22 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

Supporting DEI actions at IISE

By Diana Berry

More companies are learning about the

importance of increasing diversity, eq-

uity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Positions

such as chief ofﬁcer of diversity and inclu-

sion are increasing as DEI ofﬁcers learn

the role’s responsibilities and challenges.

A chief diversity ofﬁcer is a point per-

son for diversity and inclusion initiatives

and is responsible for creating, managing

and optimizing efforts to make a com-

pany fair, equitable and inclusive for all

employees. The ofﬁcer develops and

implements strategic planning support-

ing diversity and inclusion, and must

build consensus in an organization.

In 2019, the IISE Board of Trust-

ees approved the “Diversity, Equity,

and Inclusion Statement and Core

Commitments” available at link.iise.

org/diversity-inclusion. The last part

of the statement reﬂects the expectation

of all industrial and systems engineers to

uphold the values and priorities associated

with DEI when we engage in the profes-

sion, with the public and in research and

practice. The creation of this statement,

the DEI committee and the commitment

from the board of trustees and president

provide a great start for our efforts.

However, we still have much to learn

and implement as we work to engage

everyone. At past Annual Conferences,

diversity and inclusion panels generated

a lot of interest from different audienc-

es. We also held an event in partnership

with the Girl Scouts to encourage young

women to consider ISE as a career.

Now we look toward strengthening

our DEI strategy, which provides us with

a lot of beneﬁts. DEI creates and fosters

an environment where we can learn from

each other, embrace differences and be-

come better-rounded professionals. If we

can work with a wide range of people,

this will increase membership represent-

ing different genders, races, ages, sexual

orientations and cultures.

The IISE DEI strategy should be in-

tegrated throughout the entire organiza-

tion, not focused only on a few isolated

events or activities. In general terms, a

well-developed organizational strategy

should show the application of DEI con-

cepts across six areas: board and gover-

nance, human resources, procurement,

product development, community out-

reach, and investment and marketing.

In board and governance, the DEI

committee has the support of the board

of trustees and the president to continue

moving the strategy forward. In human

resources, DEI orientation training for

new IISE members and staff to reinforce

diversity efforts would be beneﬁcial. This

training could help us all build awareness

of unconscious bias, cultural competence

and other barriers to belonging. IISE can

also partner with educational organiza-

tions to provide DEI training.

In procurement, IISE could concen-

trate efforts on using businesses owned

by minorities, women and veterans to

provide services and include more tradi-

tionally excluded groups. In product de-

velopment, it would be beneﬁcial to offer

diversity-related courses in online train-

ing platforms and continue to feature

DEI topics at the Annual Conference.

In community outreach, minority en-

gineering organizations such as the Na-

tional Society of Black Engineers, Society

of Hispanic Professional Engineers and

Society of Women Engineers, could be

great partners in efforts to advance DEI

events. For investment, IISE could

explore sponsoring more minority

students to attend Annual Confer-

ence. In marketing, we could reach

out to student members through

online workshops on topics such

as inclusive classrooms and leader-

ship, difﬁcult conversations and women

in engineering. The DEI committee also

could deﬁne a communications strategy

with ISE magazine and social media.

Maintaining communication about

DEI efforts with different stakeholders,

including societies, divisions and inﬂuen-

tial groups, is important. With all mem-

bers’ collaboration, we hope to put action

behind the words and provide more vis-

ibility on the DEI initiatives IISE mem-

bers are working on. 

Diana Berry is a global supply chain specialist

and licensed customs broker at Harsco Rail in

Columbia, South Carolina. She recently was

appointed IISE Diversity, Equity and Inclu-

sion chair. Contact her at linkedin.com/in/

berrydiana.

DEI creates and fosters an

environment where we can learn

from each other.