Professor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, 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.

I am an American Born Chinese. I spent my first 18 years in Florida where Asians were few, and I never felt like I belonged. I understand firsthand the importance of creating an inclusive and welcoming community for all. As a leader in different communities—from my lab to the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation to the costume shop at my daughter’s ballet company—I take intentional steps to do this.

I am the mother of two daughters who I am raising to be aware of gender biases that should not limit what others expect of them and what they accomplish. I believe that breaking down biases of all kinds starts with our own awareness of them and ends with us creating institutional change.

I am a fortunate person who had access to pivotal experiences that opened my eyes to my chosen career path, from the Earth Corps summer camp before 6th grade to the research assistantship sorting leaf litter as a college junior. I am committed to paying it forward so that others, regardless of their background, have opportunities to explore the Earth sciences and potentially discover their life’s passion.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

AGU Honors volunteer as chair of Sulzman Award committee (2026) and member of Hilker Award committee (2024, 2025); AGU Fall Meeting session organizer (2014-present); Co-chair of Department of Energy workshop on Resilient Bioenergy Crop Production (2024-2026); Strategic Advisory Board member of Smartfield, a $19 million project that aims to accelerate testing, validation and implementation of technologies and measures that reduce emission of nitrous oxide from Danish agriculture (2024-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?

Especially in these challenging times for science in the U.S., I will support the Board, staff, and other sections by staying abreast of developments that affect the Earth and space sciences and pro-actively advocating in support of AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals. Through conscientious engagement and timely responsiveness, I will work with them in our shared responsibility to execute AGU’s strategic plan. With the federal funding landscape rapidly changing, it is particularly important to make connections with industry and non-profits to explore new opportunities for partnerships that support discovery and solution-based research.

I will engage with members of the Biogeosciences section by keeping open a two-way channel of communication and acting on opportunities to execute AGU’s strategic plan within our section and across AGU. Through quarterly newsletters, I will provide updates on new and continuing initiatives and solicit input on issues or opportunities that AGU leadership should consider. I will also hold town halls at the AGU Fall Meeting and virtually, including ones that are targeted at students and early career researchers who may not have the opportunity or comfort to speak up in front of faculty-level researchers. In particular, I would like to act on addressing ongoing challenges with diversifying the biogeosciences highlighted in a recent Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences publication, “Not Enough: Efforts to Diversify Biogeosciences Benefit Limited Segment of Society.” I would also like to hear from section members about how we can provide more impactful resources, training, and opportunities for our students and early career researchers.