Beyond diversity initiatives: Building a community of care in scientific societies

In this Professional Biologist article, we present one such reframing that centers individualized care through structural changes. We argue that psychological and sociological motivations of belonging and social capital in the academy are funda- mental challenges contributing to the cultural problems within STEM fields and are particularly present within professional scientific societies. In support of this argument, we present survey- based data alongside significant literature from the humanities. In this reframing supported by existing organizational culture literature and our survey results, we suggest that scientific societies are uniquely positioned to promote significant cultural change within STEM by focusing on building communities of care along- side their established communities of practice. We further make specific suggestions about how to build these communities of care in ways that will increase buy-in from the historical majority to support and promote the historically excluded without relying on DEIJ initiatives that can often harm more than help (e.g., Leslie 2019 , Burnett and Aguinis 2024 , Robb and Rana 2024 ).