Representatives of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries recently helped facilitate the first-ever session on diversity and inclusion at the annual Aquaculture America meeting in San Antonio, Dr. Rebecca Lochmann, chair of the department at UAPB, said. Hosted by the U.S. Aquaculture Society (USAS), Aquaculture America is the nation’s only major national aquaculture conference and exposition.
“Demonstrated benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in an organization include getting a variety of perspectives and increased engagement, creativity and decision making, as well as an enhanced reputation of the organization,” Dr. Lochmann said. “USAS is assessing its efforts to be welcoming and inclusive of all people interested in this field.”
Because the UAPB Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries recently developed its own DEI plan, Dr. Lochmann volunteered to join the USAS diversity and inclusion committee and help create their first session at the meeting in San Antonio. In planning the session, she enlisted the help of Christopher Kennedy, a UAPB graduate of fisheries biology who currently serves as assistant to the director of inclusion and diversity at the Missouri Department of Conservation.
“Chris has become an experienced speaker and facilitator of sessions on this topic in his current position with the Missouri Department of Conservation,” she said. “Therefore, I invited him to play a major role in providing planning and facilitation for our session at the USAS meeting. He did a wonderful job and helped raise the profile of UAPB as an alumnus of our program.”
