Measuring success: Leading with inclusion

A report of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

By Susan Chapman, ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Director of Special Projects

May 28, 2026

A working group of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee was charged with assessing progress to date on the initiatives within the DEI Recommendations Report that was approved by the Society boards in 2022. The progress report emphasizes a shift toward “leading with inclusion” by prioritizing member experiences alongside measurable outcomes. It highlights demographic improvements, program achievements, and survey insights since 2021 while outlining next steps to strengthen data collection, leadership diversity, and DEI strategies through 2028.

In January 2022, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Recommendations Report was presented to the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Boards of Directors and was unanimously approved. The report called for:

Development of professional conduct and anti-harassment policies
Mentoring programming
Education and training on DEI-focused topics
Review of Society policies and procedures
Communications plans
DEI-focused professional development and recruitment plans for staff

The report also called for an assessment for measuring success of the initiative. A working group of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee was charged with assessing progress to date on the initiatives within the Recommendations Report. The work and assessment of the group over 2025 is reflected in its report: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Progress Report: Measuring Success. The report succinctly:

Summarizes the approach for leading with inclusion first
Provides an overview of demographic trends for gender and ethnicity
Analyzes responses to the 2024 DEI survey
Showcases accomplishments of working groups
Highlights programming from 2021–2024

The report concludes with next steps and recommendations for continuing forward progress, based on this assessment, and includes continuing the robust collection of demographic and survey data, developing DEI core principles for staffing and membership, improving DEI Committee recruitment and resilience in leadership, and solidifying plans of the working group by year’s end to finalize formal updates to the DEI Recommendations Report for 2026–2028.

Leading with inclusion

Rather than simply counting metrics, the DEI Committee elected to focus on the human component of these initiatives and programs for this 2025 progress report. This report highlights our collective efforts and growth, centering the human experiences in front of the data even as we assess metrics.

Our three Societies are working together on a variety of DEI initiatives and offer this report, which provides a progress update. From initial in-depth discussions about increasing diversity, we evolved to focus first on leading with inclusion. Why inclusion? Inclusion allows all our members to show up to our Societies and be the best versions of themselves and know that their opinions are valued and heard as an essential component to the success of our missions.

Key examples of leading with inclusion are:

Elected DEI representatives to ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Boards of Directors
ASA, CSSA, SSSA, and ASF Boards reaffirm commitment to DEI as foundational to all Societies (2025)
Agronomic Science Foundation Support for DEI Programming—including the Bridge Scholars Program, Caregiver Awards, and participation at MANRRS and SACNAS

Demographic highlights

While membership has decreased since 2016, female membership is at 31% (up from 24%) as of 2024 and non-white membership is now 34% (up from 17%).
Female participation in committees is now 36% (up from 25%), the gender balance for boards is almost equal, and committee membership for the combined ethnicity group is 36% (up from 16%).
Female award nominations are now 39% (up from 31%) with female recipients at 36%, and nominees in the combined ethnicity group are now 47% (up from 24%) and recipients are 27% (up from 14%).
At CANVAS, 39% of attendees are female (up from 30%), and attendees in the combined ethnicity group are at 47% (up from 25%).

How report data is generated

Data for the report was generated through a Power BI program developed by Society staff. The program generates reports for each Society (ASA, CSSA, and SSSA) both collectively and individually across membership, leadership areas, awards (nominees and recipients), reviewers, and meeting attendees. With the exception of membership and reviewers (which is updated annually), the data is generated in real time when running reports. The reports are broken out by overall numbers, gender, and ethnicity for each area. All data are reported in the aggregate.

The Power BI report is available for use here.

Notes about demographics:

Data for this report were analyzed from 2016–2024.
In 2024, membership demographics were formally requested for all members.
In order to aggregate data, the working group combined the following ethnicity groups: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Native of Indian Subcontinent, Two or More Ethnicities, Other, and Prefer Not to Answer.

2024 DEI survey

In December of 2024, the DEI Committee released a subsequent survey to all Society members regarding its work. Due to the limited response rate, we were unable to assess changes with any statistical significance. However, the Committee would like to share a few highlights and trends to evaluate potential future directions.

The 2024 survey captured positive changes since the initial 2021 survey to the following statements, reflecting the work of the committee and commitment of the Societies in the past three years:

I’m comfortable being myself within the Societies.
I feel a sense of belonging and value amongst my peers at the annual meetings.
I have opportunities in the Societies for professional success that are similar to those of my colleagues.
The Societies provide programs and resources to foster the success of under-represented groups in our membership and sciences.
The Societies create an environment where people from diverse backgrounds can succeed.
There is a strong commitment to DEI in the Societies.

In open-ended responses, members offered the following three main DEI-related issues facing our Societies:

Balancing DEI with scientific excellence and inclusivity.
Addressing implicit bias and representation gaps.
Political and cultural tensions around DEI Initiatives.

Progress on the Recommendation Report priorities

With the commitment and focus of the committee members, much has been accomplished to advance the DEI initiative. Several highlights include:

Development of professional conduct and anti-harassment policies
- Since 2022 there has been a DEI and Safe Space Advocate at the CANVAS meeting for any incidents or concerns.
- The ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Ethics Committee formed and has updated the Statement of Ethics and developed a new Code of Conduct.
Mentoring programming
- Researched and recommended a mentoring program, beta-tested, and developed a list of mentoring resources that provide information on developing successful mentoring relationships.
Education and training
- Sponsored nine webinars on DEI-focused topics with more than 900 total attendees across the webinars.
Communications plans
- A communications plan was developed and implemented to ensure members are informed on DEI activities.
- Six celebration months were created and promoted on social media.
CANVAS meeting programs include the Diversity Student Poster Contest (with 95 participants in 2025), a DEI Summit, Grounds for Connection networking events, a Traditional Indigenous Dance and Land Acknowledgement, and the Sabor de San Antonio event with presentations in native languages in 2024.

The opening ceremony at CANVAS 2025 in Salt Lake City last November included a powerful Indigenous dance performance. Photo courtesy of W. Scott Mitchell.

Moving forward, the DEI Committee continues building strategies through a cohesive, data-informed, and inclusion-centered foundation. Together we continue to enhance programs that are building belonging, encouraging diverse participation and leadership, and providing shared accountability and equity to strengthen our Societies.

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