Dear SML Community,

It is with great distress and heartbreak that we have witnessed the recent crimes and injustices against black and brown people in the United States. At Shoals Marine Laboratory we believe strongly in equity and the importance of diversity. This moment is pushing us to assess how SML can grow and learn to become a more diverse community. The SML team has been working hard over the past few years to address various equity barriers at the lab, but our efforts are not enough. We are far from where we want to be. We must continue to learn-act-evaluate-learn to make progress. The systemic lack of minority representation in the marine sciences is sadly a problem that extends beyond SML. I commit to being a voice of change and leader for action.

There are so many valuable ideas and comments coming up among our community right now that we can learn from. I commit to sharing with our community what SML has done, is doing, and strives to do. As we consider the inequities in the broader marine sciences community, SML together with the UNH School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering have committed to launch a NH Listens community dialogue program. Through this effort, we will identify actionable items and pathways to make meaningful change. I welcome any and of all of your voices in this process. If you would like to be part of this conversation, please email shoals.lab@unh.edu.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Seavey, SML Executive Director