Welcome to the Spring 2024 issue of Winds of Change! There’s always a lot going on at AISES during the lead-up to this beautiful season, and I’m happy to report that much of the activity centers on the AISES in Canada National Gathering — which keeps getting bigger — and the seven Regional Conferences that take place across the country at this time of year. You will always find something interesting going on at a Regional Conference; they are truly incubators of progress.
Every year I hear from members throughout the AISES family about how important being together at these gatherings can be. In person, AISES members support and inspire each other. Students at their first AISES gathering see that STEM professionals and successful students can look like them. Professionals network and learn and — importantly — many step up as mentors at the conferences and beyond. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of mentoring to the AISES mission, so it’s great to see these connections develop.
Students at their first AISES gathering see that STEM professionals and successful students can look like them.
In this issue we’ve devoted a feature article to mentoring. And be sure you don’t miss the description of the new Full Circle Mentorship program that AISES is undertaking with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. This initiative holds great opportunities not only for our students but also for our prospective mentors, who often tell me that they get as much out of mentoring relationships as their young mentees — or more.
Another focus in this issue is our annual roster of the Top 50 Workplaces for Indigenous STEM Professionals. See which organizations made the 2024 list of diversity leaders and learn what some of their staff members have to say.
As always, you’ll find profiles of some of our remarkable members in “AISES People,” and you can read news of AISES and the AISES family in “AISES Notebook.” For advice on building your future, turn to “Career Builder,” and “Paths in Education.”
And in “Last Word,” our guest editorial, you’ll find an insightful essay by Dr. Daniel Wildcat, who writes that “when science ignores Indigenous knowledges, scientific understanding and outcomes are compromised through loss of designs and solutions never considered.”
Thank you for being part of the effort to help AISES make sure that science includes, respects — and benefits from — Indigenous knowledge.
Ta’ Tura Tsiksu (With Much Respect),
Sarah EchoHawkPawnee Nation of OklahomaAISES President