Minority Serving Institution Engagement in the Fusion Ecosystem—It is Not Community if You Invite People in and Refuse to Change

We recognize and understand that the inherent worth and dignity of every person is an indelible right. Plasma physicists reflect our society, incorporating multiple and intersecting identities, both visible and invisible. We recognize that established institutional practices, tropes, and policies have created barriers to a vibrant and healthy workforce, and have, in some cases, propagated harm to potential members of the fusion energy and adjacent technology community. Systemic obstacles to research dissemination like gatekeeping, othering, grant and award criteria, principal investigator/research group accountability, and closed-source data management are prime opportunities to reimagine systems that elevate everyone, especially our community members (present and future) vested in minority serving institutions (MSIs). We use the “Healthy to Innovative Theory of Change” that centers on the transformative development of members and the “Modified Healthy to Innovative Framework” (modified HTI^®framework) adapted from Dr. Kimberly McLear’s original HTI Framework. The modified framework begins with psychological safety, followed by moral courage, cultural competence, community, justice, mission readiness, and finally, innovation. The modified HTI framework is highly versatile in its application to both groups and institutions. The theory of change employs the modified HTI framework in a three-phase “Data Tools Strategy” logic model of planning, early implementation, then assessment and improvement. Detailed MSI-relevant strategies to increase the institutional technical readiness level as a full member of the fusion energy and adjacent technologies community are reported.