Assistant Professor, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 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 support equitable representation of all and will use my position and privilege to center and promote the voices of those less heard. I am particularly aware of experiences related to international scholars and lower socio-economic backgrounds. 

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

Studies of the Earth's Deep Interior (SEDI) secretary since 2022; Director of the South Carolina Seismic Network; department representative to the university faculty senate from 2022 until 2024; convened and co-convened sessions at AGU Fall Meetings most years; served at Cooperative Institute for Dynamic Earth Research (CIDER) liaison from 2016-2018.

The section secretary role is determined by individual sections. If needed, the secretary might be asked to serve as an alternate to the president or president-elect at a Council meeting.

As part of the section leadership team, how will you work in partnership with your president, president-elect, other leaders, and staff to communicate with and engage your members to achieve AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals?

Throughout my 4 years in the position so far, I have met regularly with the SEDI executive committee and other members. We have developed strong connections and a very positive working relationship. Continuing as secretary, I will build off of this foundation to continue to working as a unit to support our members and the goals of the community. An important issue for our SEDI community is that of growth of our field. To promote growth of our section as secretary I will (1) continue to use new tools for engaging members (at the 2025 Fall Meeting we advertised use of AGU Connect to serve as a unified communication tool for our community), (2) advertise membership of our section (coordinate social media usage to highlight the work in the SEDI community, aiming to recruit new members, discussions of which started at AGU 2025), and (3) continue advocating for and supporting for the Outstanding Student Presentation Awards (OSPA) program as a tool to develop and reward our promising students, with the goal of keeping them in the community (I have served as OSPA coordinator since 2022).