A Retrospective Analysis of Leadership, Awardees, and Member Gender Representation of the Canadian Society for Immunology.

The Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) established a formal Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Committee with the goal of providing EDI advocacy and leadership within the CSI, as well as in the broader scientific community. A first task of this committee was to review the publicly available historical data on gender representation within the CSI's membership, leadership, award recipients, and conference chairs/presenters as a step in establishing a baseline reference point and monitoring the trajectory of future success in achieving true inclusion. We found that, except for overall membership and a specific subset of awards, all categories showed a historical bias toward men, particularly prior to 2010.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Canadian immunology: communication and complexity.

The Canadian Society for Immunology (CSI) organized an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) training workshop during its 2022 Scientific Meeting to improve understanding of EDI and explore strategies to achieve EDI goals in the scientific environment. The workshop focused on identifying Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely (SMART) goals related to EDI in academia through small group discussions and learning exercises. Attendees highlighted several equity considerations within the field of academic immunology, including financial barriers, lack of diversity in research teams and gender bias; they emphasized the importance of creating an inclusive and accessible research environment.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion in academia: lessons from the Canadian Society of Immunology.

Recently, the Canadian Society of Immunology opened its 2021 scientific conference with equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) workshops, before any other sessions, highlighting the significance of this topic and aiming to seed concepts/behaviors in the minds of the community. In this article, we urge research communities to adopt this type of approach for navigating difficult conversations and setting a balanced tone in scientific gatherings worldwide.