Professor at School of Meteorology and Director of Cooperative Institute for Severe and High Impact Weather Research and Operations, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, 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.

My experience shows how I will effectively represent and include different identities, voices and perspectives within AGU. I have led or participated in 37 aircraft field campaigns in 11 countries during which I guaranteed perspectives of scientists, operational personnel and stakeholders from international, academic, government and private sectors were considered in allocating safe use of assets to address scientific goals. As President of the International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation (ICCP) I ensured the Executive Commission representation reflected the variety of genders, nationalities, scientific backgrounds and career stages of cloud scientists. At the 2024 ICCP conference I implemented double-blinded abstract review to minimize any biases against minorities, women and early career scientists. I have led 36 workshops to promote collaboration between scientists and standardization of data processing, most recently the Directions for Future Research and Applications on Clouds, Precipitation, and Extreme Weather in Africa Nairobi workshop promoting collaboration between African/non-African scientists on future research and applications for extreme weather. I have mentored/advised 42 undergraduate and 63 graduate students, guiding them to achieve their career objectives. As Director of the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High Impact Weather Research and Operations, I guide not only research but also transition of research products into operations while ensuring their societal relevance through communication with diverse stakeholders.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

Vice-President/President International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation, 2012 - now; Co-chair Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) High Latitude Processes Working Group, 2017-present; Chief Editor AMS Meteorological Monographs (2016 - now), Editor Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2024- now), Associate Editor Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (2016 -2025); convened 81 sessions at AGU and other meetings (e.g.,International Commission on Clouds and Precipitation, Africa Workshop); Member AGU Fellows Committee (2022 -now); K-12 Classroom Visits, Teacher Workshop Organization, Middle School Curriculum Development, Traveling Trunk Creation (Self-Contained Lesson Kits).

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?

Key to achieving AGU’s vision, values, mission, and goals is to engage and communicate with all stakeholders, representing all genders, nationalities, career stages, and scientific backgrounds, including underserviced and non-traditional groups. To catalyze discovery and solutions to scientific and societal challenges diverse communities must be brought together in common spaces to promote collaborative discussions across physical and disciplinary boundaries. I propose multiple venues for this including discipline-specific sessions, interdisciplinary sessions, coffee hours, and joint social gatherings at the AGU Annual Meeting and strive to increase topical meetings throughout the year. I will encourage creation of and attendance at monthly webinar series on interdisciplinary topics identified as scientific priorities, as well as workshops (in-person and online) to provide new insight into emerging topics. Workshops I convene at Oklahoma can serve as a model: initial presentations summarize state-of-art knowledge, followed by small focused discussion groups to identify impediments to progress in important areas, emerging opportunities to make improvements, resources needed, and how to establish synergy/linkages between diverse groups. All activities must consider needs of end users to promote solution-based science. Early career scientists will be approached to play prominent roles in organizing and executing these activities. As the AGU community is not solely defined by membership, my continued involvement in international conference, workshops and site visits will allow me to understand and bring forth concerns and ideas of foreign partners for addressing scientific and societal challenges. I will increase involvement of AGU with these partners and the private sector through joint meetings/webinars.