July 22, 2021
Dear colleagues,
By now, you’ve heard that Lady Idos, the Lab’s Chief Diversity Officer, will be temporarily assigned to the DOE’s Office of Economic Impact and Diversity for about a year. This is an exciting opportunity to share her wealth of expertise and to take the spirit of diversity, equity, and inclusion that she stewards at the Lab and scale it to the broader DOE institution.
In Lady’s absence, our work does not stop: together, we will continue to push IDEA (inclusion, diversity, equity, accountability) principles forward, further embedding them into our culture and nurturing the IDEA programs and initiatives that have been built at the Lab over the past three years. We will also focus our attention on addressing equity and accountability at key stages of the employee lifecycle and assess the ongoing efficacy of these efforts. These are the ways in which we will position Berkeley Lab for the future. I am honored to be able to step in as our Interim Chief DEI Officer and serve you in this capacity.
After over a decade of doing DEI strategy and implementation work for organizations across the private, public, and non-profit sectors, I came to the Lab about 18 months ago to lead the Learning and Organizational Development Office in Human Resources. During that time, in the midst of immense change, I have worked very closely with Lady and her incredible team on everything from developing new IDEA resources, to supporting remote management and teamwork, to creating and curating learning opportunities for our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and other leaders. Our offices have also partnered to launch programs such as the Lab’s upcoming Stewardship Summit, the Equity Reset First Fridays, and performance management and career development workshops. Community-building, people development, and the Lab’s stewardship values are at the heart of each of these initiatives, and this will not change. My commitment is to ensure that, as we work towards achieving the Lab’s IDEA strategic goals, we also close gaps between our aspirations and our practices, our words and our actions.
As with many of us, IDEA work is personal for me. If you would like to learn a bit about my diversity journey, please watch this video that I put together for Asian Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month in May.
I am thrilled by the opportunities in front of us and I look forward to working with each of you—our Lab’s many ERGs and IDEA committees, the IDEA Senior Leadership Council, leaders across levels and divisions, and others in the Lab community. Together, we will make strides and further progress on the Lab’s diversity journey.
Aditi
Aditi Chakravarty
Interim Chief Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Officer
Berkeley Lab
Pronouns: she/her/hers
