About Us

​The Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) Affinity Group is committed to creating a community within the Society to connect thought leaders, senior managers, mid-career / young professionals, and students that identify as BIPOC – including Black, Indigenous, Asian, Latinos and Hispanics across the globe – to enhance the recruitment, retention, and professional growth of BIPOC in the HF/E field. We welcome non-BIPOC committed to use their position to serve as advocates for improving diversity, equity, and inclusion for BIPOC.

Affinity Groups provide mutual support and a sense of community to further the non-political, affinity-related interests of those engaged in human factors/ergonomics. These groups could be related to gender, ethnicity, national origin, veteran’s status, or other characteristics under the purview of the Diversity Committee.

Affinity Groups are an extension of HF/E Diversity and Inclusion efforts, focusing on both inclusivity within the profession and on advancing science that addresses longstanding societal problems. Affinity Groups differ from Technical Groups as they offer community, mentoring and support based on areas of collective identification. Affinity Groups can concentrate on challenging our profession to address these dimensions of personal identification more thoughtfully.

We hope that these communities will play an integral role throughout the course of a member’s career.

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, founded in 1957, is the world’s largest scientific association for human factors/ergonomics professionals.

HFES provides education, builds connections, and advocates on behalf of human factors/ergonomics field—from students to researchers, and industry practitioners—and fosters collaboration across the spectrum of professionals to drive forward advances in human factors and ergonomics because HFES believes that the seamless connection between humans and systems, and the connection between research and application, is vital to keeping all human beings safe.

The mission of HFES is to advance the science and practice of designing for people in systems through knowledge exchange, collaboration, and advocacy.

HFES envisions a future of systems that work for humans by design, grounded in science.