INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY
Introduction
The Brookings Institution is committed to championing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion across all aspects of our work. We recognize that to produce high-quality research that informs innovative, practical policy recommendations, we must strive for a workplace that represents diversity of experience, thought, and personal background.
Brookings strives to continuously offer an inclusive and welcoming workplace that values the experiences, ideas, and efforts of all contributors. This means ensuring that everyone is heard, appreciated, and empowered to fully participate in Brookings’s mission, and holding ourselves accountable whenever and wherever we can improve.
To that end, we publish our workplace and Board of Trustee demographics as we continue our journey towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. In the years since we began publishing this data in 2018, we have noted both exciting improvements and areas where continued, sustained effort is needed. Furthering this commitment, we have also sought to identify tangible, measurable goals for our community in these and other important areas.
While we will always have more to do, we remain optimistic that through hard work, transparency, and accountability, real progress on measures of diversity and inclusion can be achieved over the long term.
Methodology
How
The source of this data is based on a questionnaire completed by all Brookings employees. The categories for race and gender are determined by the federal government for workforce reporting. The categories used for generation identification have been defined by Pew Research Center.
Generation Z: born 1997 to 2012
Millennial: born 1981 to 1996
Generation X: born 1965 to 1980
Baby Boomer: born 1946 to 1964
Silent Generation: born 1928 to 1945
The Numbers
As of July 1, 2022, our staff headcount was 396 employees in Washington, DC. This includes:
Our Leadership Team (11): President and Vice Presidents
Our Fellows/Senior Fellows (102): Brookings Resident Scholars
Our Research Support (68): Research Assistants, Research Associates and Research Analysts
Our Operational Teams (214): Central and Program positions in Management, Operations, Communications, Development, Facilities, Finance, HR, Library, Legal, and Information Technology
This data does not include our nonresident scholars, as they are not employees.
How We're Improving
Recent Highlights
Prioritizing race, justice, and equity in our research
Brookings is committed to producing research from diverse voices and on policy challenges created by racism. Our scholars offer analysis on critical issues, convene top experts and practitioners to discuss ideas and highlight policy solutions, and seek new partnerships to expand our network and the impact of our work.
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Over the past year, Brookings scholars produced widely-cited analysis on key racial equity topics such as critical race theory, ending the U.S. War on Drugs, and the importance of data privacy amid a rise in police surveillance in communities of color. Scholars detailed a myriad of ways that systemic racism impacts Black people and Black neighborhoods and offered policy solutions to close the racial wealth gap. Groundbreaking new research expanded the narrative about the places that 46 million Americans call home by exploring the breadth of rural America’s diversity and convening local leaders to identify solutions to reverse the paradox of rural disempowerment. More examples of Brookings research and events focusing on racism and equity in housing, education, entrepreneurship, technology, and other policy issues is available here.
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In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Brookings hosted Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) and Representative Andy Kim (D-NJ) to discuss the domestic and foreign policy implications of a surge in anti-Asian violence and racism. Scholars also emphasized the importance of including Asian Americans in our research, our policy, and our discourse. To unpack the unique challenges facing Black boys and men from the earliest days of life through adulthood, we convened Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Frederica F. Wilson (D-FL) and members of the White House Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys. As forensic technologies become more prominent in society, sponsor of the Justice in Forensic Algorithms Act Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA) joined us to talk about racial bias and the changing landscape of the U.S. legal system.
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Brookings Metro partnered with the NAACP to publish The Black Progress Index, a first-of-its-kind analysis of Black life expectancy in U.S. counties and metro areas. By measuring life expectancy and the "social determinants of health" — such as homeownership rate, education attainment, business ownership rate, and air pollution — the Index aims to find places where Black health is thriving despite the neighborhood conditions residents face and to provide insight into the local civic actions that can improve life expectancy outcomes. "The primary goal of this tool is to empower local leaders with information to excite civic action," says Brookings Senior Fellow and project lead Andre M. Perry. "Research from the Black Progress Index will provide insights into the most impactful conditions that affect their quality of life and give communities goals and benchmarks to track their advancements."
Celebrating the diversity of our community and striving for inclusivity and work-life balance
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This year, we were excited to honor and celebrate the diversity of our community through our Heritage Month programming; to provide space for staff to process and explore together issues in the world that affect our well-being as people; and to learn about recognizing our biases and the broader contexts of race, gender, age, and other identities we all bring to work through trainings and other learning opportunities. These events are all employee-generated, grounding our programming in staff interests and ideas. For the first time, we recognized Native American/American Indian Heritage Month, Arab American Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, and Mental Health Awareness Month with programming that included guest speakers, food tastings, visits to local museums, and training opportunities. These observances join Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, LGBTQ+ Pride Month, and Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month to round out our roster of recognitions.
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In 2022, we formalized a training curriculum required for all new hires to ensure Brookings staff have a shared groundwork from which to build an inclusive community. This includes courses on anti-harassment and discrimination, building a respectful workplace, and recognizing and mitigating bias. Additionally, we offer keynote sessions for all staff throughout the year on topical DEI material, along with the continuation of our monthly Racial Equity in Research seminars to tie this learning to our research work.
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Throughout the past two years, Brookings has listened closely to employees to understand their needs and preferences for better work-life balance, flexibility, and more comfortable workspaces. Our hybrid work policy focused on creating a balance, with staff regularly teleworking and in the office one to three days per week. We implemented an alternative work arrangement to allow some workers to be fully remote or have remote periods throughout the year.
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As part of our ongoing work to ensure that positions at Brookings are open to individuals from backgrounds historically not provided the opportunity to join our community, we committed this year that, beginning in 2023, all interns at Brookings will be paid—either by Brookings directly or at an equivalent level through an approved external partner sponsorship. Providing only paid internship opportunities opens the door to policy research careers to individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and strengthens our effort to bring diverse perspectives into all aspects of our work.
Core Commitments
The Brookings Inclusion and Diversity Committee was formed in 2016. The committee consists of 22 staff members at all levels – from early career to executive – with representatives from business units, research programs, and employee networks. Members serve as ambassadors and liaisons to their teams and are the thought leaders behind the work we do. The committee’s mission is to advance the strategic priority on inclusion, equity, and diversity at Brookings through:
- Championing an environment of cultural awareness and change;
- Robust recruitment outreach to traditionally underrepresented communities;
- Engaging formal and informal leaders throughout the Institution;
- Challenging or changing practices and policies that inhibit inclusion and diversity; and
- Working to ensure that the public face of Brookings is representative of the world in which we live and work.
In the ensuing six years, the Committee, staff working groups and others around the Institution have undertaken the following core, ongoing activities to support this mission:
- Continuing Race, Justice, and Equity as a Presidential Research Priority
- Prioritizing gender, racial, and other forms of diversity in all Brookings events. This includes seeking to avoid “all male” panels and ensure invited speakers represent a variety of perspectives and backgrounds related to the topics being discussed.
- Providing training opportunities on topics such as unconscious bias, a respectful workplace, managing with an equity lens, microbehaviors, and cross-generational work environments
- Embedding inclusion, equity, and diversity in our human resources practices, including the regular analysis of the recruitment and selection processes
- Developing and implementing a jobs framework and a pay transparency initiative that seek to ensure equitable treatment across the institution
- Celebrating the diversity of our staff through Heritage Months and other cultural observances
Priorities for the Year Ahead
Over the next year, we are committed to building on our existing work and to continuing to advance our core commitments. In addition, we are prioritizing the following activities in the year ahead:
We are launching several new employee-led affinity groups. The current priority group focus areas, as identified by staff, include a group for BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) employees, employees that are parents and/or caregivers, and LGBTQ+ employees.
The Brookings Board of Trustees is launching a newly established Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Committee. The Committee will be led by Brookings Trustees Tim Ryan and Cheryl Crazy Bull. The Board Committee will be responsible for ensuring that the values of DEI show up in organizational and leadership development and results in a welcoming workplace that attracts, maintains, and engages a talented workforce.
We are building on our success in guaranteeing that all internship opportunities at Brookings are paid and working to ensure that our internship program is structured to attract and support students from backgrounds historically not afforded the opportunity to contribute to Brookings. This includes updates to how we do recruitment and selection, the learning experiences and opportunities we offer, and how we prepare and support staff to be committed partners in this work.
We are expanding our outreach to attract historically underrepresented talent, strengthening our internal recruitment practices to minimize the effects of unconscious bias, and enhancing our onboarding process to ensure that all new employees are positioned for success by feeling included, valued, and respected from day one.
We are implementing a thoughtful, robust communication strategy aimed at increasing employees’ and job applicants’ knowledge of Brookings’s pay practices. We are committed to educating all employees on our pay philosophy, compensation program structure, and pay analysis practices for ensuring equity.
We are continuing to support efforts led by staff in our research programs and business units to prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Resources
As we work to make progress within our own institution on diversity, equity, and inclusion, we seek to apply the same rigorous, research-based principles that guide all of our work. In that spirit, we conduct ongoing research to help inform our inclusion and diversity objectives and priorities.
Photo credits:
Photos by Paul Morigi, Sharon Farmer, and the Brookings Network