---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 19016"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "19016"
heading: "Chief Diversity Officer of the NSF"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/19016"
units:
  - "Chapter 163 — Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation"
  - "Subchapter III — National Science Foundation for the Future"
  - "Part C — Broadening Participation"
---

# §19016. Chief Diversity Officer of the NSF

- (a) **Chief Diversity Officer—**
  - (1) **Appointment—** The [Director](/usc/42/18921.md?p=1) shall appoint a senior [agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) official within the Office of the [Director](/usc/42/18921.md?p=1) as a Chief Diversity Officer.
  - (2) **Qualifications—** The Chief Diversity Officer shall have significant experience, within the Federal Government and the science community, with diversity- and inclusion-related matters, including—
    - (A) civil rights compliance;
    - (B) harassment policy, reviews, and investigations;
    - (C) equal employment opportunity; and
    - (D) disability policy.
- (b) **Duties—** The Chief Diversity Officer is responsible for providing advice on policy, oversight, guidance, and coordination with respect to matters of the [Foundation](/usc/42/18901.md?p=11) related to diversity and inclusion, including ensuring the geographic diversity of the [Foundation](/usc/42/18901.md?p=11) programs. Other duties may include—
  - (1) establishing and maintaining a strategic plan that publicly [states](/usc/42/2021b.md?p=14) a diversity definition, vision, and goals for the [Foundation](/usc/42/18901.md?p=11);
  - (2) defining a set of strategic metrics that are—
    - (A) directly linked to key organizational priorities and goals;
    - (B) actionable; and
    - (C) actively used to implement the strategic plan under [paragraph (1)](#b-1);
  - (3) advising in the establishment of a strategic plan for diverse participation by individuals and institutions of higher education, including community colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, Tribal Colleges or Universities, [minority serving institutions](/usc/42/19184.md?p=3), institutions of higher education with an established [STEM](/usc/42/18901.md?p=27) capacity building program focused on Native Hawaiians or Alaska Natives, and [EPSCoR institutions](/usc/42/18901.md?p=8));[^1]
  - (4) advising in the establishment of a strategic plan for outreach to, and recruiting from, untapped locations and underrepresented populations;
  - (5) advising on a diversity and inclusion strategy for the [Foundation](/usc/42/18901.md?p=11)’s portfolio of [PreK–12](/usc/42/18901.md?p=22) [STEM education](/usc/42/18901.md?p=28) focused programs and activities, including goals for addressing barriers to participation;
  - (6) advising on the application of the [Foundation](/usc/42/18901.md?p=11)’s broader impacts review criterion; and
  - (7) performing such additional duties and exercise such powers as the [Director](/usc/42/18921.md?p=1) may prescribe.
- (c) **Authorization of appropriations—** To carry out this section, there are authorized to be appropriated $5,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2023 through 2027.

## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original. The closing parenthesis probably should not appear.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 117–167, div. B, title III, § 10327, Aug. 9, 2022, 136 Stat. 1544.)