Research Biological Scientist, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Houghton, MI, 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 forty-two-year-old Research Biological Scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service in the USA with a Ph.D. in Soil Science. As a mid-career scientist, I feel that I have accumulated a reasonably diverse set of leadership and scholastic experiences which include Associate Editorship positions at peer-reviewed journals, mentoring graduate students, organizing conferences and conference sessions, managing grants, running scientific working groups and the general duties of running a research program. In the course of my scientific career, I have had both strongly negative and strongly positive experiences which have worked to shape my perspective on science and what it means to be a successful scientist. I offer a perspective of hope that we can bring the best science forward to address problems of global concern while also working to reshape problematic institutions and workplace cultures.

Volunteer experience that relates to this position:

2023: Division Chair, Forest, Range & Wildland Soils Division, Soil Science Society of America; 2019-Current: Steering Committee member, International Soil Radiocarbon Database; 2019-2022: Associate Editor, Soil Science Society of America Journal; 2017-2022: Reviewer (2017, 2022), Co-chair (2018-2021), Environmental & Molecular Sciences Laboratory research proposal review panel; 2016-2019: Associate Editor, Geoderma; 2015, 2016, 2018: Reviewer, Department of Energy Biological and Environmental research proposal review panel; 2014-2017: Associate Editor, Journal of Environmental Quality

As one of the elected leaders of your section, how will you partner 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?

I recognize both the costs and benefits of being a member of the AGU community. It costs a nontrivial amount of time, commitment and money to attend and participate in AGU meetings. But participation in the AGU community has a myriad of benefits, the most prominent being the opportunity for students, researchers and leaders to share their science with one another, learn, and form new relationships. AGU is unique in its size and reach, allowing for interaction of scientists from across the globe and across the spectrum of scientific disciplines. I believe it is AGU's primary obligation to provide a physical, virtual and intellectual space that allows for the most effective and free communication between members while fostering scientific ingenuity and respecting individuals. If elected, it would be my objective to listen attentively to the existing and emerging needs and ideas of AGU members and act within the institutional structure of AGU to develop sessions and initiatives that reflect these needs and ideas. I would work with members and elected officials to honor the need for free expression while maintaining a professional and safe environment for all.

Section affiliations:

Biogeosciences; Global Environmental Change