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Laboratory Diversity calendar receives prestigious DOE award

The Laboratory has received a U.S. Department of Energy "2004 Diversity Best Practices" award for an online calendar that promotes diversity awareness among Laboratory employees.

Representatives from the Laboratory's Diversity (DVO) Office accepted recognition for the Weaving Our Worlds (WOW) Diversity Calendar at DOE's Human Resources & EEO/Diversity Symposium today in Pittsburgh. WOW Diversity Calendar designer Laurie Quon of Communication Arts and Services (IM-1) also has been invited to participate in a panel discussion on Diversity Best Practices at the DOE symposium.

The WOW Diversity Calendar is an entertaining, online calendar and educational resource for Laboratory employees that contains more than 800 cultural, religious and historical observances, as well as birthdays of famous people and heroes from diverse backgrounds. The Diversity Office created the calendar when several Laboratory surveys indicated that employees were interested in increasing their diversity awareness through proactive, nonthreatening, informal and voluntary avenues.

"We believe that the WOW Diversity Calendar is an innovative solution for diversity awareness and our team is very excited to be able to share this diversity best practice with other DOE colleagues," said Laboratory Diversity Office Leader Lisa Gutierrez. "We are honored to receive this prestigious recognition."

The calendar was under development for two years and is continually being updated and improved. The calendar's innovative use of multimedia resources includes sounds and video clips from websites such as the Smithsonian Institute, the Discovery Channel online, the Public Broadcasting System and National Geographic. Loaded with information, photographs and surprises, such as information about food and drink used during many observances -- replete with dozens of recipes linked to observances -- the WOW Diversity Calendar can be found at http://lanldb1.lanl.gov/lanl/lanlevents.nsf/WOWCalendar?OpenForm&calDate=Current online.

The Laboratory's work force comprises people from a multitude of nations, ethnic backgrounds, religions, education levels, economic backgrounds, physical abilities and sexual orientations. Diversity helps contribute to the Laboratory's scientific excellence by leveraging diverse talents and points of view into a common mission dedicated to making the world a safer place.

"(Los Alamos National Laboratory) is rightly and justly a place where diversity should reign, especially considering the diverse roots of those who founded the Laboratory during World War II," said Laboratory Director G. Peter Nanos at a recent diversity celebration, underscoring the institution's commitment to maintaining diversity and respect for diversity at the Laboratory.

--James E. Rickman

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