API ERG: A Conversation with Inder Monga

Inder Monga grew up in an idyllic town called Ranchi in northeastern India with one main road. His first interaction with a personal computer was in 1988 in a lab during his undergraduate studies; he moved to the U.S. in 1990 to pursue graduate studies in computer engineering. Today he is the Executive Director of ESnet and Division Director of Scientific Networking at the Lab.

A longtime supporter of IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accountability) principles, Inder became the executive sponsor of the Lab’s new Asian Pacific Islander Employee Resource Group (API ERG) in 2020. He shares some of his thoughts on the API ERG’s role at the Lab.

Q. How does the API ERG support the Lab’s mission?

The Lab benefits from an active and engaged employee base. The IDEA initiative is critical to the Lab’s mission; it is an effort to ensure that all employees are fully included in our community and in our mission. The API ERG creates opportunities for the Lab’s Asian and Pacific Islander community to have a voice in conversations about today’s Lab issues, to help guide the Lab’s future, and to engage in community issues beyond the Lab.

Q. What are the API ERG’s top 3 or 4 priorities today?

As it is a new ERG, the top priority is to establish the API ERG as a community at the Lab. It is a diverse community, with representation from many cultures across the Asian Pacific region. This diversity brings us to a second related priority, which is to celebrate the wonderful diversity among the members of the group. There’s a lot to learn about the different practices and cultures in Asia and the Pacific Islands. In India alone, where I come from, there are more than 100 languages and thousands of dialects. There is a staggering amount of diversity in just one country. The API ERG becomes a microcosm of the Lab to practice diversity and inclusion. For this reason I encourage others, not just Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, to join the API ERG and other ERGs.

A third priority is to bring forth issues or topics that are of interest to the community. Recently, there have been a large number of hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders within the U.S. The ERG can serve as a rallying point, a way for the community to take action and to educate others so that we, as Lab employees, do not fall prey to that sentiment.

Last but not least, the ERG can help ensure that the API community feels empowered as employees and as bonafide citizens of the Lab.

Q. Who do you partner with at the Lab to be successful?

The API ERG, as other ERGs, looks to partner with Lab leadership and divisional leadership to ensure that the group’s concerns are understood, including their desired goals or challenges. These important perspectives are critical for all management levels of the Lab to understand.

The API ERG also looks to partner with the other ERGs, which represent different facets of the Lab community. The ERGs can most effectively support diversity and inclusion, not just as bystanders but as upstanders, as they support each other.