Keith’s note: According to this 2021 ENR article, Acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro was firmly in the diversity-is-good camp back in the day. KSC Director Janet Petro Reflects on Diversity: “Petro: KSC has embraced the link between diverse teams and innovation. We reinforce this message with our entire workforce by including it as one of our DEIA Crucial Topics: “NASA sees DEIA as a mission imperative. Our commonalities unite us as a team, and the universe of our differences gives us the perspectives and insights that mitigate group think and confirmation bias.”
Biologist, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Biologist and Payload integrator, Editor of NASAWatch.com and Astrobiology.com, Lapsed climber, Explorer, Synaesthete, Former Challenger Center board member... More by Keith Cowing
I have lost respect for her and a lot of our other leaders.
Whatever the band wagon is, it’s leaderships favorite new toy.
Janet: you’re FIRED!!
I worked in EEO at NASA for several decades. Ms. Petro was one of the senior leaders we asked to serve on a committee to help develop an Agency diversity strategic plan a few years back. As I recall, she was a strong voice in shaping that effort. It’s sad to see how she’s had to give up every last shred of her integrity to lead the Agency, but I guess she’s hardly in that situation these days.
I have no doubt she was a strong proponent of diversity and that she still is – but one must bend a knee to the new regime – or be replaced by someone who has zero interest in diversity.
I agree with you Keith. I’d probably do the same thing, for the same reasons – justifying that “my replacement would be worse.”
But honestly, if you’re performing the same odious actions that your replacement would do, there is no difference between you and that replacement.
I dream that I would have enough integrity to leave in protest. But I have a family to feed.
I believe SpaceX as well as Blue Origin are two companies that completely dropped their DEIA initiatives. I was wondering what others think of this.