Driving Diversity in STEM: Our Summer Collaboration with the American Physical Society

By: Jennifer Storipan, Ellie Clancy, and Olivia Hazzard

This summer, Lot Sixteen had the unique opportunity to work on a project protecting efforts to build a broader and more inclusive U.S. STEM workforce. Over a three-month period, we partnered with the American Physical Society (APS), the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the National Society of Black Physicists (collectively “societies”) to craft and execute a federal engagement strategy to combat the inclusion of anti-DEI riders in the fiscal year 2025 (FY25) appropriations bills. The Lot Sixteen team helped the societies develop effective messaging; build relationships with several key Republican offices; and garner support from members of Congress to protect federal funding for STEM workforce development programs.

To kick off our work, we facilitated initial congressional meetings between APS and key Republican staff to gain insight on how Republicans were viewing our issue, helping us to further develop our outreach strategy for success. As the FY25 Appropriations process got underway, Lot Sixteen actively tracked threats contained in base text and amendments - language that would inadvertently have a chilling effect on many of the STEM programs supporting underrepresented groups run by the societies. After identifying such language, we worked with several House Democrats to discuss introducing amendments to strike the underlying language from the bills. 

Lot Sixteen Senior Director Ellie Clancy (far right) shown here with representatives from American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the National Society of Black Physicists.

 At the end of July, we brought in society leadership for a Hill fly-in to meet with offices on both sides of the aisle. Our team developed compelling materials in preparation for the fly-in, including a one-pager that served as a leave-behind for meetings and talking points that were used as conversation guides for society leadership. We used each meeting to effectively communicate our issue and urge lawmakers to prioritize the removal of anti-DEI provisions and amendments from the final FY25 spending package.

Before our collaboration came to an end, we worked with APS to develop the bones of a grassroots strategy to keep their momentum from the Hill day going throughout the rest of this year and into 2025. Our team outlined a three-pronged approach to a grassroots strategy, including email/letter writing campaigns; in-district visit days; and earned media and paid media. With this approach, the societies will continue to raise awareness on the important work that they do to directly support broadening STEM workforce participation and to mitigate the threats to such initiatives.

Overall, our efforts led to more engaged policymakers and helped foster relationships that will directly benefit efforts to prevent anti-DEI language being included in the appropriations process. By defining a clear message - that sweeping anti-DEI riders in federal spending bills harms our nation’s domestic STEM pathway and creates a chilling effect those programs that encourage underrepresented students to go into STEM - we were able to appeal to legislators across the aisle and help the societies develop relationships that will be helpful as threats continue to crop up.

Over the past few years, Lot Sixteen has worked tirelessly on the passage and implementation of legislation like the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, but without a robust, well-educated STEM workforce, the significant federal investments from these bills will go to waste. Getting to work on this project with APS allowed us to better contextualize the real-world impact of the laws we spend everyday talking about. This project was a testament to the power of strategic collaboration in driving meaningful change. We are proud of what we were able to accomplish with the societies in such a short amount of time, and are hopeful that the foundation we’ve laid this summer will allow the societies to be successful in combating anti-DEI legislation going forward.