December 2024 Issue
A monthly forum to share diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.
Welcome to the next installment of Read.Watch.Listen. As 2024 comes to a close, we are reflecting on our fourth full calendar year of Read.Watch.Listen! All of the topics explored this year are complex, and stretch far beyond the three resources that we provide each month. Our last issue of 2024 will incorporate The Year in Review and The Season of Giving. This month we are highlighting a set of engineering organizations that inspire and enable historically excluded communities to participate in STEM fields. These organizations each relate to a different topic (or two) from 2024, which will help expand understanding of many of these issues.
We hope these stories will inspire you to give back with your time (volunteering and mentoring), your organizations (firm sponsorship), and/or through financial contributions. Please also consider ways to support the NCSEA Foundation, a nonprofit initiative established in 2020 with the goal of supporting and furthering NCSEA’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. And take a look at the 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 Season of Giving posts for more inspiring organizations!

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Read.Watch.Listen is a monthly forum hosted by the NCSEA SE3 Committee to share and promote conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion within the structural engineering profession. Each month, we will curate a series of articles, audio-visual and digital media to facilitate self-education in matters that affect our professional practice as structural engineers. Whether you choose to read, watch, or listen (or all three!), we hope you will join us in this important conversation. Missed the previous issue? Check out the NCSEA SE3 Committee News and Publication page.
Share your thoughts and/or recommended resources for the next issue at ncsea@ncsea.com.
Upwardly Global Alum Pablo Cruz Publishes Book on Experience as an Engineer in the U.S. - Upwardly Global
Read.Watch.Listen’s June 2024 issue spotlighted immigrants and their experiences in the engineering field in the United States. Featured in the edition was Upwardly Global - an organization that is actively working to eliminate employment barriers for immigrant and refugee professionals in America. Pablo Cruz, an Upwardly Global alum and author, utilized the organization’s courses and was able to propel himself into a career as an engineer. This article is a quick read, but if you would like to learn more about Upwardly Global and Pablo’s success story, you can check out his book Working as an Engineer in the U.S.A.
Originally published September 16, 2022; Estimated Read Time - 4 minutes
Universal Design: Enabling Good Jobs for All - Disability Belongs
In the July 2024 issue, Read.Watch.Listen provided resources on how to support employees with physical disabilities. Past RWL issues have also shared resources to support neurodiversity in engineering and to support the mental health of employees. The recommended presentation by Disability Belongs provides an overview of Universal Design, shares examples of Universal Design in practice, and discusses ways to go beyond compliance in your job descriptions, interviewing practices, and work environments. If you are limited on time, we recommend the section from 00:21:44 to 00:33:14 for the overview on Universal Design.
Originally aired October 1, 2024; 00:59:01
Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines - Dare to Lead Podcast
In the February 2024 issue, Read.Watch.Listen explored AI and its effect on DEI efforts. The Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) is an organization whose mission is “to raise awareness about the impacts of AI, equip advocates with empirical research, build the voice and choice of the most impacted communities, and galvanize researchers, policy makers, and industry practitioners to mitigate AI harms and biases.” In this podcast. Brene Brown interviewed Dr. Joy Buolamwini, the Founder and Artist-in-Chief of AJL, as part of a larger series of interviews about AI and social media titled: “Living Beyond Human Scale, the Possibilities, the Cost, and the Role of Community.” Dr. Buolamwini wrote one of the most cited peer-reviewed papers on AI ethics, “Gender Shades” while she was at MIT (she’s also got a TED Talk about her paper). Dr. Buolamwini and Brene talk about her life, her research, and her work with AJL working towards equitable and accountable AI. The conversation is long, so if you are limited on time, check out from 00:21:38 to 00:30:47 for how her Gender Shades research came about and/or 00:59:44 to 1:08:48 where she talks about her work with AJL and the four Cs (Consent, Compensation, Control, and Credit) to combating regurgitative AI.
Originally posted May 8, 2024; 01:22:16
This article was originally published in the December 2024 issue of NCSEA's Structural Connection newsletter. For more information, check out NCSEA's DEI Resources.
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