2026 AGU ELECTIONS
Pamela McElwee
AGU Board of Directors
Director I
Bio
Professor of Human Ecology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , New Brunswick, NJ, USA
AGU embraces the global community and welcomes leaders 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 anything else you feel comfortable sharing.
As a social scientist, I am relatively new to AGU, but would bring a variety of experiences, voices and perspectives to the Board. My work bridges the natural and social sciences in ways that are directly relevant to AGU's mission and strategic priorities. I have spent the last three decades conducting research at the intersection of biodiversity, climate change, and human vulnerability and adaptation, and supporting partnerships to help improve governance across climate and biodiversity. I bring an unusually integrative, interdisciplinary perspective that I believe is essential to AGU’s important role as an organization committed to discovery, inclusion, and collaborative science. I believe strongly in ensuring an inclusive scientific enterprise, and I have published on ways to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion in science-policy assessments, as well as how to center diverse knowledges alongside conventional scientific methods in these efforts. My experience leading diverse teams of scientists, including with long-standing colleagues based in Global South institutions, gives me a perspective on how to meaningfully engage across disciplines and nationalities to ensure truly global scientific efforts.
Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:
Steering Committee Chair, US Academic Alliance for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (USAA-IPCC); Thematic Group lead (2016-2025), Cultural Practices and Ecosystem Management, Commission on Environmental Management, International Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN); US Environmental Protection Agency Board of Scientific Counselors (2022-2025); National Academy of Sciences, Committee to Review of the draft U.S. National Assessment by the Nature Record (2026) and Committee to Review the Draft Chapters of the Biodiversity and Climate Change report (2024-5)
Q&A
AGU’s Board of Directors is responsible for the governance, fiduciary and reputational health of the organization and handles its business affairs. The primary role of an AGU Board director is to partner with the other Board members and staff to lead the organization.
Board members work together with other volunteer leaders and staff to play a key role in implementing AGU’s strategic plan.
How do you imagine the global science ecosystem of the future, and how should AGU steward and empower its community to strengthen the organization and ensure lasting impact?
What must we begin doing today to prepare for that future?
What skills, experiences, and perspective would you bring to the Board in service to AGU’s mission?
We are at a pivotal moment for science. Collaborations, relationships, and institutions that once supported the scientific enterprise—including federal funding, university partnerships, public trust, and international agreements—are under threat on many fronts. Yet now is not the time to retreat, but to forge ahead despite these difficulties and continue to make the case for global collaborative science and its public value. I would bring to the AGU Board skills and expertise to stand strong in defense of science, to support our members, and to navigate the global complexities of caring for our shared planet. I am a key founder and steering committee chair of the US Academic Alliance for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (USAA-IPCC), which includes AGU as a partner and host. The USAA-IPCC was quickly founded with 12 academic institutions in early 2025 to ensure that US scientists could continue to engage with the IPCC despite federal government withdrawal. The USAA-IPCC is a perfect example of the strength that new partnerships bring in the face of unprecedented challenges. Building bridges with other organizations across common aims, whether around the socio-ecological dimensions of environmental change, human and planetary health, or new technologies like AI (artificial intelligence), will help AGU continue to build a strong collaborative foundation in defense of science and evidence. My connections to the social and health sciences, as well as to global science-policy organizations like the IPCC and its biodiversity equivalent, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), are experiences I would bring to the Board in service of AGU's mission.