year we devoted “Women Shaping the Agenda,” our signature annual event that grapples with an issue of regional importance, to the issue of promoting equitable access to clean energy and a sustainable environment. What work are we doing to ensure that no segment of the population is denied equal access to the environmental benefits of clean energy? What steps are we taking to ensure that no segment of the population bears a disproportionate share of the risks and consequences of the climate crisis or the costs of the response?  Even though this event was virtual, it blew the doors off our previous attendance and attracted an audience well beyond our membership.

In the survey, a number of you pointed out that NEWIEE itself was founded with the express purpose of supporting gender diversity in our field, so we are primed from the beginning to play an important role in advancing racial diversity as well.

Our motto is “Empowering Women. Advancing the Industry.” Empowering ALL women in their careers in energy and the environment and deploying the power of women to advance the field is an exciting challenge that we are acting on and will continue to build on. Thank you for your engagement and your passion.

Carter Wall
Secretary, Director – NEWIEE
FirstLight Power

Also of Interest

• Join NEWIEE
• NEWIEE Event Calendar
• NEWIEE Jobs Board