Senior Director of Public Programs, Adler Planetarium, Chicago, IL, 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.

While AGU, as a whole, has strong representation across the board in areas of undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate education and research, one audience that is still nascent at AGU is out-of-school-time (a.k.a., informal education) educators and others who serve the public in a variety of settings - museums, planetaria, and more. We spend 95% of our lives outside the classroom, and my perspective is that of the professionals who research, develop, implement, and evaluate programs that directly reach and teach hundreds of millions of people each year on a wide variety of scientific topics. This is an audience that my experience can help cultivate at AGU.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

AGU Education section Informal Education Working Group Lead (2022 to present), Annual Meeting Program Committee Representative (2018 to present), Space Physics and Aeronomy section Education & Public Outreach Committee Member, Secretary Vice-Chair, and Chair (various 2009 to 2019). Institute of Museum and Library Services Museums for America grant reviewer (2008 to present). American Astronomical Society Eclipse Task Force (2022 to 2024). NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador (1999 to 2024). Library Telescope Program Board member (Vice-President) (2024 to present).

Section presidents and presidents-elect serve as members of the AGU Council and lead their sections. The AGU Council is a diverse forum of perspectives that meets throughout the year to provide input to the AGU Board, staff, and other parts of the organization. Three communities within the Council - committee chairs, section leaders, and students and early career scientists - serve different roles in AGU and bring unique viewpoints to ongoing discussions.

This role aims to catalyze community and build AGU as envisioned by the strategic plan. This leadership position is a dual role: helping to advance AGU’s strategic plan as a member of Council; and leading your section. How would you support the Board, staff and other sections to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals? How will you engage with members of your section to execute AGU’s strategic plan?

AGU is an immense organization that largely functions thanks to a huge amount of volunteer effort. Across all of AGU, these efforts involve hundreds of individuals representing a diverse array of educational institutions, non-profit and for-profit organizations, research institutes, governmental agencies, and more. Without these people who provide their support all year long, most of the activities of AGU would not be possible. One requirement of this organizational setup is the continuous need to bring in new volunteers and program participants, and this is where I can help the Education section and AGU look toward its future and address its plans, goals, and vision: by helping to coordinate efforts to provide multiple pathways and opportunities for new individuals to get involved in section activities that bring new voices and perspectives to the organization. To do this, we need to be visible, our actions need to be transparent, and our section members need to feel like they have both short- and long-term ways to get involved in section activities through volunteer opportunities, committees, and working groups that address the needs of the public, educators, researchers, students, and others. I also would like to initiate discussions with various sections to find ways to work together at the Annual Meeting and throughout the year in areas where our goals naturally overlap. There is so much potential for positive impact even in a huge organization like AGU!