As part of Phase Six of NATA’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) Response Plan, each NATA committee, commission and council was tasked with developing three to five actionable items that support one or more of the six NATA DEIA Commitments.
In this blog post, which is part of an ongoing series highlighting these efforts, NATA Honors and Awards Committee Chair Sue Stanley-Green, MS, LAT, ATC, outlines the committee’s actionable items, what it hopes to achieve and how members can get involved.
What are your committee’s three to five DEIA actionable items, and why were they selected?
- Review NATA awards scoring tools
- Conduct NATA awards nomination strategy brainstorming
- Publish new NATA awards demographics report
Tell us about the development process that led your committee to these actionable items.
With the board charged to identify actionable items under the DEIA lens, our Honors and Awards Committee chairs found opportunities to hyper-focus a DEIA lens onto actionable items previously performed on an annual basis. In order to create goals around DEIA, it was important to the committee to develop a baseline understanding of our current nomination patterns and then look at those nomination patterns against the ultimate selection decisions to confirm what we felt positive about; the national honors and awards program is equal in its determination process.
From the report generated that was presented to the NATA Board of Directors in January (and will continue to be reported on every January), we identified that there was a need to produce action items and support to increase diversity of the applicant pool. We believe that by doing so, we will have an end-result of enhanced diversity among our award winners.
How will the actionable items you’ve outlined impact NATA’s members?
We believe our work provides additional support for all NATA members to submit quality applications to be awarded for their deserving work. We believe our efforts to increase diversity within the applicant pools will also result in an increase in diverse members being honored and awarded.
How do you hope your committee’s actionable items will contribute to NATA’s overall efforts to improve DEIA?We believe our work provides additional support for all NATA members to submit quality applications to be awarded for their deserving work. We believe our efforts to increase diversity within the applicant pools will also result in an increase in diverse members being honored and awarded.
Where are you in completing your three to five actionable items?
We have completed our work for the 2023 cycle. The NATA Board of Directors was provided their first report in January and this report will be submitted again in 2023 as an annual report. Additional support documents to supply equal assistance for completing quality application can be found on the Honors and Awards page of the NATA website.
How can your fellow NATA members help bring these actionable items to life?
Please nominate your peers when the time comes to do so. These efforts can’t be accomplished without the entire membership making the intentional effort to nominate their deserving colleagues.
Where can members learn more about your committee’s DEIA efforts?
Members can find out more about the DEIA efforts of the Honors and Awards Committee on the committee’s webpage on the NATA website.
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