 My name is Zach Utz. I'm the Archivist and Public Historian for the History of Genomics Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute, or NHGRI. For the better part of this year, we at the History Program have been working with our colleagues in the communications and public liaison branch to develop several educational resources on the history of eugenics and scientific racism. This presentation will focus on how these resources came about and why we are engaging more in this space now. We have developed a fact sheet and an interactive timeline, more specifics on those to come. These resources are geared towards a general audience who has little or no former knowledge of the history and legacies of eugenics and scientific racism. They are available at our website, genome.gov. I'll break this talk into three different components. First, why did we develop these resources, decide to develop these resources? Second, what do these resources look like? And third, what other history educational resources should we develop in the future? So first, why did we develop these resources? A quick bit of backstory. The NHGRI was formerly known as the National Center for Human Genome Research, or NCHGR. It was founded in 1989 to help lead and coordinate what would become the publicly funded Human Genome Project, which officially began in 1990. The project took over a decade to complete and finished up in 2003. Aside from the mammoth task of mapping and sequencing the human genome, many people involved in the project wanted to understand the many ethical and social implications of acquiring new genetic and genomic information on humans. What are some of those implications? Even before the HGP, there was widespread concern that genomic sequencing could lead to a new era of eugenics. For example, bioethicists were aware of how past eugenic movements used genetics to ostracize historically marginalized groups and believes people would use information gleaned from the HGP to further marginalized and stigmatize certain groups. Many were also concerned that the HGP would usher in a new era of problematic behavior genetics, where genes would be used to explain certain behaviors and traits. HGP leaders and those in the larger scientific community also discussed whether employers or insurance groups could or would use genetic information to discriminate against individuals. What efforts has the NHGRI taken so far? In response to these concerns and other issues over genetic privacy, the NCHDR, now the National Human Genome Research Institute, founded the Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications Research Program in 1990 at the beginning of the HGP. Since its inception, the LC Research Program has funded research on all aspects of the social and ethical implications of genomics. This research includes the legacies of eugenics and scientific racism in the context of new and emerging genetic and genomic technologies. In fact, many of the images used in developing our new educational resources came directly from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Eugenics Image Archive, which was funded in part by the LC Research Program. So why is NHGRI taking new efforts to develop educational resources? Even though the LC Program has spent a great deal of time in this space reckoning with the legacies of eugenics and scientific racism, these subjects were not something we have tackled much at all in our public-facing platforms. For example, there were essentially no mentions of either eugenics or scientific racism on genome.gov, nor did our talking glossary include a definition of either term. Given the complicated history of our institute's connection to founder and former director James Watson, well known for his overtly racist comments that recall some of the more insidious legacies of eugenics, it was important for us to make a more publicly facing engagement in this space. While my job title is archivist at the NHGRI's History of Genomics Program, I'm trained as a public historian. As such, I spend a lot of time working with our larger communications and public liaison branch, brainstorming effective ways to communicate complicated historical genetics and genomics-related issues to the wider public. Since joining the NHGRI in late 2018, I've spent a great deal of time with NHGRI historian Chris Donahue researching the history of eugenics. Recently, I participated in the anti-eugenics projects, legacies, reckonings, and futures event where Chris and I presented on our research on eugenics's Robert Cook and his connections to the NIH in the 1960s. Sometime toward the end of last year, we identified the deficit of any materials on eugenics and scientific racism. Around the same time, the History of Genomics Program was in the initial stages of planning this symposium. We felt this was a great opportunity for the History Program to work within our branch and the larger institute to develop new resources on these critical topics to help educate the public. The history of eugenics and scientific racism is very complicated, so we wanted to try to be very intentional in communicating about these important topics in a clear and concise way. The educational resources we have developed are very much geared towards a general audience who may or may not have much awareness of the history of eugenics or scientific racism. In our resources, we strove to convey the widespread popularity and longevity of eugenics, especially in the U.S. during the first half of the 20th century. We also wanted to convey that this history really isn't that far away from the present. For example, it's safe to assume that many people watching this right now were alive when forced sterilizations were still being performed in a number of states or that the majority of states had such legislation in the first place. Many people may also not realize that American eugenicists like Madison Grant were openly admired by Adolf Hitler or that sterilization laws in this country provided a blueprint for the Nazi state to implement its own system of eugenics or that many currently operating institutions, think tanks and publications in the U.S. and globally have direct historical connections to eugenicists. These are all areas and topics we explore in our educational resources. These efforts also line up with current and ongoing efforts from the NHGRI director, Dr. Eric Green, to promote diversity in the genomics workforce, including the recent appointment of Vince Bonham to deputy director of NHGRI. One of Vince's first actions was to create the Office of Training, Diversity, and Health Equity, or the Tide Office, which focuses on fostering diversity and health equity in genomics and genomic medicine. The issue of diversity in genomics has historically been a major area of concern. So what do these resources look like? This year we have developed two different resources on the history and legacies of eugenics and scientific racism, a fact sheet and an interactive timeline. Again, both resources live on genome.gov. On the screen, there are a few screenshots of our eugenics and scientific racism fact sheet, a bit of context, a big part of what the communications and public liaison branch at NHGRI does is develop fact sheets to communicate complex topics to a general audience. Our fact sheets are set up similarly to an FAQ. First, we outline the most important takeaways about a given subject, then we pose big fixer questions and try to provide clear and concise answers. For example, some recent fact sheets we have created focus on topics like informed consent and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Our eugenics fact sheet follows the same format. It distills a lot of information about complicated and dense subject into an easily digestible and relatively short read while not glossing over the complexity or nuances. This fact sheet is evergreen and we'll live with our other fact sheets on genome.gov. In this document, we address several key issues related to the history and legacies of eugenics and scientific racism, including defining each term for a general audience, describing how eugenics originated in the late 19th century, what eugenics looked like, specifically within the US and how it was similar and dissimilar to other eugenics movements globally. We also discuss how the legacies of eugenics and scientific racism continue to affect the genomics community, such as the advent of new technologies like prenatal screening, which have the potential to create a new kind of eugenic reality where parents can selectively screen for subjective traits. Last, we discuss the ongoing work by the NHGRI and NIH at large to address and reckon with the legacies of scientific racism by actively promoting an inclusive and diverse genomics workforce. The NHGRI History of Genomics program is committed to continuing to explore these difficult topics to further develop ethical and equitable and historically informed uses of genomics. The second resource we have developed is an interactive timeline that details key events in the history of eugenics. While it details global elements, it focuses more specifically on the United States. We work closely with our web team to develop this new resource, which is more interactive and visually grabbing than previous timelines we have produced on Genome.gov. Alahasa Dot from our web team was kind enough to provide a few screenshots of the timeline for this presentation. I want to especially highlight the interactivity of this new design which allows for maximum user accessibility in either mobile or desktop settings. One important caveat, we acknowledge that this timeline isn't an all-encompassing history of the global eugenics movement. It focuses primarily on the eugenics movement and ideologies of scientific racism in the United States. Undoubtedly, this timeline misses events in individuals who were critical in the history of eugenics and scientific racism. Instead, this timeline is meant to be more of an introductory educational tool for anyone who is interested in these subjects but possesses little beforehand knowledge. The timeline begins with the origin of the term by Francis Galton in 1883 and moves through the emergence of the eugenics movement in the U.S. and the advent of forced sterilization in many of the states. Along the way, viewers get a sense of some of the more important figures in the movement, both domestically and internationally, including Charles Davenport and the establishment of major eugenics organizations, including the eugenics record office and the American eugenics society. We discuss how Nazi Germany implemented eugenics as well as the continuity of eugenics in the post-war period. The timeline aims to convey a sense of how pervasive and popular eugenics was in the United States by focusing on key events in the history of forced sterilization, which many states adopted. Importantly, we end this timeline with an eye towards the present and the recent developments in genomic technologies, including CRISPR-Cas9, which have raised concerns among ethicists and biologists that a new eugenics is always potentially on the horizon. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's image archive of the American eugenics movement graciously allowed NHGRI the use of its imagery for this resource. So in conclusion, NHGRI is committed to illuminating and addressing past injustices in genetics and genomics history. These two new resources on the history of eugenics and scientific racism are a first step. Going forward, the history of genomics program will look for ways to continue to provide important context for key moments in the history of genetics and genomics. We will prioritize elevating voices that have previously been silenced or left out of this conversation. Given the relative newness of genomics as a scientific field and its growing omnipresence in our lives, we recognize that there is still much history to be reckoned with beyond eugenics and its historical legacies. We plan to hold future events with the focus on different parts of this history that didn't receive as much attention as they deserved. We are also open to suggestions on how we can better tell these stories and what resources we should develop to accomplish this. Thank you.