Action Items

Our primary goals for this year are to expand BCBA’s engagement in the local community and to include more diverse stakeholders in our   organization. We plan to increase access and training for underrepresented minority scientists in order to provide opportunities for career growth and consultant experience in the Bay Area biotech industry.

Our initiatives are the following:

1. Perform a climate and demographics survey of our organization to better understand where we should focus our resources to advance diversity within BCBA.

2. Recruit Bay Area underrepresented minority graduate students and postdocs for BCBA consulting projects

3. Partner with Howard University to create opportunities for students at Historical Black Colleges and Universities to work on projects with BCBA

4. Develop relationships and secure consulting projects with biotech clients that have diverse underrepresented founders

5. Promote diversity in STEM by joining Diversify Biotech to host monthly national online seminar series www.diversifybiotech.org

6. Collaborate with Biotech Partners to establish a sustainable mentorship program for first year college students to provide training and networking opportunities that expose them to the biotech industry www.biotechpartners.org

7. Create internship opportunities by partnering local Bay Area educational organizations with biotech companies to foster hands-on business skill development for underrepresented minority high school students

8. Build a diverse community of mentors and trainees within the alumni network