[Nsa] Interview Notes from NCAR DD Candidates

[Maria Frediani]

Andy,

I'm sorry for missing the 11am due time. I'd like to share my overall
impressions - I hope it's not too late to consider.
I'm also sharing the same points with the ECSA, just to let you know.

Michael:
By the end of his interview, my impression of him was that he's part of the
group of people who's part of the problem and is currently in a very
comfortable position to know that the DEI challenges are far more complex
than hiring a diverse staff. He gave the standard answers I often hear from
folks who have never attended a DEI training and perceive the DEI problem
as hiring women and scoring a 50/50 ratio of men and women staff. NCAR has
not been doing much for inclusion and that's in part why it's hard to
retain diverse staff. Look at the ODEI Women's listening session report,
for example, biases have remained the same since the 2017 workplace
cultural survey. We have a good overall ratio of men/women staff but if we
don't address pervasive issues, we'll be wasting resources in the hiring
process. In his examples during the ECSA interview, not only he was limited
to mentioning women (*suggesting* that he *may* have a narrow idea of the
breadth of diverse identities) but also didn't seem versed on the *real*
issues that prevent women from getting to higher positions, e.g., women
have statistically significant lower citation numbers than men (pls refer
to Stephanie Johnson BreakingBias seminar for more examples). Women and
underrepresented minorities do not need to receive an encouragement phone
call to know how much we're capable of achieving. We need respect on a
daily basis, we need equal credibility on the quality of work we can
deliver. We need an inclusive work environment with supportive peers being
supportive on a daily basis not only when it's convenient to increase
workplace DEI metrics. These issues cannot be solved by the deadline of a
job application. By then, we're already so worn out by the biases we go
through every day that most of us don't even want to be in a position where
all these issues might become even worse. Women often do not apply to
higher rank positions because many also want to have a family and
unfortunately, we're still living in an era that it is not fully respected
and appreciated. Women and minorities often do not apply to higher rank
positions because we start our careers having to work twice as hard and at
some point, we question how much more energy we can put on to get to a
leadership position. My impression was that he didn't put any time to think
and consider his answers to DEI questions prior to his round of interviews.
The general question to "how did/would you contribute to improving DEI"
should be an expected question in any job interview and the fact that all
he had were cliche examples only tell me that he either doesn't care about
DEI or thinks that hiring women is all there is.

Lika:
My impression was that she was by far more attentive to DEI conversations
than the other candidate. Increasing diversity is a major DEI challenge in
any organization and we are yet to see a robust strategy leading to success
to use as a reference at NCAR. During a recent town hall with Everette and
RAL, he answered very clearly that they do not yet know how to tackle the
DEI challenges in our strategic plan. I'd be suspicious of any objective
answer on how to approach it. The one common denominator among the DEI
leaders at the U.S. organizations is that it's impossible to retain a
diverse staff without tackling inclusion. It was clear to me that she has
done her homework on this subject. Not only did she emphasize inclusion,
but also stressed the importance of communication and accountability, which
are fundamental for improving inclusion. She was also right on spot to
identify one of the major challenges at NCAR specifically: the local
homogeneous community in Boulder. For a problem that nobody yet knows how
to approach (let alone solve), she delivered the best possible answer to
this question: I'm listening, I'm available and interested in discussing
ideas - if we work together we can figure it out (not her exact words,
that's my takeaway from her answers during the ECSA interview).

Maria E. B. Frediani, Ph. D.
-------------------------------------------------
Research Applications Laboratory
National Center for Atmospheric Research
FL2-3022
P.O. Box 3000
Boulder, CO 80307-3000
-------------------------------------------------
"We are continually faced with great opportunities
which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems."
M*argaret Mead*


On Thu, Jul 16, 2020 at 7:28 AM Andrew Newman via Nsa <nsa at mailman.ucar.edu>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> A reminder that if you have feedback regarding the NCAR science and
> strategic planning deputy director search, please email any of us on the
> NSA-EC <https://internal-ncar.ucar.edu/nsa/nsa-executive-committee> today
> (Thursday 16 July) by 11 am MT.  We are collating and anonymizing NSA
> feedback to send to Everette for his consideration.
>
> Sincerely,
> The NSA-EC
>
> Eric Apel (ACOM), apel at ucar.edu
> Jimy Dudhia (MMM), dudhia at ucar.edu
> Peter Lawrence (CGD), lawrence at ucar.edu
> Gunter Leguy (CGD), ECSA Co-Chair, gunterl at ucar.edu
> Matthew Long (CGD), Co-Chair, mclong at ucar.edu
> Anna Malanushenko (HAO), anny at ucar.edu
> Rachel McCrary (CISL), rmccrary at ucar.edu
> Andrew Newman (RAL), Co-Chair, anewman at ucar.edu
> Peter Sullivan (MMM), pps at ucar.edu
> Tammy Weckwerth (EOL), tammy at ucar.edu
> May Wong (MMM), ECSA Co-Chair, mwong at ucar.edu
> Helen Worden (ACOM), hmw at ucar.edu
> Britt Stephens (EOL), stephens at ucar.edu
>
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2020 at 3:14 PM Andrew Newman <anewman at ucar.edu> wrote:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> We were given permission to share our interview notes from the two NCAR
>> Deputy Director candidates with the full NSA.  You can find the notes from
>> Michael Hesse's interview here
>> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/16XHHE5rwZkf5PjH-OzhrJKHVZzdcYofq69zS89wFaZs/edit?usp=sharing> and
>> Lika Guhathakurta's interview here
>> <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P8I5Mr3MwRVLKBsSAqw-pSO3_cvPFzjE07OvCNM3l8I/edit?usp=sharing>.
>> The questions are in bold black and our notes on the candidate responses
>> are in blue.  We remind everyone that the interview process is
>> confidential.  NSA members agree and commit to maintaining confidentiality
>> of the information received, exchanged and/or reviewed during and following
>> the selection process.
>>
>> If you have any feedback or questions feel free to contact any of the NSA-EC
>> representatives
>> <https://internal-ncar.ucar.edu/nsa/nsa-executive-committee>.
>>
>> Stay well,
>> The NSA-EC
>>
>> Eric Apel (ACOM), apel at ucar.edu
>> Jimy Dudhia (MMM), dudhia at ucar.edu
>> Peter Lawrence (CGD), lawrence at ucar.edu
>> Gunter Leguy (CGD), ECSA Co-Chair, gunterl at ucar.edu
>> Matthew Long (CGD), Co-Chair, mclong at ucar.edu
>> Anna Malanushenko (HAO), anny at ucar.edu
>> Rachel McCrary (CISL), rmccrary at ucar.edu
>> Andrew Newman (RAL), Co-Chair, anewman at ucar.edu
>> Peter Sullivan (MMM), pps at ucar.edu
>> Tammy Weckwerth (EOL), tammy at ucar.edu
>> May Wong (MMM), ECSA Co-Chair, mwong at ucar.edu
>> Helen Worden (ACOM), hmw at ucar.edu
>> Britt Stephens (EOL), stephens at ucar.edu
>>
>>
>
> --
> Andrew Newman, Ph.D.
> National Center for Atmospheric Research
> Research Applications Laboratory/Hydrometeorology Applications Program
> P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000
> http://staff.ucar.edu/users/anewman
> Google Scholar Profile
> <https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=NIauackAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F6mUExXALoxUjaycWY6UbpD41blQpZqOxJCF-II5FyLCzp6Oydl6GhTCPYtiEMtl0GwjM2UkediCC0Mg3_c40BVEl2sqw>
> ph: 303-497-8456, email: anewman at ucar.edu
> _______________________________________________
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