It takes a diverse group to tackle the challenge of building diversity into the STEM workforce.
Dr. Sharonne Hayes, professor of cardiology and medical director of diversity and inclusion at Mayo Clinic, says the 60 invited leaders of industry and academia with whom she shared the last two days at a White House policy conference included leaders from an array of constituencies.
Others invited to the White House Forum on Excellence and Innovation through Diversity in the STEM Workforce included representatives from the Departments of Defense and Energy, as well as influential nonprofits, health-care employers, education societies, construction trades and executives from Google and Facebook.
Heading up the the two-day event: representatives from the White House Council on Women and Girls and former Google executive Megan Smith, the nation's Chief Technology Officer.
"It was a really broad swath of individuals involved in either training, hiring, developing or who have an expertise in this field," said Hayes.
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That would reflect the focus of the gathering, which was "how do we get leaders in our organization as well as society to understand why diversity is good for America and their organization," said Hayes.
Another area included reducing "conscious and unconscious biases and micro-aggression that may disproportionately affect women and minorities," she said.
Finally, the meeting tackled the question of "how to plug the leaky pipeline" — a term for identifying barriers and other factors that derail women, girls and minorities who have chosen a sciences and technology career path.
Hayes said that added diversity in the workforce causes decisions to become more arduous, but the result is a better decision for the health of the organization.
"The innovations that come out of a diverse team often ended up being a better product than other solutions," she said, "whether you are General Motors or Mayo Clinic."
"The research shows that it's more stressful to reach the finish line on a product or idea if you've got all these diverse people in the process, but in the end, coming to terms with and listening to all of the voices, the end product is better. There's multiple examples of that, mainly in business."
Mayo's efforts at promoting diversity in science and technology include assisting STEM programs in K-12 schools, colleges and post-graduate training. It also takes pride in it's own student body makeup.
"One of the things we are proud of is that we've had greater than the national availability for women in our graduate school. In 2014, it was about 70 percent women in graduate studies at Mayo, with the national average being 40-50 percent. We are also above the national average for minorities in our graduate school."
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Hayes took special interest in the work of Bailey O'Donnell, global program manager for People Analytics at Google -- an executive involved in measuring unconscious bias at the firm.
"That had some relevance to the initiatives we are embarking upon at Mayo in assessing and addressing unconscious bias in the workforce and as it affects patient care," Hayes said. "We are embarking on a multiyear journey to better understand and address it."
