The Future of Work is Diverse, Inclusive, Just and Equitable

GlobalMindED closes the equity gap by creating a capable, diverse talent pipeline through connections to role models, mentors, internships for low-income students, returning adults, First Gen to college and inclusive leaders who teach them, work with them and hire them.
From Lower Pay and Inherent Bias to Employment Equity and Metaverse Modeling: Meet Barbara Ryan, Executive Director of The World Geospatial Industry Council

What is your personal story?

I'm the Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council. It's a not-for-profit global trade association that works on behalf of the commercial sector in geospatial data and earth observations. My love of geography, earth science, and all kinds of maps goes back to where I was born and raised – in a small farming community in western New York. Growing up there gave me an appreciation for how connected the Earth is. Some of my fondest memories are going to an old field behind the house where we used to sled in the wintertime. A little creek ran down through to the bottom of the hill. And you know what, just as kids, we would spend endless hours outdoors, making little boats out of twigs that we would race. That is where I fell in love with the power of "place."I went on to spend 34 years of my career with the USGS. I started working for the USGS right after my undergraduate work in 1974. In 2008, I retired and had an opportunity to go to Geneva, Switzerland, first as the director of the WMO, the World Meteorological Organization's Space Program. Then in 2012, I became Executive Director for GEO, the Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observation. The important part of the job with GEO was that it's still one of the only global organizations where governments come to the table in a non-bureaucratic way. We were not a formal UN organization, and we had one goal: to integrate earth observations and start viewing the Earth as an entire system globally. So it wasn't just observations from space, airborne, terrestrial, or marine observations. 

What hurdles did you experience as a female leader? How did you get over those?

I was raised Catholic, and I can remember being pretty frustrated at an early age that girls couldn't be alter boys. I didn't fundamentally understand why they couldn't, so even as a child, some things aren't quite right, but you can't quite put your finger on it. So intuitively, you know, something's wrong with this picture.

When I moved back to Boston, there was a massive flood rain event, and I knew from my Colorado days that anytime there's a flood, everybody goes out to do whatever needs to be done. I remember going to the person organizing the event and saying, "Hey, I'm here; I'm just letting you know I'm here to help." He looked at me and said, "we need stream gauges, not note-takers." So I told him, "you know what? It's a flood. If you need a stream gauger, I'll stream gauge streams. If you need a note-taker, I'll take notes. I'm just here to offer some assistance." After that, no assignments ever came to me, but that was instrumental because I was still a young hydrologist working for the geological survey. That was the first time I had discrimination right in my face.

When I first got my bachelor's degree, I got hired at a company where a male colleague with the same credentials got hired a grade or two higher than me. I found other women who experienced the same thing, and we would form informal federal women's programs where we could talk about these issues and get support. Then, 15 or 20 years later, I joined the survey where federal pressure was exerted on government agencies to look at their hiring practices, giving women more opportunities. I had some wonderful mentors who encouraged me to think about applying for this job. They would help open the door for me, and even being given that opportunity was immense. 

How do you exemplify inclusive leadership?

I'm an avid networker. I love connecting institutions and associations and feel strongly about mentoring. So I mentor people whenever I have the chance. I've had some outstanding mentors that actually will pull you up short too, and say, "I can open up this door, but you've gotta walk through it." So mentorship is having a relationship strong enough to let someone know if they are making a mistake.
 
At the recent GEOWEEK Conference, I was on the diversity and inclusion panel. One of the stories that came up is there are inherent biases in the system about how different populations think about vacancy announcements. Generally, women would look at a vacancy announcement and believe they must be 100% qualified for this job before applying. Yet, other groups would look at the vacancy announcement and say, "I can do 60-70% of this. I'm not going to worry about what I don't know. I can learn about it on the job." And so there were times when I self-selected myself out of a job by not applying for it. It's the institution's responsibility to decide who's qualified for the job, not yours. We know the answer is no if we don't apply. The psychology of this is fascinating to me – the subconscious biases that we all have limit the belief we have in ourselves. We look at other people; all we see is their A-Game. We see all the human frailties and insecurities when we look at ourselves.

Within WGIC, we learned that the member companies have some challenges from a diversity perspective, so we have created a DEI Committee to study these issues. I'm delighted that the organization I now lead feels this is important, and we are taking action. The WGIC companies are dealing with diversity challenges because many VPs or CEOs are white males who have spent the last years moving into those positions.

When's the best time to plant a tree? It was 20 years ago. When's the second-best time? Today! That's the analogy that we've got in the geospatial industry. Seeds needed to be planted 20 years ago if you wanted to have a diverse workforce at the CEO level today. So let's start planting seeds, looking across, and finding people who are close and almost ready to move into these positions. To address the workforce issues, we have an Industry-Academia. We're also explicitly putting together a compendium of internships because we're hearing from many of our member companies that as long as students have the base requirements, the companies will do the specialized training a student needs. Companies love internships because, many times, they are hiring on soft skills. Companies feel those soft skills are more critical for long-term career development because they can shore up any technical skills needed in the workplace. So those internships across all our member companies that could go out to the University Consortium for Geographic Information Sciences or any other consortium worldwide are so important.

Why are you passionate about this work?

I like to see things work. We live in a physical universe. For me, the metaverse is just a digital representation of that physical universe. It's connected to the physical universe. So why isn't it connected in the metaverse? So I'm hoping with the advancement of digital twins, AI, and LM, the expertise that many of our member companies have (good global data sets, high-resolution data sets for cities, for city blocks, for communities), we can recreate an integrated physical world like what we live in, in the virtual world. I came across a quote by Leonardo DaVinci that said, "everything is connected to everything else." It's true, and we get to do something about it. That's what energizes me. That is the power of GlobalMindED.
Join us in Denver June 7-9 for GlobalMindED 2023
Early Bird Registration Open Now
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To get a feel for the conference experience, please see this brief video by The PhD Project from the 2022 GlobalMindED Conference

  • GlobalMindED June 2022 DEI conference
  • Complete 2022 Program
  • Inclusive Leader Awards Program 2022
  • 800+ attendees
  • 140 students from 41 universities/colleges, 58 received scholarships
  • 300+ speakers from 65 universities/colleges and 47 businesses
  • 130 universities/colleges represented
  • Majority of panels featured at least one student
  • 74 % diverse speakers
First and Ten from the One Yard Line - Moving the Educational Justice and Reparations Ball Forward in the Black Community

Hear from champions and leaders doing the work to eliminate educational equity and exploring how to realistically attain the “Forty Acres and a Mule.”  Learn about efforts, obstacles, and opportunities to ensure educational and economic equity become a true element of the lived experience of Black and African Americans.
First and Ten from the One Yard Line - Moving the Educational Justice and Reparations Ball Forward in the Black Community, a Get Comfortable Being Uncomfortable presentation
Dr. Ryan Ross; Assoc. V. Chancellor Student Affairs, Equity, & Inclusion, Colorado Community College System
Eric McDonnell; Chair, African American Reparations Advisory Committee, City and County of San Francisco
Dr. Christopher Mathis; Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, College of Law Professor
Sadé Cooper; Co-Founder & CEO Collaborative Healing Initiative within Communities
The GlobalMindED Inclusive Success NetworkTM had another banner year of growth, impact, and outcomes for First Generation, poverty-affected and minoritized students. Here are some of the highlights: 
 
  • Return of in-person GlobalMindED conference with record attendance and the largest First Gen Leadership Class ever of 122 student leaders. See PhD Project brief video of the event. 
  • Our fourth annual Inclusive Leader Awards recognized 15 DEIB leaders across sectors.
  • Almost all our 100+ panels and sessions of 2022 featured a student. 
  • Of the 300+ speakers, 73% were diverse leaders sharing their thoughts. 
  • We held our first Industry Marketplace Career Exploration Arena at GlobalMindED 2022 with 40 companies, giving K-12, college students, educators, and leaders a way to learn about emerging fields and careers. Join us for the next one at GlobalMindED 2023. 
  • Our first satellite event at Georgia Institute of Tech was livestreamed via the Atlanta PBS affiliate. 
  • We became an official initiative of the Foundation for the Support the United Nations (FSUN) and will hold our first UN event on March 22, 2023. 
  • ·We served ten colleges with the GlobalMindED Success Collaborative connecting students at each HBCU, MSI, HIS and Tribal College with role models, mentors, internships, and jobs. 
  • We had partners/volunteers from Microsoft, Salesforce, Rubrik, HP, Stanford MBA and more. 
  • We spoke at the White House Initiative for HBCUs with sponsor Hewlett Packard. 
  • Our team, Board, Colorado Board and Executive Leadership Council are all majority diverse serving a majority diverse population of emerging leaders. 
  • We continued to publish our daily newsletter and conduct monthly virtual Equity events, led by people of color with majority diverse panelists and students. These are the role models for our students.
  • Our annual operating budget increased by 67% emerging COVID strong. 
  • We doubled our staff from four to eight as we grow to scale our impact. 
  • Our Young Professionals grew to 40 strong, with a ten-person leadership cabinet made up of, but not limited to, graduates of our programs who are now working professionals.  
  • Since 2015, we have successfully connected 1,200+ students to internships and jobs. 
  • Our founder, Carol Carter, was recognized as one of the Most Powerful Women in Denver by the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce and one of the Most Admired CEOs by the Denver Business Journal. 
 
We are grateful for the support, inclusive leadership, and financial contributions of our community and sponsors who work tirelessly to open doors for the students we serve, the institutions who support them, and the businesses and non-profits who are committed to hiring a capable, diverse talent pipeline.  We look forward to seeing all of you June 7-9 at our best event yet, GlobalMindED 2023 - Transforming Boundaries: Creating Systemic Access and Equity. The Inclusive Leaders Awards Dinner is June 7, followed by the conference June 8- 9 at the Denver Downtown Sheraton.  
GlobalMindED | 303-327-5688 | contact@globalminded.org | www.globalminded.org
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