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1. Jumpstart Virtuous Cycles Within Social Innovation Communities

   Goldstein, Bruce Evan (March 2021, Social innovations journal)

   Strong leadership is crucial to fostering social innovation, and yet successful social innovation organizations are often those in which leaders do not play a dominant role. This is made possible by leadership practices that activate a community’s self-organizing and self-guiding potential. In this paper I share some of these effective practices, which were identified by highly experienced designers and facilitators of learning networks during a dialogue series on how to maintain lively, generative innovation communities held from 2018 to 2020. I provide advice from the netweavers in their own words, along with my commentary on how to create this potential by initiating and maintaining virtuous cycles of exchange and reciprocity, where group members could “pay it forward” without directly expecting something back every time. Many of these leadership practices are simple actions that are common sense practices in our personal lives but often absent in the workplace, such as creating a welcoming environment, assessing what people wanted to give and receive, being the first to give your members something valuable, calling attention to their successes, and underscoring the value that you provide them every time you interact. One powerful way to foster reciprocity that they emphasized was to organize semi-autonomous small-team activities, or co-work. While co-work can and should accomplish useful outcomes, its greatest value may be in how it maintains necessary coherence and coordination while contributing to building ownership and autonomy that supports an organization’s capacity for self-governance. 

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2. What Needs to Change in Academia to Increase the Number of Black Scientists and Engineers? A Son of Redlines.

   https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2020.06.014  

   Wilson, C.J. (July 2020, Cell Systems)

   Three brothers, black males, one murdered, one incarcerated—one unscathed (me). Three cousins, black males, two incarcerated—one with his liberties intact (me). Six siblings, only two completed high school—one being me. I remember, when I was 4 years old, walking to the store with my sister and being scolded for picking up a hypodermic needle someone used to inject heroin… and we lived in the better part of my neighborhood. This is the legacy of redlining, compounded by mass incarceration. If you do not know what redlining is, look it up. Purportedly, redlining ended in 1968; however, it is still the birthright of many black Americans. My early life experience is the product of this legacy. 

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3. Work in Progress: An Exploratory Study of the Sustainability Mindset through a Citizen Science Project in a Vulnerable Latinx Community

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--35609  

   Bolhari, Azadeh; Castaneda, Daniel I; Stewart, Kenneth. (June 2020, ASEE annual conference exposition proceedings)

   An initial exploratory study examined basic parameters of the sustainability mindset in an historically underrepresented group within engineering. An NSF water quality engineering research project engaged citizen scientists from vulnerable Latinx families in design, construction, and use of acrylic concrete structures for rainwater harvesting. During the start, middle, and end of the project, participants were asked to share their perceptions of sustainability through a series of exploratory focus groups questions: “How do you feel about droughts in the region; can you please tell me what you know about drought-resiliency; do you know ways a person might be able to conserve water during a drought; can you please tell me what you know about water quality testing?” Three coders (an environmental engineer, a civil engineer, and a sociologist) conducted a domain analysis of the focus group to determine emergent themes reflecting the sustainability mindset of the citizen scientists. Preliminary results show that between the onset and conclusion of the rainwater harvesting project, participants increasingly articulated their thoughts on sustainability in a future-oriented context requiring collective action in a broader, community sense. The preliminary findings have implications for sustainability- focused engineering outreach and crowdsourcing efforts. 

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4. Conducting Space Physics Research: Wind the Frog, Work Hard, and Be Nice

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2022CN000197  

   Liemohn, Michael W. (December 2023, Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists)

   Abstract This report briefly summarizes the key mentors in my scientific career and some lessons learned from those influential people. My primary advice to others: it is okay to do something wrong. By doing science we are doing something hard that, by definition, has not been done before. I believe that impostor syndrome is a real threat to researcher wellbeing and we should acknowledge its presence and support each other to get through it. Regarding an approach to science, I encourage you to get started and make something bad. Also, take time for yourself, it really does help your productivity. To lead others, I recommend to be enthusiastic, actively listen, and make connections across disciplines. I think it is important to foster creativity in those around you. I advocate that you actively make the future that you want to have. 

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5. Interview Data from August 2022: End-Users' Perceptions of Water Services in Rural Alaska

   https://doi.org/10.18739/A2WS8HN5B  

   Ritsch, Nicola; LaPatin, Michaela; Albertson, Leif; Armanios, Daniel; Faust, Kasey (January 2023, NSF Arctic Data Center)

   This dataset includes anonymized interview data collected in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in August 2022. These interviews were designed to capture end-users' perceptions and experiences with their water infrastructure systems. Interview questions included, for example: Can you tell me how you use water in your household?; What do you like about your water or water system?; What are some of the concerns/challenges you deal with in your household water system?; Do you worry about whether your water is safe to drink? 10 semi-structured interviews with 12 end-users are included. These interviews were conducted from August 2nd to August 8th, 2022. All interviews were conducted in-person. Interviews were recorded (with permission), transcribed, checked for quality, and anonymized. 

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