2022 AGU ELECTIONS
Petra S. Dekens
AGU Board of Directors
Director III
Bio
Volunteer experience that relates to this position:
I have served as part of AGU Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology leadership for six years (secretary and fall meeting program committee, president-elect, and president). I also served on the AGU Diversity and Inclusion Task Force and currently serve on the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee. I cochaired the Earth Covering Neighborhood committee to organize the programming for the centennial theater “Earth Covering: Habitability on a Changing Planet” at the 2019 Fall Meeting.
Q&A
The AGU strategic plan represents a significant pivot for AGU. Board members must work together with each other, other volunteer leaders, and staff to play a key role in implementing the plan. What are the key features of the strategic plan that you find most exciting? What features do you think will be most challenging? As a Board member how would you advance the strategic plan?
I am very excited to see the inspiring strategic plan developed by the AGU leadership. The strategic plan respects that discovery science is, and will remain, central to the mission of AGU. But it also expands the mission significantly to more explicitly support science for the benefit of humanity and the environment. The most exciting part of the strategic plan is the goal of broadening the AGU community through partnering with other organizations and by promoting and exemplifying “an inclusive scientific culture.” The emerging global environmental issues are challenging and dynamic, and the new strategic plan emphasizes that to solve these challenges, we must expand our community to include scientists from currently underrepresented groups in the United States, strengthen international collaborations and connections and welcome the active participation of organizations that are currently outside the traditional scientific communities.
As a member of the Board, I will first work closely with fellow Board members, the AGU Council and AGU staff to develop a plan to implement the new strategic plan. Moving forward, the goal will be to work together to ensure that AGU programs (such as meetings and publications) work toward the ambitious goals laid out in the AGU strategic plan. It will be essential that AGU uses its financial and staff resources to invest in changes within AGU that are consistent with the new strategic plan.
Section affiliations:
Ocean Sciences; Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology