SACNAS Opens Office In ACS

The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), based in Santa Cruz, Calif., has opened a satellite office. The group’s new location is in the American Chemical Society’s Donald F. & Mildred Topp Othmer Building, in Washington, D.C.

“ACS sees this as an important step in our continued commitment to advancing diversity and inclusion in STEM education and career development efforts,” says ACS Executive Director and CEO Madeleine Jacobs. “Having SACNAS leadership and members colocated in our building clearly demonstrates that ACS values diversity and is committed to working together with minority advocacy organizations to increase the diversity of scientists in our nation and within our organizations.”

SACNAS is not the first scientific organization to rent space in the Othmer building. Other organizations located at ACS include the Council of Scientific Society Presidents and the Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America.

Still, the colocation of SACNAS within ACS is significant. On Jan. 30, ACS and SACNAS signed a memorandum of understanding in which the two organizations pledged to collaborate to advance the progress of Hispanic/Chicano and Native American people in the chemical sciences (C&EN, Feb. 15, page 58).

Joy Titus-Young, ACS manager of diversity programs, says having a SACNAS office within ACS will help ACS promote its diversity programs, such as ACS Scholars and Project SEED, to the SACNAS membership. “Hopefully, members of SACNAS who weren’t aware of these programs can now take advantage of them,” she says.

The new office will also allow ACS and SACNAS to collaborate on legislative issues, says John Christensen, who is the SACNAS fellow for science policy and works in the new office.

There’s strength in numbers. “We can imagine times where SACNAS and ACS members’ collective voice on a variety of key legislative issues will bring enhanced credibility to our shared position,” says Jacobs. “This type of collaboration is much easier to achieve when your two organizations are within such close proximity.