Associate Professor, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

AGU embraces the global community and welcomes diverse leaders from around the world, representing various identities, voices, and perspectives. List any identities, voices, and perspectives you would bring, including but not limited to nationality, regional representations, racial and ethnic backgrounds, and any other identity you feel comfortable sharing.

I was born in California and raised in the Midwest. I graduated from a large urban high school to a small private liberal arts college and on to graduate school at public R1 university. My own educational experience, particularly time spent at St Paul Central High School, impressed upon me the essential importance of high-quality public education as a vehicle for opportunity and mobility within our society. I have benefitted tremendously from collaborations with and mentorship from scientists from a diversity of backgrounds. I am strongly committed to advancing diversity within the geosciences and particularly within the geodynamics community.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

AGU Fall Meeting Program Committee, Study of the Earth’s Deep Interior, 2016-2018

This leadership position is a liaison role; it is one that aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. How will you engage with members of your section to advance AGU’s strategic plan? How will you facilitate engagement with other sections and people outside AGU to support our mission?

The Study of Earth’s the Deep Interior (DI) section is home to a vibrant community of researchers whose work deepens our understanding of the origin and evolution of Earth and other planetary bodies. The processes that operate within the deep interior interact with every other aspect of the Earth system from A to VGP. The DI section has the opportunity to engage in collaborative science with our colleagues from across the Union. If elected president of the DI section, I would be excited to work with the DI community to continue to grow the section, to serve as a bidirectional channel for communication between AGU’s membership and leadership through regular newsletters and social media, and to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within the section.

The AGU Fall Meeting will be held in a hybrid format for the foreseeable future. This fundamental shift in how we gather, share our research, and provide professional development opportunities for scientists at all career stages presents significant challenges associated with engagement and exciting opportunities associated with the inclusion of a larger and more diverse audience. During my service as a DI representative on the Fall Meeting Program Committee, we implemented a session convener mentorship program for early career scientists which has now become a Union-wide program. I would like to see this program continue to flourish and for the section implement a program to help first-time meeting attendees and virtual attendees navigate the meeting and to feel like they belong in the deep Earth community.

Section affiliations:

Earth and Space Science Informatics; Planetary Sciences; Seismology; Study of the Earth's Deep Interior; Tectonophyics; Volcanology, Geochemistry, and Petrology