Seeing and strategizing diversity in engineering classrooms and labs

While there is a plethora of research and inquiry into STEM and diverse populations at the university level, we have found a dearth of solid, introspective, thoughtful advice on how to handle actual classroom/team and research lab interactions such that diversity is at the core of the working experience. We have found that as instructors, leaders of engineering labs, and research managers at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, we often are working on defense versus offense when it comes to addressing issues of diversity, respect, and professional working behaviors.