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We developed All-ABOARD (Alliance Building Offshore to Achieve Resilience and Diversity) to meet the ever-increasing needs of cultivating a diverse geoscience workforce. All-ABOARD incorporates the Be the Messenger theoretical framework in all programmatic aspects to encourage participants to think about their own identities, positionalities, and privileges. Drawing from US-based institutions, we recruited four teams of four to five members who spanned a spectrum of positionality and career stages. To evaluate the efficacy of the program, we collected both quantitative and qualitative data at different intervals to measure changes in participants’ understanding and perception of identity, culture, respect, and diversity. The year-long core programming included regular webinars via Zoom and an in-person retreat. We found that immersive experiences and intergenerational teams led to the cultivation of a strong identity as a DEI-champion, enhanced group cohesion, and promoted feelings of resilience among participants. Our participants reported they felt most accountable to themselves and their teams, and that learning was accelerated by bringing together teams from multiple institutions to collaborate across intergenerational boundaries. Our program provides a model for training DEI-champions in geoscience who can advance strategic objectives in their home environments and demonstrates how frameworks from the social sciences can be effectively leveraged to transform geoscience. 

Geoscience is plagued with structural and systemic barriers that prevent people of historically excluded groups from fully participating in, contributing to, and accruing the benefits of geosciences. A change in the culture of our learning and working environments is required to dismantle barriers and promote belonging, accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our field. Inspired by a session organized at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting, the goal of this paper is to provide a consolidated summary of a few innovative and broadening participation initiatives that are being led by various stakeholders in academia (e.g., students, faculty, administrative leaders) at different institutional levels (e.g., universities, professional societies). The authors hope that the strategies outlined in this paper will inspire the coastal, ocean, and marine science community to take individual and collective actions that lead to a positive culture change.