“It turns out that orthopedic surgery is the least diverse field of medicine,” said Dingle, who himself is one of a handful of African American orthopedic surgeons in the Navy. “I knew I wanted to do something to improve that number, but how?”
A few years ago, Dingle read about E. Anthony Rankin, a celebrated U.S. Army surgeon who was the first African American to serve as president of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.
Inspired by this example, Dingle started the E. Anthony Rankin Orthopaedic Surgery Internship, which launched last year, with support from the Naval STEM Coordination Office, located at the Office of Naval Research, and an endorsement from the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED).
Dingle shared his story during a Naval STEM panel held during the recent DoD STEM Technical Exchange in Washington, D.C. The exchange brought together experts in STEM education and workforce development to share innovative practices for inspiring the next generation of leaders.
Titled “Leveraging Naval STEM Initiatives to Improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion,” the Naval STEM panel highlighted how the Department of the Navy (DoN) is working to increase diversity and inclusion in the naval workforce through innovative STEM programs.
Naval STEM oversees investments in education, outreach and workforce initiatives. This enables the U.S. to cultivate the technical workforce needed to keep the Navy and Marine Corps on the leading edge of scientific and technological innovation.
“The value of an event like this is it gives us the chance to discuss ways to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within the [DoN],” said Naval STEM Program Officer Kathleen Gately Miranda. “How can we do this while increasing interest in scientific and technical careers within the Navy and Marine Corps?”
In addition to Dingle, other panelists included:
- Kathleen Gately Miranda and Marla Singleton, support contractor, Naval STEM
- Paul Jornet, operations and instructional support branch manager, Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps
- Lt. Olivia Barrau, operations officer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for Commander, Naval Air Forces
- Capt. Fredora McRae, Navy Medicine Diversity, Equity and Inclusion director, BUMED
The panel spotlighted several first- and second-year Naval STEM initiatives that have seen great success, including:
The E. Anthony Rankin Orthopaedic Surgery Internship — Managed by BUMED, this program invited first- and second-year civilian medical students from underrepresented backgrounds to consider careers in orthopedic medicine. The four-week internship was hosted at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
Navy Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) Flight Academy — The Flight Academy is an eight-week summer program for students affiliated with Navy and Marine Corps JROTC. Students have the opportunity to attend ground school, participate in flight training, earn college credits and achieve a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) private pilot's license (PPL). To date, 27 students were selected to participate, of which 70% represented underserved and underrepresented groups. Ultimately, students navigated their first solo flight, earned college credits, passed the FAA written exam and 17 achieved their PPL. Moreover, 15 of the program’s alumni have received ROTC scholarships or been admitted to the service academies.
Naval Horizons — This initiative is designed to introduce high school and college students to cutting-edge topics impacting the Navy and Marine Corps. It does so through engaging online videos covering a variety of research areas — including autonomy, oceanography, data science and aerospace optometry. In each video, diverse naval scientists and engineers discuss their work to increase student awareness of naval science and technology challenges.
Contest participants watch the videos and then submit a short essay explaining how they were inspired by naval research and the naval workforce. To date, broad participation resulted in more than 31,000 video views and 1,727 students selected as winners of $200 cash prizes.
“Initiatives like these are vital for increasing accessibility to STEM opportunities within the Navy and Marines Corps,” said McRae. “Ultimately, they result in not only greater representation from underserved and underrepresented backgrounds, but also foster greater diversity of thoughts, viewpoints and perspectives.”
Warren Duffie Jr. is a contractor for ONR Corporate Strategic Communications.