As part of Berkeley Lab’s virtual celebration of Native American Heritage Month, the Latin American and Native American (LANA) Employee Resource Group will be hosting guest speaker Randy Pico on November 11th. Pico’s talk, entitled “Still Working on the Rez”, will highlight his STEM journey and indigenous heritage.
Date: Wednesday, November 11
Time: 2:30 – 3:30 pm
Watch the recorded conversation
Pico, Engineering Directorate Senior Superintendent at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), will share his background and lineage as a Luiseño American Indian, and his experiences growing up on the reservation and in urban settings. He will describe his engineering and technical contributions, and how he ended up at two national laboratories (LLNL and Thomas Jefferson National Lab in Virginia), where he has over 40 years of experience.
Having served as a decades-long champion and advocate for diversity and inclusion at national laboratories, Pico will discuss the importance of bringing your “whole self” to work when it comes to one’s background; the relationship between staying true to yourself and your heritage while feeling the need to fit in; and the importance of acknowledging “the richness in self, culture, traditions, ancestors, and how your values relate to daily successes.” Pico believes that equal access to STEM learning and success is everyone’s birthright, and believes that “national laboratories represent the greatest opportunity for STEM enrichment, and by celebrating differences, we enable creativity.”
Bio: Randolph (Randy) Pico is the Engineering Directorate Senior Superintendent at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in Livermore, California. His role at LLNL is to oversee, through division superintendents, the effective management and utilization of a large and diverse workforce of individuals who support a wide range of technical programs. Pico has over 40 years of science and technology experience in areas such as national security, fusion energy, environmental and high-energy physics. He is a federally recognized Luiseño American Indian, with a background that includes reservation and urban experiences.
Pico works tirelessly to increase the pool of Native Americans participating in academic disciplines that include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). He is a member of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and recognized as a Sequoyah Fellow for his commitment to STEM and to the American Indian community.
Pico has had the honor of being selected as head staff at numerous American Indian gatherings. For the last 23 years, he has participated (Director, Head Staff Coordinator, Arena Director, Singer, Dancer, MCEE) in the Pechanga Indian Reservation Pow Wow, the largest in the West Coast. He currently serves on several college and university advisory boards, including a member of the DeVry University Alumni Association, Pinnacle member, and DeVry Wall of Fame. Pico has also served as a commencement or guest speaker at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, San Jose State, and others.
To learn more about Pico, check out his KQED profile and video as a 2014 American Indian Heritage Local Hero.
(Pictured above: Randy Pico and Randy Pico Jr.)
