Mentoring to Achieve Diversity in Graduate Programs

The discipline of statistics has a celebrated, diverse, and colorful past. With a definite international flavor, we continue to make great strides in keeping our discipline relevant and accessible for addressing significant societal concerns. Unfortunately, we lag behind many other disciplines when it comes to fully tapping into the potential of all demographic groups within the United States. Mentoring provides one of many opportunities to change this narrative. This article looks at hard numbers related to diversity, points to some existing successful mentoring programs, and is a reflection of lessons learned through personal experiences.