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NACIS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The NACIS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committee was founded in 2019. It started as a collective of students, professionals, and academics to address concerns that arose at the 2019 annual meeting in Tacoma, and has since expanded to lead the organization’s efforts in areas of representation, accessibility, outreach, and support. Prior to 2019, DEI was a sub-committee to the general Communications & Outreach committee. 

Here, we collate and document actions we’ve taken, as well as action items for the immediate and long term future of the organization. This is an ongoing process and we value input from the NACIS community throughout each step. 

Every NACIS member is encouraged to attend DEI meetings and participate in our activities. DEI committee meetings occur once per month and attendance is open to anyone. 

Questions? Reach out to committee co-chairs Lourdes Ginart or Silas Hill on Slack. 

2024 DEI Activity

Below are the major initiatives undertaken by DEI in 2024. Any committee member can propose a new initiative and request funding to support its implementation. 

  • Organized the 2024 speaker series focusing on Native and Indigenous Cartography at the 2024 annual meeting in Tacoma
  • Revised the student verification process to ease the burden of proof (transcripts instead of professor letters)
  • Recommended presenter guidelines to increase the accessibility of all conference presentations
  • Increased the size of our annual charitable donation and identified new organizations that could benefit
  • Coordinated with the Awards Committee to create a new “first-timers” travel grant
  • Coordinated with the Awards Committee to improve the DEI grant language

Past DEI Activity

Since 2019, committee members have undertaken a number of initiatives, some of which are ongoing. These include: 

  • Created our Organizational Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement 
  • Organized a DEI workshop for all NACIS members
  • Earmarked 20% of all travel grant awards for minority and underserved applicants 
  • Established a new student scholarship which strongly encourages submissions from women, minorities, and underrepresented students
  • Updated our outreach contact list to geography, journalism, and urban studies programs at HBCUs, Minority Serving Institutions, and Community Colleges
  • Continually developing near- and long-term strategies and action items that will positively transform our organization, our conference, and the entire cartographic community
  • Developed a speaker series as part of a broader effort to bring new people to NACIS that would normally not attend, and to create space for topics that have typically not had a dedicated session while also paying recruited speakers for the emotional and intellectual labor
  • Established annual mandatory DEI training for NACIS Board Members and Officers
  • Annual donations to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation and land acknowledgements at all conference locations
  • Re-established a biennial general member survey
  • Established pronoun selection as a permanent component of the conference registration and conference badging process
  • Assisted with the revision of the NACIS Code of Conduct

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