Assistant Professor, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 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 grew up on the Acoma Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico. The amazing geology there has shaped who I am throughout my life, and that cultural upbringing has allowed me to enhance geoscience education and research by melding multiple ways of understanding the natural world into knowledge that can be contextualized according to community cultural values. Every time I go home, I see new opportunities for geoscience to make a difference in the everyday lives of Indigenous community members. My research is centered on creating more ways for non-Indigenous geoscientists and educators to see the value of respecting community cultural values. As a geoscience education researcher, I am very excited to engage in authentic convergence science research projects that include local community members, academic researchers and scientists, as well as discipline-based education researchers. At my institution, I am a member of the Pedagogical Innovation and Learning Optimization Team in which I help review and experiment with new artificial intelligence tools to aide faculty teaching and research. I am one of several leaders of the Indigenous Geoscience Community and that has helped me recognize the need for year-round engagement of members that are not able to attend the annual meeting in-person.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

I currently serve on the Geological Society of America (GSA) Council, where I contribute to organizational leadership and member engagement. I previously served on the AGU Indigenous Action Task Force for several years, helping establish no-cost registration opportunities for Indigenous attendees. In collaboration with several geoscience affinity groups, I have also co-convened sessions, social events, and field trips at various science conferences to create a welcoming environment for newcomers to the geoscience community.

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?

I would support AGU by strengthening relationships across geoscience disciplinary communities and geoscience affinity groups through the identification of shared initiatives and values. I enjoy building alignment across diverse geoscience communities by gathering formative feedback that incorporates multiple perspectives and that can be translated into actionable ideas for leadership. In practice, this means engaging with other section leaders, affinity groups, and AGU leadership to identify shared priorities.

Within the Education section, I would prioritize listening sessions (virtual/in-person) that help identify specific themes and desired initiatives directly from section membership. This information could then support co-convened technical sessions as well as collaborations with other sections/affinity groups involving virtual meetups and/or professional development webinars, centered on shared interests. As an Indigenous geoscientist I have benefited greatly from opportunities for multigenerational networking and mentoring within the geoscience community. It is important for emerging geoscientists to engage with the previous generations of geoscientists so that our collective knowledge can help inform how society balances sustainability with the use of Earth’s resources. These efforts align with AGU’s strategic goals of fostering inclusive science culture and advancing societally relevant geoscience education.

In my experience, the AGU Education section has consistently valued the contributions from disciplinary scientists (geosciences and beyond), education researchers, all levels of students, as well as community partners. I would be excited to continue supporting programming that the section already does to bring these diverse members of the geoscience community together through innovative teaching practices and programs, mentorship, and community-engaged geoscience education programs.