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NSF INCLUDES Conference Select Remarks

National Science Foundation
INCLUDES 
Conference 2017

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Select Remarks
from the Conference


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Select Remarks from the Conference

Dr. Kamau Bobb, NSF program officer, made the following remarks to the conference participants on March 7, 2017:

Dr. Kamau Bobb began his address to the conference attendees by acknowledging that women shoulder the burden of carrying people, families and communities from one generation to the next. He did so to recognize the women who are leaders of CAHSI and in the broader effort to promote Hispanic students and professionals in computing.

He went on to explain the philosophy behind the National Science Foundation’s INCLUDES program, which seeks to expand the social and institutional networks for students in Science, Engineering, Technology and Math, and Computing fields. While this has been asked before, Dr. Bobb reiterated that what makes this effort different is the collective impact framework.

Collective impact is central to the INCLUDES program. NSF is asking stakeholders to build partnerships and backbone organizations that are well structured and are able to put theory into practice. Dr. Bobb stressed that the success of collective impact work rests on strong partnerships and genuine, trust-based relationships among stakeholders. Among the most critical factors for building strong partnerships, are combining passionate people who have realistic expectations and shared objectives. Partners must also be fair and considerate when distributing responsibilities.

The role of backbone organizations is to ensure accountability. The sole purpose of backbone organizations is to make sure that the collective work is moving forward and the responsibilities and relationships between the partner organizations are being met. Dr. Bobb ended by saying that CAHSI has the potential to be an excellent backbone organization with a passionate founder.


More remarks coming soon!