Project Brief Background:

U.S. WIN is uniquely situated to support DEI in the nuclear industry with over5,000 members across universities, commercial nuclear power, government, and national labs. Further, U.S. WIN’s strategic objectives align with Diversity and Inclusion, specifically relevant is the objective to “drive a culture in nuclear energy and technology in which women and men succeed”. U.S. WIN knows having a diverse workforce is not only beneficial for achieving parity and creating an inclusive work environment, but it also has proven commercial benefits and improved outcomes when diverse views are present in a work-setting.

After an initial workshop, U.S. WIN realigned its efforts to focus on where it can be most useful. After discussing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion issues with industry executives and our MOU partners – NEI, ANS, and NAYGN – U.S. WIN narrowed its DEI action to facilitate an industry discussion and align to support the industries efforts’ to be strategic and focused in order to provide tangible results and make a significant impact in the nuclear industry.

U.S. WIN selected Fishbird to facilitate the session in identifying transformational changes in the industry to move the needle. This choice was based on significant research and results that Fishbird has produced for Fortune 500 companies.

The Fishbird session included participants representing the nuclear industry: Tim Rausch(TVA), William Grover Hettel (ENW), Maria Lacal (APS), Jeff Place(INPO), Jon Wentzel(NEI), Kelvin Henderson(Duke-Energy), Joel Gebbe (AEP/NSIAC), Darion Jeralds (GEH), Marri Marchionda-Palmer(Exelon), Christopher Church(Xcel), Kaitlin Rekola (NEI), Savannah Fitzwater(NNSA), Rita Baranwal (EPRI) and Jhansi Kandasamy (GEH-U.S. WIN chair).

The Fishbird session included a Kolbe A Index Assessment and a full day session to align on core purpose and to identify declarations to move the needle in closing the gaps in DEI.  The participants decided to create a DEI taskforce to be facilitated and led by U.S. WIN and named executive sponsors, Tim Rausch and Kelvin Henderson.

Joel Gebbe, NSIAC chairman, communicated and obtained alignment on the following commitment made by the industry CNOs:

A culture of excellence pervades the U.S. nuclear power industry. That culture extends to everything we do including our efforts to build a diverse and inclusive workforce that is representative of the communities that we serve.  It is not only the right thing to do to provide opportunity to everybody in our local communities, it provides the diversity of thought and ideas that will propel our industry forward as part of the clean energy economy.  We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and believe that everybody in our industry has a role in achieving it.

The next steps for the taskforce include cataloguing industry best practices and developing metrics for measuring the success of the taskforce.