DOINews: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Video Features Efforts to Build a Diverse and Inclusive Workplace

Building a diverse and inclusive workplace is everyone's responsibility. A new video from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service highlights efforts by the Service's Northeast Region to bring culturally diverse employees into the workforce.

“We are creating a workplace where people not only want to come to, but they also want to stay,” says the Service's Northeast Regional Director Wendi Weber.

In the video, Weber explains the region's efforts to provide tools and training to managers to recruit and retain a diverse workplace, develop a cadre of employees to serve as “diversity change agents,” create entry-level positions to provide employment opportunities, and develop an intern program that brings culturally and ethnically diverse students into the Service.

The video also features John Burden, chief diversity officer for the Department of the Interior. Burden highlights the significance of the first-ever Inclusive Workplace Statement, signed by Secretary Ken Salazar in August 2010.

“Secretary Salazar truly believes that we can, and we will, get diversity right this time,” Burden said. “Everyone has to see themselves in this effort.”

Also featured are Lamar Gore, the acting chief of Diversity and Civil Rights for the Service's Northeast Region, and Gabe Harper, a park ranger at Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Gore and Harper explain the success of the Service's Career Discovery Internship Program, which introduces diverse youth to the Service.

For more information about the Career Discovery Internship Program, visit http://www.fws.gov/northeast/youth/cip.html.