ORISE Postdoctoral Scholar, U.S. Geological Survey, Opelika, AL, 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 a Black, queer man from Richmond, Virginia.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

Education Student and Early Career Working Group Co-chair; Education section DEIA Working Group Chair; AGQ, the AGU LGBTQIA+ Affinity Community, Leader

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?

The Education section of AGU sits in a unique and important position within the AGU strategic plan as it includes science education and outreach as one of its core values. Many of our section members daily interact with the future Earth and space science leaders of the world, and our perspectives on the future of science are undiscountable. Furthermore, our education capacity is not limited to the four walls of a classroom. Rather, there is a wealth of expertise in informal education at museums, science and nature centers, and other outreach avenues that are dedicated to expanding science literacy to the public for a more informed populace. I hope to leverage this collective expertise and passion to support the vision, values, mission, and goals of AGU in a way that equitably distributes the benefits back to its members.

While most of our section membership are inherently addressing many components of the strategic plan in their work, I seek to amplify their voices so that AGU leadership can learn from the best practices and principles of equity and inclusivity particularly as they relate to creating a culture that will thrive with the diversity AGU seeks to achieve. What are our collective talents and how can we use them to bolster our section efforts and AGU’s strategic goals? How do we become the model for conscientious engagement throughout our scientific community? I look forward to leading these discussions to create sustainable and mindful progress.

Section affiliations:

Education; GeoHealth; Science and Society