There was a completely full house at the SPIE Women in Optics and Diversity and Inclusion luncheon at SPIE Astro on Monday, where approximately 80 enthusiastic participants, seated at tables, shared ideas, experiences, and suggestions on ways to proactively create more diversity, inclusion, gender equity, and overall awareness at the workplace, at conferences, and beyond.
SPIE member and keynote speaker Céline d'Orgeville of Australian National University discussed the current SPIE initiatives around the topics of under-represented groups in optics - including raising awareness of gender equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace; improving gender equity, diversity, and inclusion in SPIE committees; and improving gender equity, diversity, and inclusion in conference planning and organization -- and then the attendees conferred in their individual groups before sharing their actionable items with the others.