This session is a follow up to the session held at the annual meeting in Portland, OR. In this session we will invite brief presentations from those who have contributed abstracts for the session, and other invited guests. We will assemble a panel to help engage discussions with the audience to examine progress toward actions and dialog that would help us move forward to increase the engagement of underrepresented minority students, and professionals in AFS. Dr. Mamie Parker will serve as the moderator of the panel. Our goal is to continue to build awareness and engagement of underrepresented sectors in fisheries and aquatic sciences with this session. The meeting theme "Fisheries Conservation and Management: making connections and building partnerships" is a perfect framework to address the question of this session: "How is what you do and see yourself doing in the future culturally relevant to individuals/ communities/populations of color underrepresented and under-served in the fisheries enterprise- educational and occupational reality?”

Invited participants will include governing board members, Hutton committee members, and Equal Opportunity Section members and leaders, and Emmeline Moore prize recipients. We will also engage with invited participants from the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, EPA office of Environmental Justice, and Wayne Hubbard, host of Urban American Outdoors TV series.  The emphasis is on dialog and actions we can all employ to make our professional association more representative of all citizens.