Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

AGU Earth and Planetary Surface Processes (EPSP) Program Committee: co-chair (2016-2017), chair (2018-2019); AGU Joint Focus Group Fellows Committee: member (2010-2011), chair (2011-2013); AGU EPSP Fellows Committee: member (2013-2018); Grand Challenge Research Collaborative on Assuring Clean Water and Sustainable Ecosystems and Fostering Just and Equitable Communities: member (2018-2019); work with Tribal Community on stream table outreach and education; Workshop on Multiscale Dynamics of Debris Flows in Response to a Changing Climate: leader (April 2016, Owens Valley Research Station, Bishop, Calif.

Council members play critical roles as communication conduits among AGU members and leaders. How will you engage with members of your section to advance AGU’s new strategic plan? How might you facilitate engagement with other sections and people outside AGU to support our mission?

In considering communication and engagement in the context of AGU’s strategic plan, a few things that stand out to me include:

1. The importance of AGU members’ scientific discoveries and their benefits (potential and realized) for our communities.
2. The need to foster diverse participation to more completely and efficiently further advance our science.
3. The significance of nurturing external partnerships toward increasing diversification and application of our science.

Toward engaging our community in these interdependent goals, I note that EPSP has an exciting and growing communication network that I would use extensively. For example, I would plan to meet regularly with volunteer committee representatives, including the EPSP program committee, the awards/Fellows committees and our student support committees (travel awards, Outstanding Student Presentation Awards, student activities). Based on their focus on related issues, I would work with them to help identify opportunities to engage our community members and amplify the diversity of our voices, sciences and applications. I would also look for opportunities to facilitate cross-section engagement with volunteers in similar committees across AGU. Social media tools (superbly supported by EPSP’s social media committee) such as our website and its discussion tool and our Twitter account (#AGU_EPSP) provide complimentary means I would use to engage more directly with those internal and external to our community. Finally, to facilitate further engagement of additional external partners, I would work to build opportunities to better connect with partner institutions, international collaborators and diverse community members with other AGU Council members and AGU staff.

Section affiliations:
Cryosphere Sciences; Earth and Planetary Surface Processes; Education; Global Environmental Change; Hydrology; Natural Hazards; Nonlinear Geophysics; Planetary Sciences; Science and Society; Seismology; Tectonophysics