Professor , University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science , Cambridge, MD, 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.

As the mother of three and part of a dual-career couple in oceanography, I have direct experience of the structural barriers facing scientists in balancing family, personal identity, and career. This motivated my role in building MPOWIR and continues to inform how I approach inclusive community-building at every career stage.

My research spans open-ocean and coastal processes, a dual perspective that positions me to bridge communities within Ocean Sciences that often operate in parallel. I have worked across basin-scale dynamics of the tropical Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the place-based, stakeholder-driven science of systems like Chesapeake Bay.

Sabbaticals in Hawaii, Australia, and Thailand immersed my family in Pacific and Southeast Asian scientific, governance, and education cultures, deepening my appreciation for how ocean science is practiced and valued across different societal contexts and strengthening collaborations that continue to inform my work.

I am based at a public university whose mission centers on serving the state through predictive ecology, embedded in communities facing immediate climate pressures from watermen and farmers to resource managers whose perspectives are not always represented in AGU leadership. I would bring that grounding to Ocean Sciences governance.

Volunteer experience that you feel relates to this position:

As a founder of Mentoring Physical Oceanography Women to Increase Retention (MPOWIR), we developed mentoring for early career physical oceanographers. I served as AGU Physical Oceanography Secretary and on the Ocean Sciences nominations committee. I chaired the US Climate Variability and Predictability Program (CLIVAR) Process Study and Model Improvement Panel and was elected Chair of the Ocean Carbon and Biogeochemistry Scientific Steering Committee. Work on Maryland's Commission on Climate Change translated ocean science to state policy. Current efforts address responsible integration of AI (artificial intelligence) in Earth sciences.

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's strategic plan calls for catalyzing discovery and solution-based science, promoting inclusive scientific culture, and building partnerships that embed Earth science in societal decision-making. My career has included all three goals across open-ocean and coastal contexts.

As a Council member, I would draw on experience with national science coordination leadership. As Chair of US Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry's (OCB) Scientific Steering Committee and of US CLIVAR Process Study and Model Improvement Panel, I coordinated community science priorities, led cross-disciplinary synthesis and workshops, and represented ocean sciences with funding agencies. I would bring this experience to two opportunities I consider important for AGU: strengthening relationships with international geophysical societies (e.g. International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, European Geosciences Union, North Pacific Marine Science Organization, etc.) to keep ocean science coordination genuinely global at a moment when international collaboration faces political headwinds; and working with sections to develop adaptive responses and strategies for a highly variable funding and trust environment, where clear community prioritization will be essential to Earth sciences resilience.

As Ocean Sciences section president, I would engage members with concrete opportunities to forward these goals. Investing in our future by expanding early career opportunities; deepening connections between Ocean Sciences and applied and policy communities; and leveraging relationships across the Pacific and Indian Ocean basins to strengthen ties with international partner societies.

My background spans open-ocean and coastal systems, and physical, biogeochemical, and ecological approaches, a breadth that means I connect across a wide swath of Ocean Sciences who are working to advance AGU as a globally connected, resilient scientific organization.