Branch Chief, NASA, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

NExSS faciltator — In this role I help coordinate the Nexus for Exoplanet Systems Science (NExSS), which applies systems science to exoplanets, with a focus on habitability and the search for life; AGU Biogeosciences web editor — In this role I helped update the web page for the AGU Biogeosciences section at AGU; AAS Sustainability Committee — I served on the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) Sustainability Committee, which helps make AAS and its meetings more sustainable.

As one of the elected leaders of your section, how will you partner with your president and president-elect to communicate with and engage your members to help implement AGU’s new strategic plan including its mission and vision?

I am committed to furthering the AGU strategic plan by working with the president, president-elect, and Biogeosciences section members in the following ways.

The Biogeosciences section should be participating in solutions to short-term challenges from our global health crisis. We should also explore the potential for those solutions to also address the longer-term challenge of global climate change. I plan to promote such efforts within our leadership and community and to bring solutions found elsewhere to AGU.

The Biogeosciences section communicates with a global community of scientists and provides links to broader AGU initiatives. These efforts should continually highlight the ways in which individuals can act to improve our community and reform the cultures of the teams and institutions within which we do our work. Examples of this include, but are not limited to, calls to nominate diverse candidates for awards, tips for effective and equitable letter writing during job/school application season and advertisement of initiatives that promote diversity, inclusivity and belonging such as AGU's Bridge Program.

One of the things I love about the biogeosciences is the importance, difficulties and complexities of the problems this combination of disciplines can help address. Such integrated problems require "all hands on deck" solutions involving partnerships with a broad range of institutions, including universities, research institutes, government agencies and private entities. I have experience building such partnerships and will bring the experience and tools for building such partnerships to my role as secretary of AGU's Biogeosciences section.

Section affiliations:

Atmospheric Sciences; Biogeosciences; Planetary Sciences; Volcanology, Geochemistry and Petrology