Celebrating a Fruitful Year as SOA Moves to the Next Chapter

By Travis York, Director of Inclusive STEMM Ecosystems of Equity and Diversity at AAAS

Two weeks ago in Tempe, Arizona, we held the 12th and final STEMM Opportunity Alliance (SOA) convening of 2023. The event capped off an incredible year of working with leaders in every sector — from industry and education to community organizations — to co-construct a national strategy for equity and excellence in STEMM. In cities across the country, from Atlanta to Chicago to Boise to Jacksonville to Washington D.C., we brought together SOA partners and local STEMM communities to contribute their perspectives and expertise to the draft national strategy. The result is a draft rooted in peoples’ lived experiences and communities’ context, and aimed at driving national systemic change.  

In October, we released a penultimate version of our plan for open comment. During the comment period, we held five virtual town halls and solicited written feedback online, helping us ensure that every voice had a chance to be heard.  

With the conclusion of the open comment period and the final convening of the year in the books, we now enter the next phase for SOA. We are hard at work making sure that the valued feedback we received is incorporated into the plan. Early next year, we plan to release the final version of the strategy (more to come!), and then begins the even bigger work—implementing it.   

Even as we look ahead to the next phase of this effort, it’s amazing to sit back and realize how far we’ve come. When this movement was launched at the first ever White House STEMM Equity and Excellence Summit less than one year ago, we had 93 partners who had committed $1.2 billion to efforts that will help achieve SOA’s goals. Here’s where we stand today: 

• More than 150 partners strong, an increase of 61% 

• $1.8 billion in commitments from partners, an increase of 50% 

• Over 1,500 engagements across our in-person convenings, virtual town halls, and written comments 

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, we want to take a moment to give our thanks to the STEMM community and our incredible partners. We could never have accomplished so much without the support and thoughtful input from so many dedicated people working together toward a shared vision.  

Throughout this journey, we’ve appreciated the varied perspectives and context brought to us by each partner and individual. We heard just how important it is to ensure cross-sector connectivity, that we face common challenges, and that we’re bringing the right people and partners to the table to support common goals. We’ve learned that many of you have felt as if you had to take on these complex barriers to leveling the playing field in STEMM education and careers on your own. You’ve experienced duplicative efforts or scattered interventions that haven’t withstood the test of time.  

But we’ve also seen a swelling excitement about SOA, and a sense that this feels different from previous efforts. Because it is different from previous efforts. Due to SOA’s unique scale and ecosystem approach, partners can work across sectors with groups with which they may never have had the opportunity to previously engage. So many new connections and planned cross-sector collaborations have already been made as a result of the co-construction process, and they are a testament to the fact that SOA strives to enable deeper impacts borne by radical collaborations and structural change. This ground swell reminds me of Margaret Mead’s (American Anthropologist & former President of AAAS) famous reminder, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” 

A year ago, we knew that our mission to “Establish a STEMM ecosystem firmly rooted in equity, inclusion, and scientific excellence to drive progress, innovation, and prosperity for all by 2050” was both audacious and necessary. It is a mission that matters for the current and future STEMM workforce just as much as it matters for the prosperity, safety, and progress of all Americans.  As we celebrate our progress and look ahead to all we still need to do to realize SOA’s mission, we are grateful to each of our partners and everyone who contributed to the strategy and to making SOA a force for the future of science. We can’t wait to see what we will accomplish together next year and beyond.