Potential NOAA chief puts diversity failings in spotlight

摘要

They call her "Deepsea Dawn," one of the nation's top oceanographers and the first Black woman to dive to theocean floor in Alvin, the deep-diving U.S. research submersible, back in 1992.Dawn Wright, 59, who's now the chief scientist at the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) inCalifornia, said she wants to see many other Black women follow in her footsteps. But it's a profession with aparticularly dismal record of attracting people of color.NOAA, one of the nation's top science agencies, employs only three Black female oceanographers. And Wrightsaid she can count the number of her Black female colleagues across the entire United States on just one hand.