Federation of American Scientists

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

Note: The organization did not respond to this question.

At the beginning of 2022, a portion of FAS staff participated in The Management Center’s “Working for Change” training course, which is specifically designed to help social change organizations develop and sustain equitable employee practices.

One instance of our mobilization efforts comes in the arena of innovation in education. For example, FAS has locked arms with organizations across the nonprofit, private and philanthropic sectors to launch the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI). As one example of its success, FAS worked through ALI to lead 25 key education stakeholders in a letter of support calling on Congress to increase spending on federal education R&D. The ensuing House Appropriations proposal included marked budget increases for several offices that our coalition recommended for increased funding, including the National Science Foundation’s Scholarships in STEM, the Education Innovation and Research program, and the Institute of Education Sciences.

FAS has doubled since last year, and that growth has significantly increased FAS’ caliber. We have also added new members to our executive team including a Chief Financial Officer and a Chief Growth Officer. Some organizations have extensive expertise on a topic or deep proficiency in an approach. In a growing range of policy topics, we have both. Our new teammates bring proficiency and experience that strengthen our policy portfolio, widen our capacity for change, and allows us to deliver on our theory of policy entrepreneurship. We are lucky that such deeply motivated and talented individuals seek out FAS to hone that eagerness into a disciplined edge to lead future policy leaders and policy efforts. And as our team has grown, so have our efforts to build an inclusive and diverse workforce. With support from our newly established DEI Committee, we have instituted a set of equitable hiring processes for Team FAS and our Impact Fellowship placements. We are exceeding our commitments to gender equality for featured speakers on panels. And, we are formulating stronger commitments to promote racial equity through our internal hiring processes as well as our policy development and implementation strategy. However, we are at the early stages of this journey, and approach our DEI strategy with humility and an awareness of the critical work that still needs to be done.