Unlike basic science, studies conducted for the purpose of societal decision-making require the involvement of broad publics (Gibbons, 2000). The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), mandated by Congress in 1990 to provide decision-relevant climate science, spurred the establishment of some of the longest-running and most geographically diverse programs to conduct these types of applied research. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Adaptation Partnerships (CAP), Department of the Interior (DOI) Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Climate Hubs (Pulwarty et al., 2009; USGCRP, 2023) represent some of the most prominent examples. These federal programs may shed light on an issue that is increasingly recognized as a significant challenge to decision-relevant scientific research: the involvement of people who historically have been underserved by government programs and/ or have experienced discrimination and exclusion (Early & Kotzebue, 2021). Public administration and political science scholars have long warned that conditions of social inequity and inequality may worsen if the quality of governance and public services is dependent on community participation (Einstein et al., 2019(Einstein et al., , 2022Rosentraub & Sharp, 1981). When the voices of marginalized groups are unlikely to be heard and to influence policy