On the need for inclusivity and diversity in the wildland fire professions

Inclusivity and diversity are being increasingly recognized as important factors in the production of scientific knowledge, not only for the sake of equal opportunity, but as necessary to the best quality research (e.g. Feliu-Mojer et al 2018; Poster 2018; Smith et al 2018). However, lack of diversity persists in many if not all scientific fields to varying degrees (e.g. Perez 2018; Poster 2018), and affects various facets of research and education including the underrepresentation of women in leadership at universities (Smaglik 2018; Hamburg et al. 2018), in the peer-review process (Lerback 2017), and in publication in high-impact journals (Shen et al 2018; Woolston 2018).