A senior forensic analyst reflects on his experiences and discusses his take on the disparities in STEM

Springer Nature actively celebrates and promotes diversity across the entire business. With this commitment, Springer Nature recognizes that Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) are essential to achieving its mission of opening doors to discovery, enabling everyone to contribute their best and thrive. One of the core pillars that underpins the DEI mission are the Springer Nature Employee Networks. The employee networks promote a culture where communities of people connect and empower one another to thrive professionally and share their unique perspectives for the benefit of the organisation as a whole.

Laeon Israel is a Senior Forensic Analyst at Charles Schwab in the division of the Schwab Corporation Governing Procedure for Internal Investigations. He is responsible for providing information that will be used for legal prosecution.

When asked about whether his experience in STEM today differs from when he first entered the field, he explains that there needs to be more progression. “In STEM there are still disparities in regards to people of colour, as long as we keep pushing and moving the ball forward, there’ll be change, there will be better days… At Charles Schwab they are doing a lot in regards to diversity and trying to close the gap”. 

This discussion is part of a speaker series hosted by the Black Employee Network at Springer Nature. The series aims to highlight Black contributions to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) a history that has not been widely recognized. It will cover career paths, role models and mentorship, and diversity in STEM.

The extended version of the interview can be found here. 

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About Laeon Israel

Laeon has an in-depth knowledge of troubleshooting and analyzing situations through experience as a Sr. Digital Forensics Investigator, Incident Response Analyst, IT Administrator, Cyberspace Systems Specialist, Information Assurance Officer and Program Manager, which involved extensive customer and vendor support. He learned how to interpret and resolve an enormous amount of technical/personnel problems or incidents.