JANUARY 27, 2017--As part of National Mentoring Month, and to highlight NOS' mentoring program initiative, the OR&R Diversity Committee sponsored an event last week entitled "The Development and Impact of a Mentor Relationship".

The event was centered on a diverse panel of OR&R employees, each of whose lives and careers were changed substantially and positively by their relationship with a mentor. The panelists shared stories of how these relationship developed, they ways in which their mentors challenged and encouraged them, and the resulting impacts to their professional and personal lives. The panel discussion was followed by an update on the status of the NOS mentoring program from LaTonya Burgess, OR&R Deputy Director and one of the executive leaders on this initiative. The event, attended by over 30 OR&R staff and managers across the country, concluded with a Q&A session of the panelists and Ms. Burgess.

Following the conclusion of this event, the OR&R Diversity Committee began planning February's diversity event linked to Black History Month. This event will be held on February 21 and will focus on discussion of the book "The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature" and video "Rules for the Black Birdwatcher" by Clemson Distinguished Professor of Wildlife Ecology and poet, Dr. J. Drew Lanham.

For further information, contact Brian.Julius@noaa.gov.

OR&R strives to build and maintain a diverse, high-performing workforce that includes and empowers all staff and leverages diversity to better reflect the composition of the U.S. civilian labor force, to better serve our communities, increase innovation and improve decision making in our all aspects of our work.

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